He’ll have to rehab the injury as it is, and that’ll take some time. After rehab, he’ll be free to work on his hitting and fielding abilities. With that said, the fall and winter leagues and spring training are pretty much the only places for him. If he doesn’t work out by Spring Training do they keep him on the major league roster, hoping he’ll field a position and hit.

As far as I recall, he can hit. Crow has been quoted as saying he’d be the third best hitter on that team if he made a transition. Fielding, on the other hand, that’s an issue. First base isn’t easy, and where would he play in the outfield? Jones in center, Markakis in right, and Reimold/Scott playing left, where does he go? Not to mention he’d still have to use his arm if he platoons with Reimold in left barring a Scott trade or transition to DH for either. It would make sense for him to play first, where his arm would be lightly used and his glove won’t be a liability. The offensive numbers I’m not worried about.

Also, what happens if things go south after his rehab? Blarg.

How can you rework a contract after it’s signed without the approval of twenty nine other teams? If we can do this, can we work MelMo’s contract to cap his surprise bunts and relinquish the NTC?

You do have to stay positive when you were the #1 international prospect in the world and you barely completed one half of a full major league season in your entire career. Don’t write him off so easily, a lot of the guys who come out of high school as highly touted as Loewen are just ridiculous athletes who had to make a tough choice between the two. In Loewen’s case you could be hitting .600 in high school, but when you have three plus pitches with one in the mid 90s it isn’t too hard to decide.

is for him to be an insurance broker?

At least he’s not just gonna ride out a rehab and collect his checks. He wants to PLAY. Hopefully, he can.

Andy MacPhail:

"I wish there was someone else up here delivering the bad portion of this news, but we are very fortunate that, in this case, it’s not that hard of a decision, because based on the news that we’re getting from the medical people, it’s not something that you’re going to be wondering that you took the right path or not. I think its pretty clear, based on the future that they described, that this is the right course and we’re extraordinarily fortunate where we have an athlete that is capable of pursuing a career as a position player, which is not unprecedented in our game that we would have somebody come off the mound and have a career that could potentially be productive as a position player."

From Adam Loewen:

"They believe that the only reason that my arm feels the way it does is strictly from throwing off the mound at a high intensity. So if I was playing first base or outfield or just having time in between throws, not throwing 90-93 off a mound, then my arm’s going to be fine, it’s not going to bother me swinging the bat and I won’t have to have surgery. If I did choose the other path of pitching, it would be a long road with no clear ending. This is not a simple decision, but it’s right there in front of me and it was easy to make for me.
"It was devastating news, but I’ve always had a backup plan, so I’m sure I didn’t take it as hard as anybody else would. And as much as I love pitching and love playing for the Orioles, I still have a chance to do that. It’s going to be a long and tough road, but I did it one time. Hopefully, I can do it again. I know what to expect and I think I’m mature enough where I can do this and I’m still young enough to where I can do this."
Asked if he’ll be rusty, Loewen said, "Absolutely. It’s been six years, probably, five or six years since I’ve hit competitively in college where I did hit. It’s going to take time, it’s going to be a real challenge, but Rick Ankiel did it, so at least I have somebody before me that did it that I can relate to."
Asked if he wished that he could have been a two-way player after being drafted, Loewen said, "In a perfect world, I would have done both, for sure, but I’m 6-6 and I throw left handed, so it was kind of, my path was chosen for me. I didn’t have a choice. I probably would have done both, and my second choice would probably have been to hit, so I just love to do both. I’m always going to be a pitcher, there’s no doubt about that. I love to do it, I’ve been doing it ever since I was 9 years old, so it’s going to be tough to let it go. But God has a special plan for me and I’m going to be faithful and follow it."
And more from Loewen: "I don’t feel any pain when I’m just sitting here, but I anticipate some pain if I picked up a bat right now. It’s only been two weeks since I felt what I did on the mound. I just don’t anticipate that feeling now. The goal right now is instructional league. I think it would be a smart thing to make sure this time that I will be ready. I’m so sick of being a Band-Aid, going on the DL and that kind of stuff. It’s challenging and I don’t want to do it anymore. I think we’re going to take the conservative road and just shoot for the instructional league."