Sucre's arrival, Karns update, Davis' start and more (O's down 4-0)

SARASOTA, Fla. - Catcher Jesús Sucre arrived in the Miami late last night, according to Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, and he's expected in camp today.

Sucre finally got his work visa and left Venezuela. Hyde estimated that the veteran might need less than a week of workouts before he's ready to play.

"I'm going to ask him what he's been doing," Hyde said. "I don't even know really, to be honest with you, how much game stuff he's been doing. But I think realistically four or five days of catching sides and getting batting practice in and we'll evaluate from there if we feel like he's game ready.

"Thinking more toward probably five or six days from now."

Hyde is confident that the remaining days in camp are sufficient to evaluate Sucre and allow him to compete for a job.

"He's got a lot of years in and he's got 24 days or so. Yeah, he should be good," Hyde said.

"It just took him forever to get his paperwork. So finally he got approved of everything. He got approved yesterday and got on a flight last night."

Catcher Cael Brockmeyer, Sucre's replacement, will stay in major league camp at least through today's split-squad games.

"We need everybody," Hyde said. "We've got Sucre, who's probably going to be suited up tomorrow and we've got to kind of reevaluate roster-wise after today."

Nate Karns, scratched from tonight's start against the Yankees in Tampa due to a sore right arm, will throw a bullpen session Saturday or Sunday. He offered up some encouraging news to Hyde this morning.

"He said he feels good today," Hyde said. "Obviously, we're going to be careful with him. Just back off a little bit. We want to break healthy with Nate, so anytime he feels anything at all or any kind of soreness, we're going to slow play it a little bit and ease him back into it."

Mychal Givens will make his spring debut in today's split-squad game against the Rays in Sarasota. Hunter Harvey, Luis Ortiz, Josh Rogers and Donnie Hart also are listed behind starter Alex Cobb.

The Rays are starting right-hander Charlie Morton, and they also brought relievers Yonny Chirinos, Adam Kolarek, Andrew Kittredge, Luis Santos and Hunter Wood.

John Means starts against the Yankees tonight in Tampa and the bullpen includes Chris Lee, Josh Lucas and Sean Gilmartin.

Left-hander James Paxton gets the start for the Yankees. Other listed pitchers include Chad Green, Jonathan Loaisiga and Tommy Kahnle.

Mike Wright starts Saturday against the Red Sox in Fort Myers and Yefry Ramirez will work multiple innings in relief. The Red Sox are sending left-hander Brian Johnson to the mound.

Andrew Cashner makes his spring debut in Sunday's game against the Tigers in Sarasota, with first pitch slated for 3:05 p.m. Left-hander Matthew Boyd starts for Detroit.

Dylan Bundy returns to the mound Monday against the Twins in Fort Myers after allowing one run in two innings yesterday versus the Phillies in Clearwater.

In his first spring appearance on Tuesday, Means took the mound in the eighth inning against the Rays at Ed Smith Stadium and retired only one batter. He was charged with three runs and two hits with one walk and the Rays torched the Orioles with a 10-run inning.

"He had an unfortunate outing. We didn't make a couple plays behind him," Hyde said.

"Good opportunity for him, starting against New York. One of those guys that's in a mix, a guy that could either be a starter or a long guy for us. I don't know if we know a ton about him yet, so I think Broc (Doug Brocail) is going to go down there and get a good evaluation of him and he's going to get more opportunities as we go along."

Chris Davis is starting at first base again today after striking out twice and walking in yesterday's 5-5 tie with the Phillies. He's 1-for-7 with a home run, one walk and five strikeouts.

"I'm not concerned about performance," Hyde said. "I love the way he's going about his business. He's one of the first guys in the cage every single morning, he's creating a really good relationship with Don (Long), already had one with Howie (Clark). I know that's going really, really well and they've been really, really impressed by how hard he's working and the preparation pregame from the cage standpoint and the things he's working on.

"He hit a homer the other day. I just think he's still kind of feeling through a lot of things offensively, but the work that he's putting in, he's working the right way. All the guys in the cage are really excited about the progress he's making offensively."

For the Rays
Austin Meadows DH
Daniel Robertson SS
Ji-Man Choi 1B
Mike Zunino C
Kevin Kiermaier CF
Guillermo Heredia RF
Christian Arroyo 3B
Jason Coats LF
Nick Solak 2B

Charlie Morton RHP

Update: Alex Cobb lasted only two-thirds of an inning and 23 pitches, allowing four runs and three hits with one walk in his spring debut.

The first three batters reached, with Ji-Man Choi scoring Austin Meadows on a single. Guillermo Heredia hit a long two-run homer to left field and Tanner Chleborad replaced Cobb.