McFarland could move from 'pen to rotation

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- T.J. McFarland, who was selected by the Orioles in last year's Rule 5 Draft and is coming off a successful winter ball stint, will attend the club's mini-camp in January and compete for a starting rotation spot this spring, manager Buck Showalter said Tuesday at the Winter Meetings.

Showalter also hopes to have starter Wei-Yin Chen at the four-day camp, although baseball's rules dictate that the team can't invite any players and it has to go through MLB and their agent first. Chen had surgery to remove bone spurs around his right knee in October, and the organization is hoping to get a handle on where he is physically.

As for Nolan Reimold, whom the organization re-signed for $1.025 million at the non-tender deadline, Showalter said he wasn't sure if the left fielder would be a full-go when Spring Training starts.

"Basically, what keeps coming out of [vice president of baseball operations] Brady [Anderson's mouth] is that [Reimold] is further along than he was last year at this time," Showalter said of Reimold, who is recovering from a neck procedure that marked the second consecutive season-ending operation. "What that means, I don't think anybody knows until we get into the rigors of the baseball full activity. But we're going to take another shot with him.

"In today's world, it's probably pretty cheap when you look at the going rate of things. If Nolan comes back 100 percent, we've got something, a pretty good deal, so I'm pulling for him. It's been a long, tough road for him. When you look at what he's gone through and how it happened and the whole nine yards, he got injured diving into the stands trying to help his club win.

"The organization, [owner] Mr. [Peter] Angelos, has been very loyal to Nolan in not just closing the door on him. I'm proud of that."