Minor League

The Orioles reassigned a pair of non-roster invitees, catcher Jose Gil and infielder Nuiman Romero, to minor league camp on Thursday. The moves leave 51 players remaining in big league camp, 14 of them non-roster invitees. Romero was 4-for-11 with and RBI and a walk in 12 Grapefruit League games. Gil was 0-for-10 with five strikesouts in seven spring games.  

The Orioles made their first cuts of the spring Thursday, sending five players to minor league camp, including two of the organization's most promising young pitchers. The club sent out left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez and right-hander Mike Wright, who are widely considered the Orioles' top pitching prospects behind Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman. Also re-assigned to minor league camp were catcher Allan de San Miguel, who did not play in a Grapefruit League game for the Orioles because he was with the World Baseball Classic's Team Australia; catcher Luis Martinez, who didn't play in a game because of a left oblique strain; and left-hander Zach Braddock, who is recovering from shoulder surgery.

SARASOTA, Fla. - As pitchers conducted their first workout of the spring at the Orioles' minor league camp Monday, the beginning of two comebacks took place in the bullpen area of the Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex at Twin Lakes Park. It's been nearly four years since the Orioles made highly touted high schoolers Matt Hobgood and Mychal Givens their top two picks in the 2009 draft. Both have struggled to live up to expectations, but they both arrive in camp this spring with renewed hope for their careers.

The Orioles will head south to Fort Myers today to play the Twins for the second time this spring. The Twins will have a lineup that includes Joe Mauer, Josh Willingham and Justin Morneau, so they're playing a number of regulars. As for the Orioles, this is a game that will be difficult from a roster perspective. It will be their third game in a span of 30 hours after yesterday's day-night, split-squad doubleheader. Yesterday afternoon, the Orioles brought 12 minor leaguers over from the minor league minicamp at Twin Lakes Park.

Right-hander Jair Jurrjens, making his first spring appearance in an Orioles uniform, allowed one run and four hits over two innings against the Blue Jays on Sunday at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. Pitching the game's first two innings against a lineup made up mostly of starters, Jurrjens retired the first five batters he faced, but then allowed a single to J.P Arencibia and issued a walk to Colby Rasmus before Mark DeRosa plated a run with an RBI single. "I felt good,” Jurrjens said.

SARASOTA. Fla. - Jason Pridie will be the first to admit his mistake. The 29-year-old outfielder has spent most of the past six years on the cusp of finding a home in the big leagues - his life-long dream just within reach. But around this time last season, Pridie's very public miscue had him worried that he might have handed himself a career-crippling sentence into baseball purgatory. Last March, Pridie was fighting for a roster spot in Oakland Athletics' spring training camp when he received a 50-game suspension for a second failed test for a recreational drug - a "drug of habit" as Major League Baseball calls it. First failed tests are kept confidential.

Russ Canzler spent this offseason flipping rosters. He was placed on waivers four times and has been claimed each time. Since mid-December, Canzler was on the 40-man rosters of the Indians, Blue Jays, Indians again, Yankees and then the Orioles. “I just kind of sat in my living room and answered the phone every couple weeks to see which team I was going to be on,” Canzler said with a smile. “You can get worked up about it. You can get upset, but I have a lot of faith I'd land somewhere.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said the team was “more comfortable” signing right-hander Jair Jurrjens to a minor league deal than a major league one after closely vetting the results of a physical on his right knee. “There's some safeguards for the player in there, as well,” Duquette told reporters during Saturday's first full-squad workout, which Jurrjens participated in fully. “At least we have a chance to work together and see if we can help him be a good big league pitcher.

SARASOTA, Fla - And so ends the strange offseason saga of pitcher Jair Jurrjens, who arrived at the Orioles' spring training facility Saturday after finalizing the minor league contract that started out as a major league contract. Confused? It's not all that complicated. Jurrjens agreed to a major league deal three weeks ago worth $1.5 million that included incentives that could have boosted the value to $4 million, but club officials obviously weren't satisfied with the results of his physical and renegotiated the contract down to a minor league deal with a major league invite to spring training.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Trayvon Robinson suited up for the first time as an Oriole on Saturday and took part in the first official full-squad workout, but the outfielder had hoped to be in camp a lot earlier after being acquired in the November deal that sent infielder Robert Andino to the Seattle Mariners. Instead, he had to clear waivers after the Orioles outrighted him last week to make room for pitcher Todd Redmond , a move that had to leave him wondering just where he might fit with a team that has a dozen outfielders in major league camp.