Tyler Wells makes impressive first impression

Tyler Wells won't be able to truly demonstrate what he offers the Orioles as a pitcher until reporting to spring training and getting on a mound. Until he faces hitters in live batting practice sessions and in exhibition games.

What he's done so far is prove that he's going to be one of the more thoughtful, open and articulate members of the organization.

Wells was credited with a quality Zoom yesterday afternoon in his first media session after the Orioles chose him in Thursday's Rule 5 draft. They took pitcher Mac Sceroler from the Reds system with the fifth overall selection and grabbed Wells from the Twins in the second round to fill out their 40-man roster.

Sceroler garnered the most attention due to his earlier selection and how he's the nephew of former Orioles pitcher Ben McDonald. Wells, 26, stood out due to his 6-foot-8, 265-lb. frame, as listed by BaseballReference.com, and his failure to pitch in 2020 while recovering from Tommy John surgery the previous spring.

Director of pro scouting Mike Snyder referred to Wells as a "6-foot-8 monster" while offering a report on the former 15th-rounder.

His size is hard to ignore. But Wells spoke yesterday of shedding about 60 pounds after former Orioles reliever LaTroy Hawkins became a mentor in 2017.

Hawkins took Wells under his wing. Hard to believe that he fit.

Wells admitted that his lack of conditioning was hurting his career. With Hawkins providing advice and motivation, Wells got into shape and posted a combined 2.49 ERA and 0.955 WHIP in 22 games between Single-A Fort Myers and Double-A Chattanooga. He struck out 9.1 batters per nine innings.

The adversity that he's faced as a pitcher can't match the pain of losing his mother to cancer when he was 4. Baseball became his outlet long before it became his profession.

Nothing that I write about Wells is going to be more impressive than his own words, so here they are:

What's it been like emotionally to go through the injury and Tommy John surgery in May 2019, being unable to pitch this summer, and now being on a 40-man roster with a chance to reach the majors?

"I would definitely say that it's been a roller coaster of emotions. Whenever I first found I (needed) Tommy John surgery, it was obviously heartbreaking. Going through the rehab process, going through a lot of adversity and just obviously not being able to play. Most of the time, you're used to being able to play in the middle of summer, and kind of leading up into the 2020 season, I was getting ready to actually play in July and unfortunately that didn't happen.

"So it was an emotional roller coaster for sure, but at the end of the day, I think that it provided a lot of insight into kind of, take a step back and really appreciate the fact that I had a little bit extra time to recover and pretty much start my throwing program a little later, allowing my arm to recover for longer. So I think ultimately it worked out in my favor, but it was very disheartening, is the best way to put it."

Coming from a Twins organization that has a reputation for developing pitching, was there anyone specifically prior to the injury who helped him to become the pitcher that he is today?

"There were quite a few pitching coaches there and just regular coaches in general who really, I guess the best way to put it was, take me under their wing and teach me everything that they could. There's a lot of people to name, to say the least. I would say one of the biggest influences that I had in the Twins organization was actually LaTroy Hawkins. In 2017, I first met LaTroy and he really took me under his wing and really kind of made me understand I had the ability to do it. I had a very good 2017 season with the exception (that) I had some injuries, and a lot of that had to do with my body, my strength, my diet. And he really pushed me to hone in on all of those things. My strength, diet plan and just getting my body into peak physical condition going into next year.

"That offseason, I ended up losing about 60 lbs. and really gathered a lot of strength, and the next time I saw him, he was like, 'That's what I'm talking about.' So being able to get confidence from a guy who's pitched, I believe, 20 years in the big leagues, that was a real confidence booster for me. And there were a lot of other guys, like the new assistant pitching coach for the Giants, J.P. Martinez. He helped me out quite a bit. He was also my pitching coach in 2017 before becoming the assistant pitching coordinator.

"There's a lot of other people to thank, like our rehab pitching coaches, our physical therapists, our athletic trainers, strength coaches. I wouldn't be in this position without all of them."

Has anyone from the Orioles reached out and explained what the process is going to be like and what to expect?

"Everyone has been extremely welcoming. It's been awesome to get to meet new faces, talk to new people and really looking toward, I guess, our goals and objectives coming into the 2021 spring training. We haven't really gotten to talk much about what we're doing just yet because I believe MLB's still trying to catch a grasp as to what's going to happen with this upcoming season, but everyone has been extremely welcoming. Warm welcomes, very happy, grateful. I can't say enough great things about it. We just haven't gotten to a point yet where we're getting to the objective part because they're still trying to figure out what's going on with the season."

What was the process going into the Rule 5 draft? Did he think that he might be chosen and what did he know about the Orioles?

"I wasn't actually expecting to get picked up in the Rule 5 draft. Primary reason was because I hadn't pitched in two years essentially. Obviously, with 2020 being taken out of the books, and 2019 obviously I missed because of Tommy John surgery. I wasn't thinking there was much of a possibility. About two days before the Rule 5 draft, I was starting to hear some rumor through the grapevine that there were teams asking and were curious about me, so I wasn't 100 percent certain that I was going to get picked up. I kept telling myself hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

"Whenever I got picked up, I was ecstatic, I was very happy. I was actually listening to the Rule 5 draft because one of my fellow teammates, (outfielder) Akil Baddoo, ended up getting picked up by the Detroit Tigers, so I was extremely happy for him. I usually listen to the Rule 5 draft every year because during that time, there really isn't a whole lot of baseball stuff going on. I just like being in the know.

"During that whole process, I was listening to the radio about the Rule 5 draft and I think they were about three-fourths of the way through it and my agent texted me saying, 'You just got picked.' I didn't actually get to hear my name because soon after that he gave me a call, gave me the rundown of everything and we were all very happy - my dad and my mom were around and my step-mom was also around and they were all extremely excited. My siblings were excited.

"As far as learning more about the Baltimore Orioles organization, I haven't been in contact with a lot of players. I don't know many of them in there. One of them I do know is Alexander Wells. I've talked to him briefly on a couple of occasions because of his brother, Lachlan Wells, who's in the Twins organization. I've been good friends with Lachlan for quite a while. We would have Zoom calls with all of our buddies while he was in Australia with his brother. I'm leaving one Wells brother for another.

"As far as the coaching staff goes, I was frankly unfamiliar with a lot of the coaching staff and I'm not a person who's familiar with a lot of coaches throughout the league anyway, but as soon as I got the call from a few of the coaches, I started doing a crash course on all of them, starting to try to learn a few of them. It's actually funny because (assistant pitching coach) Darren Holmes was actually friends with one of my teammate's dads. They played a few years with the Dodgers, and I'm actually staying at their house currently in Arizona trying to get some training in. So I thought that was really cool. On my way out there I was talking to Holmes and he was talking about that.

"I found that it was like a divine design kind of thing. It was really cool and a great experience."

How does Wells describe the last two years?

"I would say growth is going to be the single-word answer. There were a lot of personal things that I was going through at that time. There was obviously with baseball and getting Tommy John surgery, I was put into a lot of difficult situations that tested my mind and I think that I would never trade those for the world because mentally it's created a lot of resilience in me. If I can go through a lot of difficult situations like I have my entire life, then I think that I have the ability to go through almost anything and be able to thrive in any kind of environment that I get thrown into.

"It's been a roller coaster of emotions, it's been a lot of heartache, it's been a lot of great things. The opportunity to be able to recover a little bit longer than a typical Tommy John surgery rehab would go, that was a great thing. And obviously COVID taking out the 2020 season allowed me to throw a little bit longer and progressively build up into my bullpens and get back to full velocity, and I think ultimately for the long run that benefitted me the most. So even though there were a lot of ups and downs, I would most certainly say it's helped create a very strong resilience toward adversity."

What's Wells' scouting report on himself?

"I like to say that I'm more of a bulldog type of guy. I don't like backing down from people. I like to take calculated risks. I throw a fastball, curveball, slider, changeup and I believe that all of those can be very, very good pitches. And I would say that my fastball is probably my best pitch because of the fact that I'm not afraid to throw it to anyone. I think that is another thing that I'm looking forward to in spring training is I'm looking forward to taking those calculated risks, challenging people who don't normally get challenged and also challenging myself to learn and to grow as a baseball player."

Does he have any sense that he'll be a different pitcher post-surgery, whether it's a change in velocity or with a secondary pitch taking longer to come around?

"The best way to put it is I think I'll be a better pitcher. I think that there's a lot of opportunity in the Tommy John rehab for a lot of guys to hone in on what they can refine, what they can get better at, what they can learn from in the past, and I believe that I've done that. I think that I've made my delivery better. I think that I've really refined some of my other pitches that I've had in bullpens prior to this. I think that my mentality has gotten better, more resilient to adversity and just being able to accept that things aren't always going to go in my favor. I think that there's a lot of opportunity for a lot of people to grow from Tommy John surgery.

"I also want to point out that it's not always easy for a lot of guys to come back the same. I want to reiterate that the event plus my reaction equals my outcome, and the way that I reacted to the situation, I think for the hand that I was dealt was very good and I think that I'm going to come back better than ever."

How healthy is he heading into spring training?

"I am 100 percent healthy. I haven't had any issues. I saw my surgeon, Dr. (Keith) Meister back in September of 2020 while driving back from Florida to Southern California to my family's and we sat there and we talked about my elbow and he's like, 'It looks absolutely perfect. No issues whatsoever.' I had zero issues during the rehab process. No pain, everything felt 100 percent normal, so I'm really confident in the fact that I'm 110 percent healthy."

Does he listen to the Rule 5 draft every year because he's a huge baseball fan? Where does that come from?

"I genuinely love baseball and I love playing it, I love the competitiveness of it. My love for baseball really extends back from whenever my mother passed away. I was 4 years old when my mother passed away from cancer and obviously my entire family was struggling during that time. As time kind of went on, I didn't really have much of an outlet for a lot of the stress that my family was under as well as what I was under. Baseball was kind of that outlet. I really enjoyed being around the baseball field, being able to play the game of baseball and compete. It also took my mind away from the challenges that I faced in my life.

"My dad's also been a huge baseball fan for as long as I can ever remember, so I feel like it's kind of just in my blood. I'm always genuinely curious about what's going on in the baseball world. I just like knowing things. I like knowing the process of things, I like knowing what people go through to get to where they are, and this is one of those hurdles that I'm now going through. And one day, I'm hoping that I can sit there and be able to give another player who is going through the same process as me in the future, I hope that I can give him some pointers and tips that will help him out and make his transition a little bit easier."