Baltimore Orioles Shut Down Hunter Harvey With Soreness

The 2019 season is officially over for this Baltimore Orioles reliever.

A little over a week ago, it was reported that Baltimore Orioles rookie reliever Hunter Harvey was experiencing bicep soreness, but was expected to return over the weekend against the Detroit Tigers. Harvey never appeared in that series and hasn’t pitched in a game since September 2nd.

After Wednesday night’s meltdown against the Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde announced that the team is shutting down Harvey for the rest of the 2019 season with lingering bicep soreness.

Earlier reports indicated that the rookie had eight more innings left before reaching his previously undisclosed limit, however, Harvey won’t get the opportunity to get his last bit of work in and completes his 2019 campaign with 82 innings between Double-A Bowie, Triple-A Norfolk, and the Orioles. It’s the highest number of innings Harvey has logged since he was with the Delmarva Shorebirds in 2014 (87.2) and it’s more than his 2015-2018 totals, combined.

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Something was clearly up after Hyde passed on using Harvey in multiple different scenarios over the past few days, including not bringing him in to try and stop the bleeding last night. At least we now know why and the speculation is over.

The 2019 season was an impressive showing for the oft-injured, former first-round pick of the Baltimore Orioles. After more than six years of surgeries, breaks, bruises, soreness, and just about any other type of injury you can think of, Harvey finally made his major league debut back on August 17th at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox.

It was an emotional moment for fans who have closely followed his career. I can’t even imagine what that moment was like for Harvey and his family after everything the 24-year-old has gone through.

Logging 6.1 innings across seven outings with the Orioles, Harvey worked his electric heater and tantalizing curveball to limit opponents to just one run on three hits while striking out 11 and walking four. Every single runner who was on base when Harvey entered the game, remained there.

Shutting down Harvey is absolutely the right decision, especially if he isn’t 100 percent. Keeping the kid gloves on for a bit longer won’t hurt him or his development at this point. The Orioles may have found a valuable bullpen piece in the North Carolina native. Let’s just hope this is nothing more than the result of an extreme workload and he will be back, just as strong, in 2020.

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