Mancini rejoins Orioles' lineup in Seattle

SEATTLE -- The Orioles woke up Saturday morning in Seattle to find their best player back in the lineup.

Citing “huge improvement” in the swelling of his left elbow, Trey Mancini returned to action after a three game absence, playing first base and batting second opposite Mariners lefty Tommy Milone. Mancini went 1-for-4 with a single in the Orioles' 8-4 win over the Mariners.

Though the club never seriously considered an injured list stint for Mancini, he’d been unavailable since being drilled by a fastball Wednesday by A’s starter Chris Bassitt.

“I wouldn’t say its 100 percent in every aspect, but baseball wise its good to go,” Mancini said.

Mancini estimated the elbow more 85-90 percent healed Saturday, a day after testing it in the batting cage and with defensive drills. He said he could’ve pinch hit if necessary during Friday’s 10-9 loss, but respected Brandon Hyde’s decision to remain cautious even after the club rallied back from seven runs down.

“In our situation, I wasn’t going to use him,” Hyde said. “If it was September and we were two games out, yeah. But not right now. I just want Trey to be healthy.”

The Orioles need him to be. One of the American League’s breakout hitters, Mancini is enjoying a career year, hitting .304 with a .919 OPS and 16 home runs. He leads in nearly every major offensive category for an Orioles club ranking among the AL’s worst in runs, batting, OPS and slugging this month.

“Catching balls at first is totally good. Swinging is totally good,” Mancini said. “If I went in the gym and did cleans and stuff, that would hurt. But I’m not going to do that.”

Means update

John Means is scheduled to throw a side session Sunday to gauge the health of his left shoulder strain, the hope being he can return from the injured list when eligible this weekend. Means was placed on the IL on Thursday with what he described as minor deltoid tightness, further stretching Baltimore’s already ultra-thin pitching depth. That caused Means to miss his scheduled start Friday, prompting the Orioles to use a bullpen game in his place.

Whether Means is healthy or not, they still need a starter for one of their two games against the Padres next week. Hyde said one option is having lefthander Josh Rogers follow opener Jimmy Yacabonis, like they did Wednesday in Oakland. Like much of the Orioles pitching picture though, that remains subject to change.

Roster move

Baltimore’s ever-shuffling relief corps added a new member Saturday, when the club selected the contract of right-hander Matt Wotherspoon from Triple-A. A 27-year-old rookie, Wotherspoon’s lone prior Major League appearance came this April, when he logged two innings in a game against the Blue Jays.

A former 20th round pick of the Tigers in 2013, Wotherspoon owns a career 3.41 ERA across six Minor League seasons. He had a 4.46 mark in 21 games at Norfolk, where he had struck out more than a batter per inning.

His arrival continued a dizzying stretch of roster moves for the Orioles, who continue to cycle through arms like few other teams. The transaction to activate Wotherspoon was the club’s 22nd over the past eight days. Seventeen have involved pitchers.