To say Orioles left-hander John Means' 2019 season came out of nowhere doesn't begin to describe how he was perceived. Not only was he an afterthought prior to this season, but he was an afterthought of a pitching prospect in the Orioles' farm system. Considering the Orioles' near-constant need for pitching, that's no easy feat.
Still, that's also a little unfair to the Orioles, because the John Means of 2018 and seasons past was not the same as Means in 2019. Only once did Means rank on the team's list of top 30 prospects by MLB Pipeline, slotting in at No. 29 in 2017. But after the 2018 season, he put in work at P3 Premier Pitching & Performance in St. Louis, where staff members developed an offseason program for him to help increase his four-seam fastball velocity through strength programs and utilizing high-speed cameras.
Means, 26, also worked with newly-hired minor-league pitching coordinator Chris Holt during spring training to refine his changeup.
