Matt Harvey has made the Orioles. The club selected Harvey¡¯s contract Thursday, bringing clarity to their rotation picture and securing the veteran right-hander¡¯s place on the Opening Day roster.

Harvey, who will turn 32 on Saturday, signed a Minor League deal with Baltimore to compete for a rotation job after bouncing between four organizations over the past three seasons. A 2013 All-Star with the Mets, Harvey produced a 11.57 ERA in seven appearances for Kansas City in 2020. He will earn $1 million in 2021.

¡°When you start an All-Star Game and then you pitch in the World Series, I think the last thing you ever think of is how excited you'll be to make a team again,¡± Harvey said. ¡°It was a good, early birthday present, and it's probably one of the best I've had.¡±

This spring, Harvey arrived in Orioles camp after training this winter at an analytics-driven pitching lab in New Jersey, with an eye toward reviving his career. He then pitched to a 5.40 ERA across three Grapefruit League starts, with his fastball touching 95 mph at times but more consistently living in the 90-94 range. His path to the Opening Day rotation became clearer when F¨¦lix Hern¨¢ndez, another former All-Star in camp on a Minor League deal, was sidelined with right elbow discomfort last week.

Harvey was one of the game¡¯s premier starters from 2012-15 with the Mets, going 25-18 with a 2.53 ERA, before injuries contributed to a severe decline. All told, he is 44-52 with a 4.14 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP across parts of eight seasons with the Mets, Reds, Royals and Angels. He has spoken repeatedly this spring about reclaiming his old form.

¡°I¡¯m not trying to be as good as I was,¡± Harvey said. ¡°I¡¯m trying to be better.¡±

Even if he never comes close to that, Harvey can be useful to the rebuilding O¡¯s. He¡¯s scheduled to make his final spring start Sunday, lining him up behind John Means in the rotation¡¯s second slot, ahead of Dean Kremer, Keegan Akin and potentially Jorge L¨®pez. The exact arrangement is less important than the innings Harvey can provide during a year the O¡¯s will strictly manage workloads for Kremer, Akin and other young pitchers, and experiment with several non-traditional pitching strategies. If Harvey emerges as a trade chip come July, even better.

Harvey¡¯s Minor League contract included a fairly standard opt-out Wednesday that facilitated the official move, prompting manager Brandon Hyde to call him into his office Thursday morning. There, Hyde and general manager Mike Elias pretended ¡°they were upset with me, possibly telling me bad news,¡± according to Harvey. The joke was on him.

¡°Then,¡± Harvey said, "they switched their faces around.¡±

He added: ¡°I'm super-excited. I¡¯m very thankful that they saw the work I put in and felt like it was good enough to continue to get better and help the team out any way I can.¡±