Trumbo back in limbo with quad injury
Slugger’s rehab assignment halted; Harvey sent back to minors
Orioles slugger Mark Trumbo’s minor league rehabilitation assignment was halted after just one game Tuesday at Double-A Bowie, and a timetable on his return from a right quadriceps injury that has nagged him since the first week of March is again uncertain.
It marked the second time in which Trumbo’s progress from the injury stalled after playing one game. He initially missed a week in March, then returned for one game March 14, and was sidelined again, eventually diagnosed with a Grade 2 strain.
Trumbo opened the season on the disabled list and went to Sarasota, Fla., when the Orioles went on their first road trip of the season before returning north to begin a rehab assignment with Bowie, and the Orioles were optimistic he’d only need a few games before returning to the active roster. He batted third Tuesday night as the starting designated hitter for the Baysox and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a walk.
“Just talking with him and trainers and everything, he’s at 36 days [out],” manager Buck Showalter said. “He’s actually a little ahead of tings, so we’re going to slow that down a little bit. … He just felt like last night, he just didn’t feel like pushing it. He thought it still wasn’t quite comfortable with that, and I’m real proud that the felt comfortable telling us that, because you don’t want that setback that pushes it way back.”
Trumbo will remain with the team for their four-game road series that starts in Boston on Friday, and the club will then decide whether he will return to Sarasota to continue his recovery there.
“I think it just reminds you how different games are,” Showalter said. “You do can do all you want to on [back fields]. That’s why it’s tough sometimes in the spring with some of those sim games on the back field. There’s just a different level you play at. I think Mark understands that. I think he’s had some prior experience with this. … We said all along we wanted to get him right the first time, so we’re going to continue to follow down that road.” Harvey sent to minors: After he sat in the bullpen unused the past two nights, top pitching prospect Hunter Harvey was optioned to Double-A Bowie before Wednesday’s game.
Harvey, who served as emergency bullpen insurance for the first two games of this week’s series against the Toronto Blue Jays, will make his first regular-season start for Bowie at Harrisburg on Saturday.
“He had a good long workday here, and we just got done talking to him,” Showalter said. “It’s time to go on with his season. We might shorten him up a little bit his first outing...Instead of three [innings], maybe two. We’ll see howit goes. The good news is it’s potentially less innings that he’ll use down there.”
By the time Harvey makes his first start, he will have gone two weeks without pitching in a game. His last outing was late March in minor league camp. He was set to make his Bowie debut Monday, but received his first major league call-up that day.
The Orioles didn’t want to force Harvey, whohas yet to pitch above the Single-A level and has just 182⁄ regular season innings since Tommy John surgery in July.
“We kind of got into a bind where we needed some coverage, and he was the only guy on the [40-man] roster available at that time, in a way, good and bad,” Showalter said. “I wanted him to pitch but I didn’t want to.” More roster matters: In optioning Harvey back to the minors, the Orioles were able to recall utility infielder Engelb Vielma from Triple-A Norfolk and get back to a full four-man bench — at least for now.
Vielma was just 1-for-8 in three games with the Tides, but added defensive flexibility in the infield. His time with the major league club could be short-lived as the Orioles are expected to make a roster move before Friday’s series opener in Boston, potentially adding a second left-handed reliever to account for a lefty-heavy Red Sox roster.
Options for that spot could be left-hander Donnie Hart or nonroster left-handers Joely Rodríguez or Josh Edgin. The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has one open spot.
The Orioles will also have to recall right-hander Alex Cobb and add him to the 25-man before he is scheduled to make his first major league start of the season Saturday at Fenway Park. Cobb had his between-starts work day Wednesday afternoon at Double-A Bowie. Around the horn: Results of an MRI performed on outfielder Colby Rasmus’ ailing hip showed no structural damage, though a timetable on his return from the DL is still unclear. When he was placed on the DL on Saturday, he was expected to miss between five and eight days. … Catcher Chance Sisco started on consecutive days for the first time this season and made his sixth start in 13 games this season in part to give Caleb Joseph added rest after catching multiple extra-inning games in New York and also because the Orioles are set to face four left-handed starters their wrap-around weekend series in Boston.