Every addition the Orioles make to their pitching staff this spring in the form of veterans on minor league contracts makes things harder for two of the first pitchers they added to their spring training mix — Rule 5 draft picks Mac Sceroler and Tyler Wells.
Those two were plucked from the fringes of the Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins organizations, respectively, and need to be kept on the active roster for the entire season for the Orioles to keep them.
That’s a tall task in normal circumstances, and even more so when the Orioles could have to add Félix Hernández, Matt Harvey and Wade LeBlanc to the roster for Opening Day and are limited in terms of bullpen flexibility.