Wrapping up the first workout

SARASOTA, Fla. - I listed 14 pitchers in my last blog entry who threw bullpen sessions today. Non-roster right-hander Todd Redmond also was scheduled, but he left camp to attend to a family matter. He's expected to return within the next few days.

There were plenty of other arms to hold manager Buck Showalter's attention.

"I checked off the guys before today that I was going to be sure I got to see and didn't miss," Showalter said. "I don't know (Dale) Thayer that well, (Odrisamer) Despaigne. I wanted to see (Andy) Oliver, and of course (Parker) Bridwell and (Chris) Jones.

"I didn't need to spend a lot of time with Zach (Britton) or (T.J.) McFarland or Mike Wright or (Mychal) Givens or (Oliver) Drake or (Tyler) Wilson, but I still watched them. I had some guys that I wanted to be sure I didn't miss. It was a good first day."

Dylan Bundy is slated to throw on Saturday. He's headed to the bullpen on opening day if he remains healthy.

Showalter indicated that Bundy won't be restricted to one inning in exhibition games.

"I'm not sure exactly what they're going to do, but I think you'll see him pitch more than one inning," Showalter said. "That's part of the problem having 30 pitchers. There are only so many innings. We'll play some intrasquad games, we'll take every B game if someone will cooperate with us. But the problem with that is we might want to play 10 and we can only find one team to play us. Once. It's hard."

Bundy wants to compete for a rotation job in 2017. The Orioles want him to be healthy and productive enough to warrant a spot in the competition. However, he's got to build up his innings.

"It's going to be a challenge," Showalter said. "If he can show us his health is behind him, the bad health, you'd like to figure out a way to get him back into a starting pitcher mode. That situation is not going to present itself initially, but who knows?

"The only thing you worry about is the lack of innings. You can't start a guy that's only got throw 70 innings on a year. I think we're trying to take one step at a time where, OK, let's make sure he's healthy, and this is the way we like him, and if he's healthy, we can feel confident he can help us. That's going to be a challenge. It might be a winter ball thing. It might be where we can get him to the point where the innings are there. I do know that where he's concerned, the physical part of it is there. If he has a hiccup, he's been down every street you need to be to be healthy, and we're going to let him go this spring.

"I can't wait until you all ask him how he felt after a start. Why are you asking me, 'How did your elbow feel or whatever?' He's a little sensitive about it, probably because I made him that way.

"We will figure out ways for him to get him innings. It depends how hard you want to work, I'm talking about us, and how innovative you want to be with it. We'll get the innings. Twin Lakes is a short distance for them to come over here and for us to go over there. We've got a minicamp up and running over there."

The Orioles still don't have a firm grasp on the number of innings Bundy needs to pitch this summer. They'll figure it out.

"It's some uncharted territory," Showalter said. "I'll tell you, it's like a Rule 5 guy. You take him, they're going to pitch. He goes north, he's pitching. And the other team is going to tell us whether he's very good or not. The toughest thing for us will be if he's healthy and not effective. It's not good.

"I'm looking at it that he's going to pick up where he was a couple of years ago before all this happened and remind everybody why he was so well thought of. All of a sudden, everybody will be going how lucky we are to have an arm like that in the bullpen and how are we going to figure out a way for him to start? That's where I'm hoping we get to."

Showalter confirmed again that Bundy won't be able to break camp as a starter.

Asked about the minimum number of innings that the club could project for Bundy to enable him to start, Showalter replied, "I will tell you that number is probably not attainable by him physically this year.

"It could be at some other point in the season, but to start the year, knowing that X number of innings you're going to have to slow down, it's a pretty proven tried formula that you're asking for trouble if you do that. We'll see. I hope he has a great year and we're all trying to figure out how far can we push him.

"I'll be frank with you, we're going to have to take it as it goes. Now I just want to see him get on the mound, have a good look on his face and he's got that extra quarter inch.

"He's excited. I told him when he left here, 'The cup's half full. It's time to go, you've got all these things behind you. Look how much you realize how fleeting it all can be. Let's go.'

"He deserves some good things to happen to him."

I wrote earlier today that Chris Lee appeared to impress the Orioles during his bullpen session.

"Chris, doing your homework on him, that pulse ain't rapidly beating," Showalter said. "You hear a lot of people talk to him and being around him a little bit in the minicamp, he's ... That's one of the things you like about him. It's pretty easy in a lot of ways.

"He's one of those guys you can kind of tell it's kind of getting good to him. There are some things they did with him when he came over. He ticked from 90-91 to, the last instructional league he was 95-97 with a good delivery. I had heard the report and I asked Ben (Werthan), 'Hey, can you pull up the tape on him from the instructional league?' It was a good, clean delivery.

"He's real intriguing. I'm telling you, he's kind of flat line when it comes to ... We'll see when the lights go on, but I'm intrigued by him. It's going to be fun to watch. We'll see if it carries over into here, what he left with."

Showalter said he still envisions Mike Wright as a starter in camp despite suggestions that the right-hander may transition into a late-inning relief role.

"He came up and pitched lights out the first time and pretty good outing the second time and then had some bumps. The world's full of that," Showalter said.

"I'm viewing him as a starting pitching candidate for us. Those other things are down the road. That's where all clubs, and especially us, where our needs are. Mike, he's done some things statistically in Triple-A that some people haven't done who are currently here that we're thinking about, whether it's a (Kevin) Gausman or whoever. Whatever you want to make of statistics, pretty good."

The Orioles will stretch out Brian Matusz again this spring, but not necessarily by starting him.

"I think we're going to probably stretch him out, but from a relief standpoint," Showalter said. "Unless one (start) falls for him. But he'll get multiple innings."

The list of pitchers scheduled to throw bullpen sessions on Saturday includes Bundy, Matusz, Ubaldo Jimenez, Darren O'Day, Chris Tillman, Miguel Gonzalez, Vince Worley, Brad Brach, Jeff Beliveau, Kevin Gausman, Cesar Cabral, Jason Garcia, Hunter Harvey, Ashur Tolliver and Andrew Triggs.

And finally, Showalter was asked how it felt to walk into the clubhouse and see Matt Wieters, who accepted the qualifying offer rather than test free agency.

"Oh, baby," he said. "Just like O'Day. You want to go over and hug them.

"Matt didn't want to go. Trust me. He's got some business he wants to finish here. I'm hoping he has a great year and he finishes his career here. We'll see."