The Orioles announced a series of roster moves today, the most notable being John Means getting transferred from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. That opens a spot on the 40-man roster for right-hander Marcos Diplan, whose contract was selected. To make room for Diplan on the active roster, left-hander Alexander Wells was optioned to Triple-A.
It’s an unfortunate but unsurprising development for the Orioles. Means was initially placed on the IL on Friday with a left elbow strain. Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun relays that it’s actually a sprain, not a strain, clarifying that the latter involves bone-to-bone tissue as opposed to muscle or muscle-to-bone tissue. Although it was reported that Means would be undergoing further testing, O’s manager Brandon Hyde said that the southpaw would be out for “a while.” Now that he has been moved to the 60-day IL, he will be on the shelf until at least mid-June. Hyde said today that they still plan on getting second opinions, but they’ve obviously accepted that there’s no chance of a quick return.
The performance of Means has been one of the few bright spots for the Orioles over the past few seasons, as the club has spent most of the past five years in the AL East basement. Since his 2018 debut, Means has appeared in 70 games, throwing 356 2/3 innings with a 3.81 ERA. His 21.2% strikeout rate is just below league average, though his 5% walk rate is excellent. The 28-year-old (29 next week) can be controlled through the 2024 season and will be making an affordable 2022 salary in the $3MM range. (His arbitration hearing has yet to occur, due to the lockout pushing all hearings into the season. Means filed at $3.1MM with the team filing at $2.7MM. The arbitration process is backwards-looking and won’t be affected by this injury.)
In the short-term, this will thin out a rotation that was already short on proven options. Offseason signee Jordan Lyles is the most-seasoned arm, followed by less-experienced rotation mates Tyler Wells, Bruce Zimmermann and Spenser Watkins. With Means out, a spot is open for someone like Keegan Akin or Zac Lowther. The club does have two very well regarded prospects in DL Hall and Grayson Rodriguez. Both of them are in Triple-A and could be considered for an MLB debut at some point. In the long-term, the club wasn’t likely to be competitive anytime soon, but the injury will certainly take a bite out of Means’ trade value. Due to the fact that he’s been playing well on a poor team, he’s naturally been floated as a speculative trade candidate. Any trade talks will now have to be put on the backburner until he can return to health.
As for Diplan, he made his MLB debut with the Orioles last year, eventually throwing 30 innings of 4.50 ERA ball out of their bullpen. However, his 19.5% strikeout rate and 12.2% walk rate were both a few ticks worse than league average. He was outrighted off the roster at the end of last year but re-signed to a minor league deal in the offseason. The 25-year-old still has an option remaining.
Tommy John?
Hasn’t been said, but the words indicate he’s heading toward TJS.
As I said in the original post, precautionary turns to cautionary, which turns to surgery. Seems there aren’t any minor or simple elbow sprains/strains anymore. As soon as we fans hear it we know exactly what it means, even when it’s downplayed by management. Sucks for them though, he’s their ace. They should’ve traded him.
“Nothing to see here folks, move along…”
It’s looking like it, yes. Most likely takes him off the mid season trade market regardless as no team will meet the O’s high asking price for him knowing that his elbow is fragile.
Looks similar to Chris Sale’s initial issues. Seems inevitable that Means will be having TJ.
The small step forward that fans were hoping for just became a giant step to overcome.
Starting to look like Baltimore should have more seriously entertained a trade for Means.
Happens all the time when you hitch the wagon onto one star (in this case, Means). But it could very well happen with Adley or G-Rod, or fill in the blank. You need depth in the minors and a financial willingness to create a winning culture.
Frankly, I’m not seeing either here. That said, the division looks to be a bit weak so far; the Sox and Yanks look eminently beat-able, and the Rays magic might be fading a bit. The Jays are looking like chalk, and that improves the O’s plight.
Ohhhh Baltimore. That sucks.
To the author: DL Hall is not in AAA. He is in extended spring training and from there will report to AA Bowie. I know that no one outside of Baltimore cares or pays close attention to the Orioles but if you are going to report the news, please get your facts in order before hitting that submit button.
I’ll wager McDonald might have been thinking of Kyle Bradish. It’s still sloppy writing on his part, but since Bradish has started well this season, pitched well in ’21 and is expected to reach Baltimore sometime this summer to join the rotation there is the possibility this was who the author was thinking of.
Orioles are in a world of hurt with Means out and having to rely on career 5.21 ERA Lyles
I guess this Means there will be 1 less pitcher available at the trade deadline.
lmao, hes not an ‘ace’
you should know what that term means before you start calling every pitcher that
He is the defacto “ace” of the Orioles rotation. On a good team, he’d be a #3 or #4 guy. That shows you the sad state of this team’s pitching.
Well, TJS or not I could see Chaim Bloom seeing this as an opportunity and offering something for Means at the deadline. This is the kind of gamble he likes to make and there are enough arms in Boston now that could you imagine 2023 with Sale, Evoldai, Paxton, Houck, and Means by the deadline? Definitely can see them willing to give more than other franchises, this is just what Bloom does….
Diplan is a perfect candidate for an Orioles staff that always gets tattooed. “DIPLAN!DIPLAN!”
What is diplan for this team? Clearly they are in a tail spin. It is like they are living on some island of fantasy or something.
Saw it coming. He’ll miss the rest of this year and part of next. He won’t be right that first year back. …just in time for him to be a free agent and have NO trade value.
“…they werren’t expected to compete any time soon….”
I wanted to point that out for all the people that seem to think that next year this team is turning the corner.
Valuable insight from a unicorn
More like an Ent. We don’t speak often because it takes a terribly long time to say anything, so we don’t say anything unless it is worth while to take the time to say it.
I’ve been following on and reporting on this team for over a decade and fans who think they know better try to tell me the same thing. That I don’t know what I am talking about. Yet, time and time again, with major help from the inept people running the Orioles, they get proven wrong.
This team is a joke. They refuse to spend on the one thing that makes all teams good…pitching! People want to try to say that the owners aren’t meddling anymore. “They hired Elias! Clearly he wouldn’t take this job…”
And immediately the shackles were put on by clamping him down to spend around $60-70 million for a whole roster, 1/3 of which is due a player which isn’t on the team anymore, and another 1/4 owed to another player that isn’t on the team anymore. Yes. They still are getting paid MILLIONS to not play baseball anymore in the case of Chris Davis (a Peter Angelos signing….but he’s not meddling anymore….) and a pitcher playing for another team in Alex Cobb (A Brady Anderson signing, who was working for Angelos via proxy….but they aren’t meddling!)
You also aren’t allowed to go spend any money on pitching and that is an old edict from Peter Angelos. He got burned early on in his Orioles ownership by paying mega money to Scott Erickson. Then he came up with the brilliant idea, “If I am going to spend $100 million and my choice is between two players, I am going to spend it on the one that plays every game, not just 30 or so.”
He also won’t sign any pitcher to more than a 3 year deal because insurance companies won’t insure a contract longer than that.
But….they aren’t meddling folks. Nope.
You have two options here:
1) Accept that the Angelos family is meddling in affairs, always have, always will, and they are the ones responsible for the team being in the shape it is in.
2) Believe that the Angelos family isn’t doing any of this, Mike Elias is in full control….and that means that this is legitimately the team he INTENDS to field and WANTS to field.
Which one is it?
Boy this comment aged well
No matter what year it is, the Orioles will always be a season or two from turning the corner.
In 3 of the past 5 seasons the Orioles’ first 20% of their season was a better winning percentage than the last 80%. In one year (2019) it was the same. But don’t get too excited about the year that the last 80% was better – it was 2018 when they went 47-115 and their first 20% of the season put them at a 40 win pace. Much of the reason is that they have had zero starting pitching and the bullpen can’t hold up forever (either tired or film of that year’s spare bullpen parts gets around the league)
A 3-6 start when you just lost the only starting pitcher able to average 5 innings per start or better last year does not bode well.
Feel free to use this if someone is saying to you “but they just took 2 of 3 from the Yankees”
Not to mention there will be a fire sale of talent that isn’t nailed down to the floor.
Infinite wisdom this guy Thornton Mellon has
Orioles did win the weekend series against the Yankees. So they are not that bad as everyone on here says.
See ya at the end of another mid 50’s win season…….