ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters was out of the starting lineup Wednesday night after making a trip to have his sore right elbow examined by Dr. James Andrews.
Wieters flew from Tampa to Pensacola earlier in the day for the exam and rejoined the Orioles for the game against Tampa Bay.
While it was determined that Wieters would avoid the disabled list, he will likely be limited to designated hitter duty for a period of time.
“It doesn’t hurt him to hit at all, either way,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.
“That’s not a factor. I’m not going to give you an exact time frame when he can catch, but I think if he keeps down the path we hope it does, he’ll be a catcher again in the near future.”
The elbow has bothered the switch-hitting Wieters for the past couple of weeks. He went 2 for 5 as the DH in Tuesday night’s 5-3 win over the Rays.
Wieters called the test results a good thing.
“Anytime it’s a positive outlook to where we definitely see getting back on the field sooner rather than later,” said Wieters, who arrived at Tropicana Field about 90 minutes before gametime.
“You hope for, you’re good to go, but I think we’ve got to be smarter and make sure we let everything kind of heal and calm down in there before we push it again,” he said.
Wieters said the main issue was that throwing the ball to second base wasn’t as comfort as normal.
“It wasn’t really pain, but at the same time just kind of know that something’s not quite right,” Wieters said.
Baltimore purchased the contract of catcher Caleb Joseph from Triple-A Norfolk and optioned infielder Jemile Weeks to the International League club.
Joseph was the Orioles’ catcher Wednesday in his major league debut.
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