CLEVELAND — Matt Wieters will make his regular-season debut tonight against the Cleveland Indians, starting at catcher and batting fifth, but his starts at catcher will still be limited to every other day.
Wieters, who was activated from the 60-day disabled list before Friday's game, said there's no timetable for when he might be able to catch on consecutive days. Wieters said he would be an option to be the team's designated hitter on days when he doesn't catch.
"It's going to be every other day for a while," Wieters said. "If needed, I can come in late in the game on the day [in between]. It will be a feel thing for the rest of the year. And when we feel like that day in between we can pick up a ball, we'll test it out and see how it goes a couple of times, and then we'll try to get back-to-back and go from there.
"It's going to be a constant thing of seeing how the arm reacts to every step we take still. But I felt like catching every other day, I can contribute to the team and still be able to help out."
Wieters didn't catch consecutive days during his just-completed minor league rehabilitation assignment.
"It feels good in between, but it's still going to be a feel thing," Wieters said. "And one day, I'll know and we'll check it out. But I think that's one thing I've learned through this whole process is putting a date on it is tough to do with the biology of the body. When it's ready, we'll just feel it.
"The one thing with the surgery, listening to all the pitchers I've talked to, you can play after a year, but until you feel normal, it's going to take 18 months to 24 months to feel normal and I was expecting that. I didn't know quite to the extent, but I understand now from a pitcher's side what they're saying. You can feel like you can play, but to actually feel like you did before the surgery, it's still going to be a work in progress."
Before last year's injury, Wieters averaged 129 starts at catcher over the previous four seasons.
"I think we'll eventually get into some back-to-back days and when that is, I'm not going to worry about it," manager Buck Showalter said. "We're fortunate to have Caleb and my plan right now is for Matt to catch today and Sunday and Tuesday. We'll pick our spots. If he needs a couple days sometime, we'll do that. I'm just going to take it each day as it comes. I don't think you can put a blanket schedule on it. I don't think that's fair to everybody."
The Orioles will carry two catchers - Wieters and Caleb Joseph. Catcher Steve Clevenger was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk before the game in a flurry of roster moves that included Wieters being activated from the DL.