Opening honor again to Means

‘The ultimate honor’: Lefty will be on mound to start season April 8

SARASOTA, Fla. — Come April 8’s season opener against the Tampa Bay Rays, John Means’ relatively short career will have included at least three feats that hadn’t happened in the previous half-century of Orioles baseball. He’ll have done two in a year’s time.

Means will make his second straight season-opening start next week, manager Brandon Hyde announced Thursday — the same day the Orioles’ season would have begun if not for a delay because of Major League Baseball’s 99-day lockout.

Although the outing will come about a week later than originally scheduled, it will still make Means, 28, the first Baltimore left-hander to start consecutive season openers since Dave McNally did it from 1969 to 1971. Chris Tillman was the most recent Oriole with a streak of season-opening starts, getting the assignment from 2014 to 2016.

“It’s just an honor, it’s the ultimate honor, to be able to be the Opening Day starter for a Major League Baseball team,” Means said. “There’s really nothing like it — I’m sure playoff games are like that, too — that I’ve experienced, so it’s really cool. It’s a type of adrenaline you never really feel throughout the season.”

An 11th-round draft pick in 2014, Means was one of the last players selected for Baltimore’s season-opening roster in 2019, then pitched his way into the rotation and a surprise All-Star selection. Throughout the Orioles’ rebuild, Means has been their most, and at some points lone, dependable starter. Hyde said righthanders Jordan Lyles and Tyler Wells will be among those following Means, but it’s unclear where they’ll fall in the rotation. Putting Means at the top, conversely, was an easy choice.

“What he’s done really the last three years, it was pretty obvious for us,” Hyde

said. “John, for me, was one of the best pitchers in the game in the first half last year. I’m looking forward to him having another really good year, and he’s in a great spot right now, mentally, physically. Happy to give him the ball.”

In last year’s season-opening start, Means held the Boston Red Sox to one hit in seven scoreless innings, sparking a campaign in which he posted a 3.62 ERA and led Baltimore with 146 innings. Through 11 starts, Means had a 2.05 ERA, pitching into the seventh inning or later in seven of those outings. That includes May 5 against Seattle, when he pitched the Orioles’ first completegame no-hitter since Jim Palmer’s in 1969.

But in Means’ first start of June, he suffered a left shoulder strain that kept him on the injured list for much of the next two months. A similar injury flared up in his 2019 season, when he represented the Orioles in the All-Star Game — the first rookie to do so since 1966 — and finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

When Means returned in 2021, he was once again Baltimore’s most reliable starter. His 11 outings of five-plus innings after his IL stint matched the most any other Oriole had for the full season.

Means hopes to supply that dependability again in 2022, spending the offseason at a physical therapy facility in Texas with the goal of hitting the 200-inning benchmark only seven major leaguers reached last season. Despite having IL stints over each of his three full major league seasons, he’s been one of the top pitchers in the majors during that time.

For pitchers who have thrown at least 300 innings since 2019, Means ranks sixth in walk rate, 11th in WHIP and 19th in batting average allowed. He’s 27th among those 63 arms in ERA, but he would rank 12th if not for his first six starts of 2020. Announced as Baltimore’s season-opening starter that year, as well, Means instead began the year on the IL with arm fatigue and also missed time after the death of his father, Alan, to pancreatic cancer. Through six outings, his ERA was 8.10.

But Means finished an out shy of going six innings in each of his final four starts, striking out more than a third of the batters he faced with a 1.52 ERA. He carried that momentum into 2021, starting the season opener and dominating for the first two months of the year.

Now, he’s looking to be that pitcher for a full season.

“I think John has definitely earned it, and he’s excited to make his second one; he said it should have been three,” Hyde said. “He broke with us a few years ago as a long man in our bullpen, and he’s earned his way into making two Opening Day starts.

“Credit to him for all the hard work, and he’s taken on a leadership role this spring, more so than ever before. It’s fun to watch a guy kind of turning into, even though he’s a young veteran, a veteran-type pitcher.”