Injured Baltimore Orioles Starter Excels In Latest Rehab Start

Baltimore Orioles starter John Means may have pitched his final game in the minor leagues after shutting down Gwinnett on Sunday.

Jul 31, 2021; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher John Means. / Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles made the call to keep injured starting pitcher Jon Means at Triple-A Norfolk for one more rehab start.

It looks like it was the right call.

Means had his best rehab outing on Sunday with the Tides, as he claimed the victory in a 2-0 win over the Gwinnett Stripers.

The 31-year-old left-hander was brilliant for the Tides, pitching seven innings, giving up one hit and one walk. He struck out eight and brought his ERA for the six-start rehab assignment down to 8.68.

He threw 95 pitches, 61 of which were strikeouts.

The Orioles considered calling Means up to start Sunday’s finale against the Oakland Athletics. But they opted for one more rehab game and slotted Albert Suárez to start.

Means was coming off of a rehab start in which he gave up seven hits, three earned runs and one walk in 4.1 innings. He also struck out five. He threw 79 pitches.

The former 11th-round pick started his rehab assignment on March 31, but two of them lasted an inning or less.

With this kind of outing, Means is now in a position for Baltimore to call him up and insert him into the rotation.

The Orioles have already announced that they will activate Kyle Bradish this week after he made three rehab assignments, the last of which saw him reach five innings and throw 77 pitches. Baltimore deemed him ready to make his season debut.

The Orioles have not slotted Bradish into the rotation yet, though they have set their probable starters for the first three games of their series with the New York Yankees, which starts on Monday.