What are the Baltimore Orioles doing with the promising young talent of Hunter Harvey?
The Baltimore Orioles may soon be faced with a variation of an old question: Can necessity become the mother of folly? Some might say this should be phrased “the mother of potential folly,” and follow that with another old bromide: “no risk, no reward.” Those folks would be those hoping to speed pitcher Hunter Harvey through his minor league paces and right up to Camden Yards.
Harvey is the 23-year-old son of former big league pitcher Bryan Harvey, and he has an electric arm. The 2013 first round draft pick of the Orioles touches 95 mph with his fastball, and manager Buck Showalter has said, “Let’s put it this way — if he didn’t have options, he may not go down.”
Um, Buck, shouldn’t that be “might not go down”? Wait, is that a Freudian slip? (There’s permission involved in going to the minors?) Are the Orioles actually considering keeping Harvey at the big league level? If so, what’s wrong with that?
Although the O’s need more starters, the answers to these questions are “maybe” four times and “plenty” for number five.
Fragile: Handle with Care
First of all, despite his pedigree and natural talent, Hunter has only thrown in 38 minor league games. He has been slowed down by a fractured leg, a sports hernia and, finally, Tommy John surgery. As one writer put it, “Dude is made of glass.”
The elbow procedure kept him off the field for all of 2015.
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Still, when he’s been on the field, Harvey has dominated hitters. His career WHIP is 1.115 coming into 2018, and his ERA is 2.56. He has a gentle, smooth motion, albeit one that may need an adjustment, a little more drive with his legs.
Some feel that perhaps his dependence on his upper body strength could have been responsible for his eventual breakdown. Harvey isn’t as bulky as his father was during his career, and maybe that’s part of the injury history. We can all name favorite, thin fireballers who broke down. All this would seem to argue for some more time with a tutor in the minors, but all the speculation started up again Feb. 27 with Harvey’s first spring appearance in the big league camp.
The results were encouraging (2 innings, 3H, 3K); the fastball was there. That day manager Showalter didn’t shy away from phrases like “high hopes,” or pointing out that the team wanted to make sure to use this young pitcher in the starter’s role that day because that’s where the Orioles see him in the future.
The Likelihood
Showalter also made it clear that the team is doing a lot of thinking about Harvey, stopping just short of saying that the pitcher might be scheduled as though he were in a regular rotation for the spring: “Potentially . Ask me at the end of the day, but he’s got a chance to make it a little tough on us. We’ll see.”
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What’s going actually to happen? Cooler heads will likely prevail, and Harvey will start the season in the minor leagues, perhaps as low as High-A Frederick, according to the Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck. Don’t be terribly shocked, however, if he’s sent to Double-A Bowie.
That’s if he survives the spring.