Baltimore Orioles Starter Rocked In First Injury Rehab Start

Baltimore Orioles starter John Means made his first injury rehab start on Sunday and he was only able to pitch one inning against the Durham Bulls.

Orioles pitcher John Means stretches at the start of practice Thursday. The Baltimore Orioles | Mike Lang / USA TODAY NETWORK

Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher John Means made his first rehab start for Triple-A Norfolk on Sunday and he clearly has a ways to go before he’s ready for the Majors this season.

Means and the Tides faced the Durham Bulls in what was intended to be a two-inning rehab start as he begun to work on building back up to join the Orioles.

Well, his first inning was bouncy to say the leads. He allowed five hits — including two home runs — and six runs in the first frame. He also gave up a walk while striking out two. He threw 27 pitches.

Orioles management was likely tracking velocity on his pitches early in the game and Statcast averaged his fastball and 90-91 mph with a top speed of 92.5 mph.

After the rocky first inning, Norfolk lifted Means for Nolan Hoffman.

Means authored a no-hitter for the Orioles in 2021 and has a career record of 21-26 with a 3.74 ERA, but he’s been recovering from Tommy John surgery, which prematurely ended his 2022 season.

He returned to the Orioles late in the 2023 season and started four games, going 1-2 with a 2.66 ERA in 23.2 innings.

But Means showed up to spring training about a month behind the rest of the team’s pitchers due to an unrelated forearm injury.

He never pitched in a game in spring training.

Means is now on a 30-day rehab window as the Orioles seek to ramp him up so he can re-join the Major League team.

The Orioles are bleeding pitching at the moment. The latest is reliever Cionel Pérez, a workhorse the past two seasons who went on the injured list on Sunday with an oblique injury.

The Orioles sent starter Kyle Bradish to Sarasota to continue his rehab from a right UCL sprain that he suffered right as spring training began. He threw a 35-pitch bullpen session on Friday and is making progress, though the Orioles don’t have a timetable for him to start a rehab assignment.

Bradish went 12-7 in 30 starts last season, throwing 168.2 innings and striking out 168. He had the fourth-best ERA in baseball at 2.83 and had a 1.04 WHIP.