United open up with questions
Team will have a new coach, unsettled roster
Hernán Losada will arrive at Audi Field on Monday morning and open his first D.C. United training camp.
He has been in the country all of four weeks.
“Whatever you are going to ask, it’s new for me,” the smiling head coach said during a recent video interview. “It’s an overload of information at certain moments, but it’s necessary, and it’s part of this change.”
Losada, 38, is getting personally acclimated: an apartment, bank account, car and driving routine.
The professional side is not as settled for the Argentine, who in January left a head coaching job in Belgium and a 15-year stay in Europe to become MLS’s youngest leader. He then had to wait several weeks for a work visa before he met his employers and players for the first time.
Losada will get started with the club’s two longest-serving players recovering from offseason surgery and another key figure rehabbing a long-term knee injury. His top player is on loan to a Welsh club for another two months.
He will wait for two planned acquisitions to cross the finish line and a third to move closer to resolution as the search for additional help continues. Recent trades have reaped not players but rather the financial means to help round out the roster.
The annual preseason retreat in Clearwater, Fla., was scrapped, and the 34-game slate, less than six weeks from starting, remains in the hands of MLS’s schedule-makers.
While those issues play out, United will begin workouts at its Buzzard Point stadium and, when necessary, use RFK Stadium’s training grounds. (A new practice facility in Leesburg is scheduled to open late this summer.)
Next Monday, United will head to Cary, N.C., for a week of practice and probably a friendly against a lower-flight pro team. In subsequent weeks, D.C. will face regional MLS rivals and second- and third-division clubs.
“It’s going to be a weird and strange year for all of us,” Losada said. “It will be practically a miracle to have results from the first game. A new coach with a new way of thinking and a new way of training — it’s going to take some time. I think that’s quite normal.”
The start of the Losada era marks the first preseason in almost 25 years that has not included Ben Olsen as a head coach (2011-20), assistant (2010) or player (1998-2009). Fired in October with a year left on his contract, Olsen joined the front office as an adviser.
United missed the playoffs last season, extending its MLS Cup absence to 16 years. Despite the shortcomings, most of the 2020 roster has returned.
The Losada hiring was, by far, United’s biggest winter move. Recently, however, the front office has crackled with activity.
In anticipation of a loan from Belgian club Kortrijk being finalized, American defender Brendan Hines-Ike arrived last weekend. Forward Jovanny Bolívar is awaiting a work visa before arriving on loan from La Guaira in his native Venezuela.
United is working on reacquiring midfielder Lucas Rodríguez from Estudiantes in his native Argentina. He was on loan with United in 2019.
First-round draft picks Kimarni Smith (Clemson) and Michael DeShields (Wake Forest) have signed.
General Manager Dave Kasper said the roster construction will continue through the end of the primary transfer window June 1.
“It’s going to be important for Hernán to understand our player pool,” Kasper said. “Yes, we want to add players, but we want to do it very strategically. We want to make sure Hernán gets a chance to work with our group.”
Citing financial constraints caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Losada tempered expectations.
“Covid has a huge impact on finances, and we need to be very careful,” he said. “We need to be creative. We can’t be spending tons of money, at least not the first season. So that’s why I say: We need more players, we need more quality, but it also has to be [within] the budget.”
Some of the most important returning players aren’t available right away. Bill Hamid, the starting goalkeeper for much of 10 years, will not return from knee surgery until the second half of preseason, Kasper said. Captain Steven Birnbaum, a starting center back for seven years who had ankle surgery, is out until probably the end of preseason, Kasper said.
SARASOTA, Fla. — Félix Hernández readily acknowledged when he first signed with the Orioles last month that he wasn’t the same pitcher who dominated for a decade with the Seattle Mariners. That was several ticks on his fastball ago, and he’s had to learn how to pitch differently.
After his first Orioles spring training start Saturday night against the Detroit Tigers, it’s clear just how drastic those changes to his repertoire might be.
Hernández, 34, appeared to be throwing a heavy diet of fastballs in the 84-86 mph range. This time last year, he was in the upper-80s with fastball velocity. When he last pitched in the majors in 2019, Hernández averaged 89 mph, according to MLB’s Statcast data.
Hernández allowed two runs thanks to a pair of second-inning walks coming around to score Saturday, but there were times when his fastball was effective. When he kept it low, he often got swings or softer contact. It topped out at 87 mph on his last batter of the first inning, when he struck out Niko Goodrum swinging on an 85 mph fastball. Despite the lack of velocity, he still got five swinging strikes on his fastballs out of 33 pitches.
His other strikeout to lead off the second inning came on a breaking ball at 78 mph; it appeared that Hernández was featuring his curveball in the 76-78 mph range, and Tigers hitters were more aggressive with those pitches than the fastballs. He said he threw one slider and stayed away from his changeup.
Hernández said he “didn’t pay attention” to the velocity but noted it was his first outing after a year off — he opted out of the 2020 season because of COVID19 concerns. But he said he was happy to pitch again after such a long layoff and is focused more on pitching in the zone than throwing harder. He acknowledged that he started rushing to the plate and flying open when he issued two walks on nine pitches in the second inning.
Manager Brandon Hyde said he thought Hernández “did a really nice job” of mixing speeds, and was heartened that he came off the mound healthy after not pitching in a game for a year.
Hernández has been in that mid-80s range with his fastball so far in camp, Hyde said, and while he thinks it could increase as the veteran right-hander builds his arm back up, Hyde still thinks he can be effective pitching that hard.
Hernández said earlier this spring that injuries in his past few years sapped both his effectiveness on the mound and his joy for the game toward the end of his time in Seattle. Watching him warm up and linger in the dugout to support and chat with teammates around his outing Saturday, it clearly looks like the happiness part is back.
The next three weeks will, provided he remains healthy, dictate whether he’s able to pitch this way successfully and extend his career with the Orioles.
“Every time, every day, I keep working in my bullpens and my flat-grounds,” Hernández said. “I’m going to be better at the end of the spring.”
Second time’s a charm
Jorge López was the first Orioles rotation/ bulk candidate to get a second outing, and Saturday went far better than the first. Hyde noted that the second inning was better than the first for López and so many others who had two-inning stints in the first week of the spring since first-outing jitters were out of the way.
López was much more in control Saturday, striking out three in three shutout, one-hit innings behind Hernández.
The two aren’t in direct roster competition, but López needs to make the team to avoid passing through waivers as he’s out of minor league options. If the Orioles are going to try and use as many stretched-out pitchers as possible to lessen the burden on their starters in this six-month season, López is someone they’ll want to keep around.
White-knuckle inning
Camp reserve reliever Zach Muckenhirn pitched well in this year’s Puerto Rican Winter League, but walked all three batters he faced in his spring debut before giving way to knuckleballer Mickey Jannis in the eighth inning.
Jannis wasn’t hit hard, but allowed those three runs and one of his own to score. But the nature of the fickle knuckleball meant the movement at times was too strong and one of the runs came when one got past catcher Austin Wynns.