With each day, Hunter Harvey moves farther from surgery, closer to majors

For Orioles pitching prospect Hunter Harvey, when he has thrown so far in spring training, the postgame interviews have become more about how he threw rather than how he felt.

When the Orioles selected him with the 22nd overall pick in the 2013 draft, they dreamt of a day he was among their best starting pitchers. As manager Buck Showalter might say, for a while that dream was delayed but not denied.

For O's fans, they can again dream on a day that three homegrown first-round picks in Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman and Harvey head up their favorite team's rotation. Maybe it will not just be a homegrown-led rotation but a good one, too - one to make fans forget the misery of watching a starting five pitch to a season ERA of 5.70.

Now on the 40-man roster, Harvey has made two spring training starts, the latest yesterday versus the Twins. Over four innings, he has allowed five hits and two runs with three walks and four strikeouts. Since he returned last summer from Tommy John surgery, he has been touching 95-97 mph on the radar gun. That was about his top-end velocity from before his surgery and, yes, that is a good sign. Harvey has been throwing well since his return last July, but we are still pretty early in this process with just over 20 innings of game action.

Now we await April to begin to find out how many innings Harvey may throw this year and at what level or levels. Can he make the majors this season? You have a hard time finding anyone to say no to that question. That doesn't mean it's a given, that just means no one is ruling it out.

Harvey has thrown so few innings in recent years that he could be about to begin a two-year ramp up to get back completely on track in that regard. He missed all of the 2015 season and then threw 12 2/3 innings on the farm in 2016 and 18 2/3 last summer.

Bundy's innings ramp up after his own surgery might provide a framework for Harvey in 2018.

After pitching a combined 63 1/3 innings in the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Bundy pitched in the majors starting in 2016 when he was out of options and threw 109 2/3 innings. He pitched 169 2/3 innings for the Orioles last season.

After throwing a combined 31 1/3 innings the last two years, Harvey could be on a similar plan. The club has not indicated how many innings they have planned for Harvey this coming season and likely will not publicly put out a number on it. But if it does play out in a similar fashion to Bundy, Harvey could throw 100-120 innings this season and then ramp up to 160-170 or more in 2019.

Harvey has yet to even pitch as high as Single-A Frederick, so we can't get too far ahead of ourselves here yet. But at the same time, you don't need to be a top-level scout to see the talent he brings. The big league success the O's brass once dreamed he would have may now be close at hand.

Delayed, not denied.