BRADENTON, Fla. – Asked again about Tyler Wells before tonight’s game against the Pirates, the latest attempt to ascertain the Orioles’ plans for him, manager Brandon Hyde noted the positive reports from the right-hander’s last outing in Tampa and how well he pitched as a starter in 2022.

“I think he can do a lot of things for us,” Hyde said.

The specifics remain locked in the vault.

Wells issued the strongest statement for his inclusion on the roster with tonight’s effort against the Pirates, the only question being in what role. He was touched only for an unearned run and two hits over five innings, with no walks and two strikeouts. He retired 14 of the last 16 batters.

Coupled with his previous outing against the Yankees, Wells has surrendered one earned run with no walks in 8 2/3 innings. A fast finish in the race for a rotation spot.

BRADENTON, Fla. – It had to be a pleasing sight to everyone in an Orioles uniform today as they played the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton. Closer Félix Bautista was back on the mound and was touching 99 mph and throwing pitches by hitters in his spring debut.

To better control exactly when he would pitch today, the Orioles had Bautista start the game and would let him throw as many as 25 pitches. He needed just 15 in a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. His fastball averaged 97.9 mph and topped at 99.0. He looked as good as he had last year.

“Fastball velocity was there, good splits,” manager Brandon Hyde said after the game. "His first time out and it looked like he had been out there for a while. Real positive for today.

"Let's see how he is tomorrow and after his next few outings, but today went as well as it possibly could."

The Orioles won the game 7-6 heading into an off-day on Wednesday to improve their spring record to 2-1-1 versus Pittsburgh and 8-9-2 for the spring overall.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Kyle Bradish became the first Orioles pitcher tonight to make three starts this spring. He’s the first to work four innings.

No one has done it better.

Bradish shut out the Twins over the first three frames before Matt Wallner homered with one out in the fourth. He struck out the next two batters to give him eight for the game.

“Pretty pleased,” he said. “Everything was really good. Commanded the zone from the second on.”

"Showed really good stuff again," said manager Brandon Hyde. "Some deep counts there early but I thought he got better as the game went on. Really good breaking ball. Love that he's throwing that two-seamer that he introduced second half of last year that made a huge difference. He's just carried that work into this year. He's doing a great job so far this spring."

SARASOTA, Fla. – The 12 roster cuts that followed yesterday’s 7-6 loss to the Phillies included infield prospects Coby Mayo and César Prieto, who weren’t making the club and now can get more at-bats and reps over at Twin Lakes Park before likely assignments to Double-A Bowie.

Mayo went 2-for-14 with a 111.5 mph double, two RBIs, two walks and five strikeouts. Prieto was 3-for-11 with a double and three RBIs.

MLP Pipeline ranks Mayo as the organization’s No. 10 prospect and Prieto 18^th. The top nine players remain in camp.

Also reassigned were first baseman Curtis Terry, outfielder Robert Neustrom, catcher Ramón Rodriguez and right-handers Wandisson Charles, Ofreidy Gómez, Morgan McSweeney Kade Strowd, Cole Uvila, Chris Vallimont and Ryan Watson. The official spring training count is down to 59 players.

“It’s time to just kind of starting reducing our camp size,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “I’m going to try to bring those guys over as much as possible. We’ll have some innings at the end of games to continue to have them play in some of our games, but we just felt like it was important to reduce the camp size a little bit. Want to see those guys get a lot of reps.”

SARASOTA, Fla. – Anthony Santander took charge of a high popup near the mound in the first inning, finding the ball in the high sky, avoiding any collisions and squeezing it for the second out.

Santander fielded Jake Cave’s grounder and stepped on the bag to finish the second, scooped a throw out of the dirt on an attempted double play in the third to prevent an error, and concluded the inning by handling Darick Hall’s grounder and again hustling to the bag.

The fourth also couldn’t end without Santander. He fielded Cave’s ground ball and tossed to Mychal Givens for the last out and strand a runner on third base following a hit batter and two balks on the reliever.

Santander also was flawless taking two throws, from second and third base, in the opening inning. As if he played the position for most of his professional career.

Try nine games with Single-A Lynchburg in 2016, before his shoulder surgery and the Orioles' selection of him in the Rule 5 draft.

Sarasota, Fla. - The Orioles’ lineup for today’s game against the Phillies has a unique look to it.

Anthony Santander gets the start at first base, a position he hasn’t played since A ball in Cleveland’s organization.

Manager Brandon Hyde indicated that Santander might log some innings there later in camp but decided to do it now, saying he doesn’t know how long his outfielder will be away with Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.

Santander leaves today for Miami.

Jorge Mateo is leading off. Adley Rutschman is catching left-hander Cole Irvin.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Ramón Urías led off the second inning today by drawing a walk against Blue Jays left-hander Yusei Kikuchi. Nothing special except that he was the only Orioles baserunner until one out in the ninth.

The club was being no-hit by seven pitchers in a game that didn’t count. Let the debate rage on whether it made a sound.

Lewin Díaz killed whatever drama was building by lining a single into right field off Hayden Juenger. He scored with two outs on Heston Kjerstad’s single into right-center. Kjerstad moved to second on an error but Josh Lester flied out.

The 2-1 loss was played in 2 hours and 20 minutes. The pitch clock can’t take all the credit.

Toronto was held to one run until Phil Clarke led off the eighth with a homer off Kyle Dowdy. Colton Cowser attempted a leaping catch at the fence, slammed into it and came down without the ball.  

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles moved to the next phase of spring training today with the first full-squad workout. Drills of every kind, with players grouped by position. Live batting practice sessions on multiple fields, including inside Ed Smith Stadium.

“I feel like we’ve been out here a couple weeks,” manager Brandon Hyde said with a laugh.

“Guys are really excited. Really love the talent here. It’s a great character group. Just walking around, talking to guys this morning, they’re excited to get going. Saturday’s going to come quick, so we’ve got to get ready to go.”

Hyde gathered everyone in the clubhouse before the workout began for the traditional talk, covering how the team exceeded expectations last summer and what he expects from it in 2023.

“Honestly, just want us to build off last year,” he said. “We have a (large) core group of guys, they got a lot of confidence from last year. It’s pretty much just building off a season where nobody expected us to do anything.