Report: Harvey shut down, surgery possible

Hunter Harvey's return to competitive action ran into a delay Saturday, as the 20-year-old hurler was reportedly shut down after experiencing elbow discomfort.

The Orioles' top prospect, Harvey missed 2015 with an assortment of injuries, and Saturday's workout was the first time he was cleared to throw in Baltimore's instructional league. MLB.com's Britt Ghiroli reported that the young right-hander will soon see Dr. James Andrews.

"Dr. Andrews is out of the country right now, so I'm not sure when that would be," Orioles manager Buck Showalter told Ghiroli.

Harvey, son of former Major Leaguer Bryan Harvey, was a first-round pick out of a North Carolina high school in 2013, but he last pitched competitively for Class A Delmarva on July 25, 2014. The Orioles shut him down at that time with a strained flexor mass (right elbow), and he suffered a right fibula fracture in Spring Training this year. In mid-May, he once more strained his elbow and required a platelet-rich plasma injection, which effectively ended his year.

"Any time a guy has had that much time off and done the rehab and everything and there's discomfort, that's an issue," Showalter told Ghiroli.

Though Baltimore will not assign baseball's No. 64 overall prospect to the Arizona Fall League as planned, the club hopes he won't need Tommy John surgery.

"We'll see," Showalter said to MLB.com. "Let it run its course. I know more than I'm going to talk about here. We're hoping for a different result than what that type of thing normally makes you wonder about. It's been a long haul for him."