There are a variety of reasons the Orioles where they are right now. Injuries have certainly played a big part, as has their pitching (they currently have the ninth-worst team FIP in all of baseball), but the offense has been tough to watch.

While Adley Rutschman has been on fire since coming back from injury, plenty of the Orioles’ stars look like they’re struggling. Gunnar Henderson is hitting .209/.275/.460, Pete Alonso is hitting .214/.322/.421, Coby Mayo is hitting .200/.165/.234, Colton Cowser is hitting .183/.275/.217, you get the picture.

And a lot of these struggles stem from one problem—nobody can hit a breaking ball or a changeup.

The Orioles can hit fastballs, that’s no problem at all. As a team, they own a .266 average, .379 wOBA, and .383 xwOBA against fastballs, numbers that place them comfortably above league average.

Gunnar? He’s got a .281/.370/.480 line against fastballs this year. Cowser? It’s .304/.448/.391. Basallo? .342/.432/.684.

Nearly 50% of the balls the Orioles put in play against fastballs are hard-hit. The team has a 7.29% barrels per plate appearance against the pitches. These are not the numbers of a struggling offense—if a pitcher puts a fastball in the zone, the Orioles can crush it.

But that hasn’t happened, because the book is out, and pitchers have made those opportunities rare.

The Orioles are seeing one of the lowest fastball usage rates in the league, replaced instead by a steady stream of breaking balls and offspeed pitches, which the team just cannot hit.

As a team, the Orioles are hitting just .182 against breaking balls with a .250 wOBA and a .257 xwOBA. Their 35.4% strikeout rate against breakers is among the highest in baseball and well above the league average of around 29%.

Even if the Orioles do make contact against breakers, they’ve got a miserable 2.8% barrels per plate appearance, the worst mark in the entire league.

Take Colton Cowser for instance. So far this year, Cowser has seen 87 breaking balls. He has zero hits, zero walks, and a 64.7% strikeout rate against those breaking balls.

It’s not much better around the rest of the lineup. Mayo owns a .111/.108/.194 line with a 43.2% strikeout rate against breakers so far this year. For Basallo, it’s .138/.194/.276 with a 41.9% strikeout rate. Gunnar at least owns a respectable .256/.304/.535 line against breakers (though with a 41.3% strikeout rate). Even Pete Alonso owns a .171/.244/.341 line against breakers with a 37.8% strikeout rate.

And in case you were wondering, league average so far this year against breaking pitches is a .216/.275/.358 line with a 29.4% strikeout rate. Obviously breaking pitches are hard to hit, that’s the whole point, but the Orioles are especially terrible against these pitches.

Offspeed pitches aren’t much better. Against changeups and similar offerings, the Orioles own a .223 average with a .249 wOBA and a .247 xwOBA, all numbers that sit at the bottom of the league.

And when they do make contact? They own a 29.1% hard-hit rate and a 0.94% barrels per plate appearance, a number that again is the worst in the majors. Sure, they can make contact, but it’s weak contact at best.

Gunnar is among the worst offenders against offspeed pitches, owning a miserable .074/.103/.111 line against the pitches with a 31% strikeout rate.

The rest of the team isn’t much better—Cowser owns a .200/.261/.200 line against offspeed pitches, Mayo is hitting .083/.083/.333, Basallo is hitting .217/.250/.261.

This lineup isn’t being beat by elite fastball or anything, it’s being beat by predictable sequencing—spin early, spin often, never give the Orioles a straight pitch. It’s unsurprising to learn that the Orioles see the second-lowest percentage of fastballs in the league while seeing the seventh-highest percentage of breaking balls and the third-highest percentage of offspeed pitches.

If the Orioles want to have any success this year (and one would assume they do), somebody at some point is going to have to learn how to hit a curveball or a changeup. Adjustments can be made, it’s only May, and even modest gains—fewer chases, slightly better contact on mistake breaking balls—could force pitchers to start throwing more fastballs.

Until then, I don’t know why any opposing pitcher would ever throw a fastball to an Orioles hitter.

The post At some point, someone’s gotta hit a curveball appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Some of the most important players in Orioles history didn’t arrive amid major hype or headlines but were acquired quietly, and then, with the benefit of hindsight, we look at those trades and realize the Orioles got an all-star quality player for virtually nothing.

Now, unfortunately for the Orioles, they’ve also been on the bad end of a few of those trades (the Glenn Davis and Jake Arrieta trades come to mind), but they’ve made some pretty great deals too.

So what are the five best trades in the history of the franchise?

Honorable Mention: Orioles acquire Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter from the Rangers for Koji Uehara

This trade isn’t in my top five but it’s pretty darn close, and I went back and forth on it, so I’m giving it an honorable mention.

In 2011, the Orioles acquired Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter for reliever Koji Uehara. Now, this is a trade that actually worked out decently for both teams, as Uehara was a pretty awesome reliever for the Rangers in 2012, posting a 1.75 ERA over 36 innings and a solid season after being traded the year before.

Davis, however, arguably contributed more during his peak (though we all know how bad his valleys were). In Texas, Davis never really had a place. The team knew he had power, he hit 21 home runs in 2009 for them, but he struck out a ton. Ultimately, the Rangers thought that Mitch Moreland was a better fit for them at first base, and there was definitely no way Davis was going to usurp third base from Adrian Beltre, so he became expendable.

Enter the Orioles, who desperately needed offense. Davis seemed like a good fit — Camden Yards is a great park for left-handed power, and he was worth the price of a reliever like Uehara.

The next season, Davis batted .270/.326/.501 with 33 HRs, and followed that up with a .286/.370/.634, 53 HR season, ultimately becoming a central figure in the Orioles’ 2012-2016 run.

Obviously we all know what came next though — Davis’s highs were incredible but once he started declining, he plummeted (in my opinion, because MLB made him change his ADHD medication, but that’s a discussion for another time), posting the worst single season in MLB history in 2018, slashing .168/.243/.296.

Tommy Hunter, meanwhile, ended up being a solid bullpen option (and a fun clubhouse guy). Between Davis’s peaks and valleys, Hunter’s return as a reliever, and how good Ueheara was, this is definitely an honorable mention trade.

5. Orioles acquire Scott McGregor, Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, Dave Pagan, and Rudy May from the Yankees for Doyle Alexander, Elrod Hendricks, Grant Jackson, Jimmy Freeman, and Ken Holtzman

In 1976, the Orioles and Yankees figured their record-breaking 17-player trade in 1954 was such a fun time that they’d do it again, with a 10-player trade that netted the Orioles three major contributors to their team.

Scott McGregor went to an All-Star game in 1981, won 20 games for the Orioles in 1980, and had a fantastic couple of postseasons, especially in the Orioles World Series year of 1983. McGregor only allowed two runs in the ALCS and World Series openers that year and pitched a complete game shutout against the Phillies in Game 5 of the World Series.

Meanwhile, every Orioles fan knows Rick Dempsey as the guy has been heavily involved with the organization forever, appearing on TV for years. While Dempsey was never much of a hitter (he had a career batting average of .233), he was phenomenal defensively and never got hurt.

Where Dempsey most contributed was in the 1983 World Series, where he batted .385 with a .923 slugging percentage and won World Series MVP, one of only six catchers to ever win the award.

And while Tippy Martinez may be best known for picking off three players in one inning, he played for the Orioles for 10 years and had a nice career as a reliever. He, along with Dempsey and McGregor, was another leader on the ‘83 World Series team.

4. Orioles acquire Ken Singleton and Mike Torrez from the Expos for Dave McNally, Rich Coggins, and Bill Kirkpatrick

In December 1974, the Orioles acquired Ken Singleton from the Expos, and it worked out beautifully for the Orioles.

Singleton came into Baltimore and put up two solid seasons before really breaking out in 1977 with a .328/.438/.507 season with 24 home runs, 90 runs, and 99 RBI. After that, Singleton was rock solid year to year, putting up his best season in 1979 when he slashed .295/.405/.533 with 35 home runs, 93 runs, and 111 RBI, finishing second to Don Baylor in the AL MVP voting.

Singleton was a three-time All-Star once joining the Orioles, won a World Series with the team in 1983, and was a Roberto Clemente Award winner in 1982.

While Singleton is the obvious get of the trade, let’s not forget Mike Torrez who won 20 games for the Orioles in 1975, his only year with the team, in 270.2 innings while posting a 3.06 ERA and 119 strikeouts before he was shipped off to Oakland alongside Don Baylor and Paul Mitchell for Orioles legend Reggie Jackson (and also Ken Holtzman and Bill Van Bommel).

3. Orioles acquire Mike Cuellar, Elijah Johnson, and Enzo Hernandez from the Astros for Curt Blefary and John Mason

In 1968, the Astros and the Orioles made a six-player trade in which nearly all the players ended up not amounting to a ton, with one major exception — Mike Cuellar.

Cuellar had pitched well as a member of the Astros, but when he came to the Orioles, he kicked it up a notch, and has gone down as one of the best pitchers in Orioles history (and one of the more underappreciated). 

The first season Cuellar pitched for the Orioles was one of the greatest pitching seasons in Orioles history, in which Cuellar pitched to a 2.38 ERA (worth noting, the league average ERA that year was 3.61) and went 23-11. That season won him a Cy Young (actually, he tied with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain for the Cy Young, the last pitcher to ever tie for the award).

Between 1969 and 1974, Cuellar won 20+ games four separate times and pitched over 290 innings three times. He was a four-time All-Star, was key in the Orioles’ 1970 World Series win, and led the majors in wins in 1970 with 24.

Also, fun fact, Cuellar is, as of now, the only pitcher to hit a grand slam in a league championship series, which he did in the 1970 ALCS.

2. Orioles acquire Adam Jones, Chris Tillman, George Sherrill, Kam Mickolio, and Tony Butler from the Mariners for Erik Bedard

In 2007, Erik Bedard had one of the better seasons we’ve seen from an Orioles pitcher, posting a 3.16 ERA and setting an Orioles record for strikeouts in a season with 221. The Orioles then cashed that in in a big way by getting five players from the Mariners in exchange for Bedard.

While Mickolio and Butler never amounted to much, Jones, Tillman, and even Sherrill, to an extent, became valuable contributors to the Orioles. Bedard, meanwhile, struggled mightily with injuries and was never able to really repeat his 2007 season.

Jones ended his career as a five-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner, and a Silver Slugger winner, while Tillman ended up being a fairly solid starter for the Orioles, even earning an All-Star nod in 2013.

And Sherrill certainly had his moments, snagging 31 saves for the Orioles as their main closer in the 2008 season, though those 31 saves also came with a 4.73 ERA and a 13.8% walk rate.

1. Orioles acquire Frank Robinson from the Reds for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson

In what has gone down as one of the most lopsided trades in history, the Reds traded eventual Hall of Famer Frank Robinson to the Orioles for three players who didn’t amount to all that much.

Pappas had a really good season in 1965 when he was traded, pitching to a 2.60 ERA in 221.1 innings, but he never really replicated that again, spending only two more seasons with the Reds and throwing a 4.29 ERA in his first season and a 3.35 ERA in his next.

Listing the accomplishments of Frank Robinson could take forever, but to sum up the career of one of the greatest players in the history of baseball: Robinson was a 14-time All-Star, two-time World Series winner, two-time MVP, World Series MVP, Triple Crown winner, NL Rookie of the Year, and a Gold Glove winner.

He finished his career as a member of the 500 home run club with a career .294 batting average and just under 100 hits shy of 3,000 total. In fact, in his first season with the Orioles, Robinson demolished the ball, slashing .316/.410/.637 with 49 home runs on his way to his second MVP.

To say that this trade was lopsided is understating it a little bit. The Orioles got one of the greatest players in the history of baseball, and the Reds got three players who didn’t amount to all that much, making this easily the greatest trade in Orioles history.

The post The 5 Best Trades in Orioles History appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

For a team that’s been around as long as the Orioles with three World Series titles and long (very long) stretches of irrelevance, the Orioles have had plenty of pivotal moments that feel like they could’ve changed things, whether that’s a trade, a call, or a philosophical blindspot.

So here, I’m going to take a look (and relive the pain, in some instances) of five of the biggest “what ifs” in Orioles history.

What if the Orioles had kept Schilling and Finley?

In the early 90s, the Orioles quietly developed a pretty impressive collection of talent. Mike Mussina emerged as a bona fide ace while Curt Schilling was acquired from the Red Sox alongside Brady Anderson for Mike Boddicker, and Steve Finley was drafted in the 13th round of the 1987 MLB Draft.

But by the time the Orioles had hit their competitive peak in 1996 and 1997, Schilling and Finley were long gone, having been dealt alongside Pete Harnisch to the Houston Astros for Glenn Davis in 1991

But what if the Orioles hadn’t made that deal and kept Schilling and Finley?

The implications are obviously huge. We all know the career Curt Schilling ended up having (personal stuff about him aside). He put up Hall of Fame-caliber numbers, getting six All-Star nods, three World Series, a World Series MVP, an NLCS MVP, leading the Majors in wins twice, and leading the National League in strikeouts twice, on his way to a career 3.46 ERA and 3,116 career strikeouts.

And while Finley wasn’t necessarily a Hall of Famer, he was a two-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glover, finishing his career with a .271/.332/.442 line. In 1996, Finley slashed .298/.354/.531 with 30 home runs, 126 runs, 95 RBI, and 22 steals. Imagine that on an Orioles team that made it all the way to the ALCS that year.

What if Jeffrey Maier never reached over the wall?

Speaking of the 1996 season, this is a moment that’s going to trigger a lot of Orioles fans of a certain age—Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS in which Derek Jeter’s fly all drifted toward the glove of Tony Tarasco when 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall and deflected it into the seats. 

The play was called a home run, the Yankees tied the game, won in extra innings, and ultimately took the series in five games.

What if that play had been ruled fan interference, or Tarasco had caught it?

Before you start getting angry at me, I’m not suggesting Jeffrey Maier alone lost the Orioles the ALCS in 1996. Of course not. But it was a major factor in Game 1, and the Orioles not only had home-field advantage but arguably the better roster of the two teams.

Winning Game 1 changes the tenor of the entire series. A Baltimore pennant, or even a World Series title in the late-90s would fundamentally alter how that team, and that era, is remembered. Instead, it’s the start of the Yankees’ late-90s dynasty.

What if the Orioles had re-signed Mike Mussina?

After the 2000 season, the Orioles were at a crossroads. Mike Mussina, the homegrown ace, and face of the franchise (and future Hall of Famer) was a free agent. 

Ultimately, Mussina signed a six-year, $88.5 million contract with the Yankees, an offer the Orioles declined to match. Eventually, Mussina was a post-season fixture with the Yankees while the Orioles entered one of the longest downward spirals in modern baseball.

The “what if” here isn’t that Mussina alone would have saved the franchise. Rather, it’s what his departure represented.

Keeping Mussina would’ve signaled that the Orioles remained a serious, competitive organization capable of retaining elite talent. Instead, losing him to a division rival (especially to the Yankees) damaged the Orioles’ credibility with players, agents, and fans, and marked a psychological breaking point—one from which the Orioles arguably didn’t recover until over a decade later.

What if Zack Britton pitches in the 2016 Wild Card game?

The 2016 Orioles were largely built around a dominant bullpen, headlined by Zack (at the time, Zach) Britton’s incredible season that saw him pitch to a 0.54 ERA with 47 saves in 67 innings pitched.

Yet in the AL Wild Card game against the Blue Jays, Britton never left the bullpen as the game went to extra innings. Instead, Ubaldo Jimenez, who had been exceptionally inconsistent that year, came into the game in the 11th inning and allowed a walk-off home run to Edwin Encarnacion.

But what if Buck Showalter had used the best reliever in all of baseball, who had one of the best seasons in the history of relievers, in the highest-leverage moment of the season?

One inning could’ve changed everything. A win sends the Orioles to the ALDS with momentum, depth, and legitimate upset potential. Instead, the loss became one of the defining moments of the Buck Showalter era, one of the most second-guessed managerial decisions in the postseason in a long time, and effectively marked the end of the Orioles’ mid-2010s contention window.

What if the Orioles had embraced analytics earlier?

Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, the Orioles consistently lagged behind their rivals in adopting modern analytical approaches. This wasn’t some big secret, it was something former Orioles mentioned after they left the team, including Jake Arrieta who ended up winning a Cy Young after leaving Baltimore.

While teams like the Rays and the Red Sox exploited inefficiencies in player evaluation and roster construction, the Orioles relied on outdated models, which led to inefficient spending and fragile roster depth.

So what if the Orioles had modernized a decade sooner than they actually did once Mike Elias came to town?

An analytically aligned front office might have extended the Orioles’ mid-2010s competitive window, better supported Manny Machado’s prime, and avoided the catastrophic collapse that necessitated tearing the team down to the studs in 2018.

The Orioles’ success in recent years underscores how costly that delay was. Baltimore didn’t lack resources, it lacked alignment.

The post The 5 Biggest ‘What Ifs’ in Orioles History appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Alonso will arrive in Baltimore fresh off a resurgent 2025 campaign with the New York Mets in which he slashed .272/.347/.524 with 38 home runs, 126 RBI, and an .871 OPS, the best mark since his rookie season.

Throughout his entire career, Alonso has shown elite power. Just take a look at his Statcast page and you’re going to see nothing but red, last year posting an 18.9% barrel rate (good for 98th percentile in the league), a 54.4% hard-hit rate (96th percentile), and a 93.5 MPH average exit velocity (97th percentile).

This sort of right-handed pop, alongside recent acquisition Taylor Ward who hit 36 home runs last year with a 13.7% barrel rate (84th percentile), helps boost the Orioles lineup into something really special, especially considering the fact that moving the left field wall back in before last season turned Camden Yards into a much more right-handed-power-friendly ballpark.

With the Alonso signing alongside the signing of closer Ryan Helsley and the trade for Ward, the Orioles’ front office has signaled they’re not planning on treading water in 2026—they’re planning to compete (perhaps…it’s liftoff from here?).

Now, Alonso’s presence in the lineup does complicate the path to regular playing time for a few existing first-base or DH candidates—namely Ryan Mountcastle and Coby Mayo, who at this point, are likely going to be trade bait for a quality starting pitcher.

But from a broader perspective, the signing of Alonso means the Orioles now have one of the most formidable offenses in baseball, especially if their young core of Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser, Samuel Basallo, and Jordan Westburg all perform.

However, that’s not to say Alonso’s signing doesn’t carry any risk. Alonso is 31 years old with limited defensive value and is virtually a non-factor on the basepaths (though the latter doesn’t really matter all that much to me, personally). His bat has been constant, as has his ability to stay healthy, but over the course of a five-year deal, wear and tear can catch up.

But the upside of Pete Alonso at his best is very much worth it, and assuming he continues to be a guy who can play upwards of 150 games a year, as he was with the Mets, this deal could be huge.

Perhaps most importantly though, this deal signals a philosophical shift for the Orioles. In the past, this has been a club built largely through internal development and short-term deals, but now, this signing signals the team is willing to attach major financial weight to a high-profile free agent.

And it seems the Orioles aren’t done either, as there have been multiple reports the Orioles are still chasing a front-line starter or other further pitching reinforcements.

Bringing in Alonso is a bet for the Orioles—that their young core will take the next step and that their lineup can translate potential into production. It’s also a signal that this team is aiming at contention and not an eternal rebuild.

If Alonso remains healthy and keeps doing what he’s been doing, this signing could go down as one of the best moves of the winter, and potentially even in Orioles history.

The post What Pete Alonso’s signing means for the Orioles appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Sure, Norby and Stowers were sort of “extra” prospects that didn’t have an everyday spot to play in on the Major League team, Rogers wasn’t exactly someone it seemed like would help the team reach the World Series (which, you know, ostensibly the team wants to do).

Sure, Rogers was a pretty incredible pitcher in 2021 when he posted a 2.64 ERA over 25 starts but since then, he’d been unable to recapture that magic, putting up not mediocre seasons but pretty objectively bad ones.

And last year really seemed to solidify those concerns. Over 25 starts last year, Rogers posted a 4.92 ERA with a 1.58 WHIP, 17.3% strikeout rate, and 10% walk rate. Only four of those starts were with the Orioles before he was bounced down to the minors. By the end of the year, and even more so at the start of this year when Rogers landed on the IL while Kyle Stowers started lighting things up at the plate, this seemed like a failure of a trade.

Cut to now and Rogers has quietly turned in a pretty incredible season so far (or maybe not so quietly as Orioles fans are well aware of what he’s been doing). On the season so far, Rogers owns a 1.44 ERA with a 0.83 WHIP, 22.8% strikeout rate, and 6.3% walk rate. Even the analytics suggest there’s some legitimacy to this, as he also has a 2.54 xERA and a 2.56 FIP.

So what changed?

Taking a dive into the data, there seems to be two main things that are contributing to Rogers’ success so far—tweaking his repertoire and improved control.

The latter is pretty quick and easy to see. As I mentioned earlier, his walk rate is sitting at 6.3% so far this year which is a career-best and significantly better than the 10% walk rate he posted last year.

And you can see it with his repertoire—he’s locating his fastball in the strike zone 64.8% of the time, good for the 99th percentile among fastballs in the league and again, a career-best (last year, his zone rate on his fastball was 49.6%).

Same with the changeup, which is sporting a 45.8% zone rate, good for 90th percentile in the league among changeups and an improvement over his 34.1% zone rate from last year.

So now the repertoire. There are a couple of key differences here, chief among them is Rogers’ improved fastball velocity. Last year, Rogers’ fastball was sitting around 91.8 MPH on average. This year, it’s sitting at 93.2. Now, that’s not the 94.6 it averaged back in 2021 and 2022, but an improvement is an improvement.

The fastball itself is a perfectly fine pitch. It’s nothing incredible but comes in with average extension and velocity and works just fine. It’s the rest of his repertoire that’s working really well alongside it.

Rogers has a fairly distinct approach to righties compared to lefties. He mainly works with his fastball (which he locates up in the zone) and changeup when facing right-handed hitters. The changeup works beautifully, located almost exclusively low in the zone (as it should be) and inducing a good number of chases (a 36.3% chase rate, which is solid) and loads of weak contact with a 68.6% groundball rate.

Against lefties, Rogers doesn’t utilize the changeup much at all but instead goes for more of a fastball/sinker approach alongside his slider and his new sweeper.

This isn’t working as well, and it’s probably the main area of concern for Rogers. His fastball is fine and against righties it, combined with his changeup, is working great. But the slider isn’t working as the putaway pitch to lefties that it should be, nor is the sweeper.

Like I said, if there’s any area of concern for Rogers, it’s his mediocre breaking pitches, but as long as he keeps his fastballs floating around 94 MPH up high and keeps consistently locating his changeup down low to righties, I think he can generally overcome his mediocre breaking pitches when facing lefties.

It’s been an incredible thing to watch so far this year, and I’m really hopeful that Rogers can keep this up. I obviously don’t think he’s suddenly a Cy Young, sub-2.00 ERA type of guy, but I don’t think there’s any reason he can’t keep up some version of the success he’s had so far this year going forward.

The post What’s Behind Trevor Rogers Success? appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Some of those trades are likely to especially hit home for Orioles fans. While expected, losing guys like Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn, and Ramon Urias is tough as many have really grown to love these players (I know I have).

But now that the deadline is over, let’s take a look at the prospects the Orioles acquired through their various trades. In total, we’re looking at 16 new additions to the Orioles’ farm system, so here I’m going to provide you with a few quick sentences on each player so you can get to know them.

Let’s dive in.

Wellington Aracena, RHP

Aracena came over from the Mets in the trade that sent Gregory Soto to New York. Aracena is 20 years old and has looked pretty darn good so far at Single-A, pitching to a 2.38 ERA over 64.1 innings with 84 strikeouts and a 1.13 WHIP.

And even better, he started for the Delmarva Shorebirds just yesterday and pitched 4.2 shutout innings with six strikeouts and one walk. Not a bad way to kick off his Orioles career.

Aracena has a strong fastball that sits around 96 to 99 MPH but has gotten as high as 101 that he pairs with a sharp cutter that floats around 92 to 94 MPH and has more than six inches of gloveside movement. He’s also got an upper-80s slider and mid-80s curveball in his repertoire.

Aracena’s problem has been walks—he posted an awful 20.2% walk rate last year but has fortunately brought that down to 12.8% so far this year.

Cameron Foster, RHP

Foster also came over in the Gregory Soto deal and while he isn’t the highlight of the deal (that’d be Aracena), he’s still an interesting guy.

Drafted in the 14th round of the 2022 MLB Draft, Foster is 26 years old and has mostly spent time in Double-A this year, coming up to Triple-A somewhat recently. So far this year, Foster owns a 2.84 ERA with a 31% strikeout rate and a 7.1% walk rate through 31.2 innings, mostly out of the bullpen (he’s got one start on the year).

Foster’s repertoire includes a slightly above-average fastball that sits around 96 MPH on average with a cutter that sits around 89 MPH, an 83 MPH slider, and an 81 MPH curveball.

Foster mainly goes with a fastball/cutter combo (almost 75% of his pitches are fastballs or cutters) but the slider and curve do work in occasionally, despite being fairly average pitches.

Juaron Watts-Brown, RHP

Watts-Brown came over in the trade that sent Seranthony Dominguez to the Blue Jays in between a doubleheader and looks to be a pretty interesting pitcher.

The 23-year-old was drafted by the Blue Jays in the third round of the 2023 MLB Draft and so far has posted a 3.54 ERA with a 30.5% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate through 89 innings and 19 starts.

Watts-Brown has an okay fastball that sits in the low 90s, but that’s not his main pitch. That’d be his slider, which sits in the low 80s and serves as a solid above-average pitch paired with a decent upper-70s curveball.

In case you didn’t notice with his walk rate, walks have been an issue, but hopefully that’ll come down, especially if he’s going to stay a starter.

Twine Palmer, RHP

Another pitcher who could end up a starter or reliever, Twine Palmer came over from the Astros in the Ramon Urias trade and has looked decent so far a Single-A.

So far this year, the 20-year-old has pitched to a 2.13 ERA with a 25.1% strikeout rate and a 12.6% walk rate over 42.1 innings and eight starts.

Palmer’s a fairly big guy at 6’5″ and comes with a solid repertoire, including a low-90s fastball that plays up a bit thanks to its movement and extension. Palmer’s primary breaking pitch is a slider with solid movement and he mixes in a cutter, curveball, and changeup as well.

Palmer’s strikeout rate isn’t the greatest but his groundball rate is pretty impressive at almost 55% so far this year. Also worth noting, the guy hasn’t allowed a home run yet. Most likely, Palmer ends up a reliever.

Wilfri De La Cruz, SS

De La Cruz came over in the trade that sent Andrew Kittredge to the Cubs and comes to the Orioles as all potential given he’s 17 years old and just signed with the Cubs during the international signing period in January.

De La Cruz is a switch hitter with a solid approach mainly focused on line-drives than home runs. So far this year in Rookie ball, he’s posted a .262/.442/.417 line without a home run yet, but the fact he’s posted a 23% walk rate (in just 27 games obviously) is encouraging.

De La Cruz is athletic, he’s a decent runner, and he’s projectable. It’s hard to say what a 17-year-old prospect will turn into, but the potential is there.

Raimon Gomez, RHP

Gomez was one of the players that came over from the Mets in the Cedric Mullins trade and if there’s one thing that’s Gomez’s calling card, it’s his incredible fastball.

Back in April, Gomez recorded the fastest pitch that’s been tracked in the minor leagues since ABS tracking came around in 2021 with a 104.5 MPH fastball. Not only that, Gomez’s fastball sits 100 MPH on average. That’s…insane. He’s also got an above-average slider that sits around 90 MPH.

Problem is (tell me you saw this coming), Gomez has no idea where his pitches are going, and that’s been an issue.

So far this year, mostly out of the bullpen, Gomez has posted a 4.63 ERA with a 30.4% strikeout rate and a 15.8% walk rate over 35 innings.

We’ll see if he can rein in his control, but clearly the fastball is a marvel to behold.

Anthony Nunez, RHP

Another piece of the Mullins trade, Nunez was initially drafted as a high school shortstop before being released and going to college at the University of Tampa. The Mets signed him as a free agent last year and Nunez has looked good as a pitcher so far.

Nunez owns a fastball that can touch 96 MPH alongside a low-90s cutter, a sweeper that sits around 86 MPH, and a mid-80s changeup. The slider/changeup/cutter combo is really where Nunez shines and has so far posted a 1.58 ERA with 60 strikeouts and 17 walks over 40 innings, all out of the bullpen.

Nunez looks to be a bullpen arm, but the 24-year-old looks like he has some potential to be a pretty solid bullpen arm.

Chandler Marsh, RHP

It’s another pitcher and more specifically, another bullpen arm that the Orioles acquired in the Cedric Mullins trade.

Marsh is 22 years old and has to this point exclusively worked out of the bullpen to pretty good results, posting a 2.57 ERA with a 31.3% strikeout rate and a 10.2% walk rate over 42 innings.

Marsh owns a solid fastball/slider combo, with the former sitting 94 to 96 and the latter coming in with some solid, sharp break to it. He’s also got a changeup and curveball he uses occasionally, but those aren’t his main pitches.

Given the two-pitch approach, it’s likely Marsh stays as a bullpen arm, and hopefully the success continues.

Boston Bateman, LHP

Bateman is the highlight of the deal that sent Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano to the Padres and looks like a pretty interesting prospect.

Coming in at 6’8″ and 240 pounds at just 19 years old, Bateman looks like he’s got plenty of potential. He owns a fastball that can hit 97 MPH but typically sits around 91 to 93, which he pairs with a slider and a curveball (though he throws the former more than the latter).

Bateman was drafted in the second round by the Padres in 2024 and has turned in mixed results so far in Single-A, posting a 4.08 ERA with a 25.8% strikeout rate and an 8.6% walk rate over 68.1 innings.

Again, he’s only 19 so this is all about future potential, and certainly there’s plenty there for Bateman.

Brandon Butterworth, 2B/SS

One of the few position players the Orioles acquired this trade deadline, Butterworth is a 22-year-old middle infielder who’s got good speed and has looked pretty solid at High-A so far.

In 89 games, Butterworth has posted a .267/.327/.455 line with 11 home runs and 13 stolen bases.

Coming to the Padres via the 12th round of the draft last year, Butterworth has generally been known more for his speed and fielding than his bat, but hopefully the success at High-A so far is a sign of things to come.

Cobb Hightower, SS/2B

Another middle infielder acquired from the Padres, Hightower was drafted in the third round last year and has looked better lately at Single-A.

Hightower is just 20 years old and looks to be a guy who could be a solid bat in the future. So far this year, he’s only posted a .239/.363/.314 line with one home run and seven stolen bases, but has looked better in July.

Again, it’s hard to sit there and project a player so young, but Hightower has some raw talent, and the fact he’s posted a 14.7% walk rate with just a 16.3% strikeout rate so far in Single-A is encouraging. The guy also ran a 6.6 in the 60-yard dash, so the speed is there too.

Victor Figueroa, 1B

Figueroa was drafted in the 18th round of the 2024 draft and has been lighting up the lower-levels of the minors so far to the rune of a .318/.420/.588 line with 12 home runs and five stolen bases over 64 games.

Figueroa came out of Mississippi Valley State and later Florida Southwestern State where he won the FCSAA Triple Crown posting a .421 average with 17 home runs and 79 RBI. He’s got solid bat speed and plate discipline, though he’s had some trouble with off-speed pitches.

Still, the guy’s posted great numbers so far, so we’ll see what happens as he climbs the minors.

Tyson Neighbors, RHP

A fourth-round pick in the 2024 draft, Neighbors struck out 86 batters in 48.2 innings as a sophomore at Kansas State and became a name to know.

Neighbors has pitched out of the bullpen so far this year with great success, posting a 1.85 ERA with a 37.6% strikeout rate and a 10.6% walk rate over 43.2 innings between High- and Double-A.

Neighbors has a fastball that floats around 95 MPH on average and can hit 98 with great induced vertical break. He pairs that with a solid mid-80s slider with lots of potential and a low-80s curveball alongside the occasional 90 MPH cutter.

Neighbors looks to be a bullpen arm but he looks like a bullpen arm with serious potential.

Tanner Smith, RHP

A 15th-round pick out of Harvard in 2024, Tanner Smith is another (mostly) bullpen arm who’s looked solid so far.

To this point in the minors, Smith has posted a 3.46 ERA with a 28.1% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate thought 26 innings. He’s the least-heralded of the prospects coming in the O’Hearn/Laureano deal and had some struggles in college, but we’ll see what eventually happens with a 22-year-old.

Micah Ashman, LHP

Ashman came over in the trade that sent Charlie Morton to the Tigers and is another big dude, coming in at 6’7″, though just 195 pounds.

Ashman came out of the University of Utah in the 11th round of last year’s draft and has so far looked great out of the bullpen between High-A and Double-A, posting a 1.49 ERA with a 31.1% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate through 42.1 innings.

Ashman has a fastball that sits around 90 to 92 MPH but is helped by his height alongside a solid slider with sharp, late break that has plenty of swing-and-miss potential. He’s also got a changeup that he tosses in there occasionally, but that’s not his bread and butter (that’s the slider).

Ashman projects as a control-first reliever who could be a solid left-handed bullpen piece for the Orioles in the future.

Dietrich Enns, LHP

You’ll notice something different about Dietric Enns compared to the rest of the guys listed here—he’s uh…old. Specifically he’s 34 (I’m also 34 I’m not old so shut up).

Enns came over to the Orioles from the Tigers last minute at the deadline in exchange for cash considerations. Enns played in the KBO last year and the NPB the two years prior to mostly middling success.

He’s pitched 17.2 innings in the majors so far this year for the Tigers to a 5.60 ERA, but his minor league numbers in Triple-A have looked much better, to a 2.89 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate over 62.1 innings.

The Orioles got Enns for literally cash, so there isn’t much here compared to the others. He’s basically a warm body they can put in what is now a depleted bullpen.

The post Recapping The Orioles Trade Deadline Moves appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

But since then, the story has changed dramatically. Since May 1, Mullins has slashed a dismal .171/.206/.357 with six home runs, 14 runs, 15 RBI, and three stolen bases.

So what’s going on? Is this just a cold streak fueled by bad luck, or is there a deeper issue at play?

The truth, as is often the case in baseball, lies somewhere in the middle. Mullins’ struggles are partly the result of poor luck, but they also reflect a troubling change in his approach.

Let’s start with the latter. Mullins’ walk rate has cratered from an excellent16.8% in March and April to just 4.4% since May 1. At the same time, his strikeout rate has jumped from 21% to 29.2%. That’s a massive swing in plate discipline, and it’s backed up by the underlying metrics.

His chase rate—the percentage of pitches outside the strike zone that he swings at—has jumped from 22.3% to 31.4%. His swinging-strike rate has also seen an increase from 8.9% to 10.9%. These are clear signs that Mullins is pressing at the plate, expanding the zone, and failing to make consistent contact.

But not all of Mullins’ woes at the plate can be chalked up to poor decision-making—there’s been some pretty bad luck too.

His hard-hit rate, as measured by Statcast, has dipped slightly from 40.3% in March and April to 34.1% since May 1—a decline for sure, but not one that fully explains his drop in production. His groundball rate has only ticked up marginally, from 25.4% to 27.6%, which suggests he’s not rolling over pitches at an alarming rate.

Instead, Mullins is hitting more fly balls—and they’re not leaving the yard. His fly ball rate has increased while his home run-to-fly ball (HR/FB) rate has dropped, meaning more of the fly balls he’s hitting are dying in the outfield.

But where things get really wonky is his infield fly ball rate. In March and April, it sat at a manageable 7.9%, right around league average. But since May 1, it has skyrocketed to 22%, an unsustainable number and one that will almost certainly regress back to the mean.

Then there’s his BABIP. Mullins posted a .318 BABIP in the first two months of the season, which is right around league average, but since May 1, that number has plummeted to .190. That kind of drop is almost always a sign of bad luck, especially when not accompanied by a dramatic change in batted-ball profile.

So yes, Cedric Mullins has been in a deep slump, it’s been painful to watch, but there’s reason for optimism.

Even if he doesn’t fully correct his plate discipline issues, Mullins is unlikely to continue hitting this poorly. His BABIP and infield fly ball rate should regress toward the mean, and that should help lift his numbers back to a more respectable level.

The key, though, will be whether Mullins can pair that with a return to the patient, disciplined approach he showed early in the season. If he can stop chasing pitches out of the zone and start drawing walks again, he could recapture some of the magic from the beginning of the season.

The post What’s driving Cedric Mullins’ slump? appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

It was a bit of a head-scratching move in retrospect now, given the Orioles lost Corbin Burnes and never really replaced him with anyone of a similar caliber but instead opted for Charlie Morton’s ghost and Tomoyuki Sugano (who, admittedly, has looked pretty decent so far this year). 

But I don’t believe that even the most pessimistic Orioles fan could’ve predicted just how bad Charlie Morton would be this year. 

Granted, he’s only 33.2 innings and six starts into the year, but an 8.82 ERA and a 1.96 WHIP is certainly a sight to behold in any Major League starting rotation, let alone a rotation of a team that, at least supposedly, has World Series aspirations (or did before the season started). 

So what’s gone wrong with Charlie Morton? He hasn’t been this bad at basically any point in his career. Sure, he didn’t turn in the best season last year, but 165.1 innings with a 4.19 ERA is at least mediocre and not horrible. And even a year earlier, Morton posted a 3.64 ERA over 30 starts, so while he wasn’t his past, dominant self, he’s still shown he had life even as he hit 40. 

But as we dig into Morton’s repertoire, there are some clear indicators of what’s going wrong. So let’s take a look. 

Digging into Charlie Morton’s repertoire 

Right off the bat I want to say, Morton isn’t this bad. Some of this has been bad luck. He’s not an almost-9.00 ERA pitcher. But he’s also not the pitcher he used to be, not even the pitcher he was last year. 

Morton’s repertoire for a long time now has basically been “throw my curveball and pray everything else works out okay.” He’s generally gone with the “pitching backwards” approach of having his breaking ball as his most-thrown pitch rather than his fastball, and it’s often worked because his curveball has historically been one of the nastiest around. 

But that’s not happening this year. Morton’s been throwing his curveball 34% of the time which is the same usage percentage as his fastball. That’s the lowest usage percentage Morton has seen with his curveball in six years, typically he’s throwing it over 40% of the time. 

That wouldn’t necessarily be an issue if his fastball was any good, but it’s not. The pitch comes in around 94 MPH on average with extremely average extension and induced vertical break at a very average attack angle. Basically it could not be a more average, mediocre fastball from a pure stuff perspective. The velocity, the movement, the spin, the attack angle, none of it is especially effective or special. 

And what’s worse is, he has no command of the pitch at all. Typically you want to see a fastball located in the zone at least roughly 60% of the time, bare minimum at least 50% of the time. So far this year, Morton’s located his fastball within the strike zone 39.1% of the time compared to 51.4% last year. 

He’s also throwing the pitch high in the zone a bunch, 68.7% of the time this year compared to 47.6% last year. Now imagine with me if you will a fastball coming in with average velocity, a fairly standard attack angle, not a lot of extension, and not a lot of induced vertical break on it that’s located high in the zone nearly three-quarters of the time. That sounds like a pitch hitters would love to tee-off on assuming it even gets in the zone (which as we’ve established, more often than not it doesn’t). 

Unsurprisingly, given where the pitch is located, when hitters make contact with it, they’re hitting it for fly balls a lot—56% of the time to be exact (with a 28.6% HR/FB rate, so a lot of those are going out of the park), and they’re barreling it 16% of the time (which is bad). 

And no matter how good your curveball is, one pitch does not a pitcher make. It needs to play off of your other pitches. 

In the past, Morton hasn’t really had to locate his curveball in the zone a bunch, lots of pitchers do that because their breaking  ball will get chased outside the strike zone a lot. That’s also been the case for Morton—until now. 

Last year, Morton’s curveball sported a 37.9% chase rate. It was 39.2% the year before that and 38.5% the year before that. So far this year, it’s sporting a 28.1% chase rate which doesn’t go great with a career-low 34.3% zone rate. As a pitcher, you can get away with a zone rate that low on a breaking pitch if it’s getting chased a lot, but Morton’s curveball isn’t. Why would it? He can’t even locate fastballs in the zone—hitters know they can sit up there and either wait for a cookie over the heart of the plate or take a walk. 

So let’s review—so far this year, Charlie Morton’s problems have stemmed from the fact that he’s throwing an extremely mediocre fastball that he has no control over alongside a curveball that has lost its effectiveness in part because he also can’t control it but also because his fastball isn’t as effective as it used to be. 

And before you ask, yes, he has other pitches in his repertoire, though given his fastball and curveball comprise 68% of the pitches he throws, their effect is negligible. 

He has a changeup and cutter that he generally reserves as pitches to throw against lefties. The changeup is fairly effective against lefties though the cutter gets rocked more often than not.  

He also has a sinker that he throws almost exclusively to righties, but this is a situation where he doesn’t lack control, he lacks command. The sinker gets plenty of the strike zone, in fact it gets too much of the strike zone. Morton throws his sinker in the zone almost 60% of the time against righties and instead of locating it low and arm-side (which is ideal), he often locates it over the middle of the plate. And even worse, roughly 10% of the time he locates it literally middle-middle. 

Unsurprisingly, righties are sporting a .417 average and .481 wOBA against the pitch as a result with a ridiculous 50% HR/FB rate. 

Charlie Morton’s problems are mostly related to his lack of control on his main two pitches. His repertoire has basically fallen apart—the curveball isn’t as effective as it used to be, the fastball is bad, the sinker is terrible, the cutter is terrible, none of it is good news. 

Can he fix it? Honestly, I’m not sure that he can. He’d suddenly need to start locating his pitches better and that’s not exactly a thing you can just switch on overnight. Morton looks like a 41-year-old pitcher whose skills are rapidly declining and who probably should’ve retired last year. 

In short—it’s uhh…not looking good. 

The post What’s Going On With Charlie Morton? appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

First up, and most notably, we’ve got Grayson Rodriguez, who is currently dealing with right elbow inflammation. He received a cortisone shot and will be shut down for 7-10 days before he starts a throwing program, but regardless will be starting the season on the injured list.

And then we’ve got Andrew Kittredge, who recently underwent left knee debridement surgery and will also start the season on the IL.

This is tough news for Orioles’ fans to stomach right off the bat, especially Rodriguez’s injury, given the fact the Orioles didn’t do a whole lot to significantly improve their pitching rotation in light of Corbin Burnes’ (and to a lesser extent, John Means’) departure.

Given that, it was sort of expected that Rodriguez would take a step forward and potentially become the ace he certainly has the potential to be. Obviously Kyle Bradish does still exist, but he’s not going to be back right away (and who knows how he’ll look coming back from Tommy John surgery), and Tyler Wells is probably not coming back until around halfway through the season (and again, who knows how he’ll look).

Without Rodriguez, the Orioles’ rotation is going to probably look something like Zach Eflin/Charlie Morton/Dean Kremer/Tomoyuki Sugano/either Cade Povich or Albert Suarez, and frankly that’s not an especially encouraging rotation for a team that has World Series aspirations.

Povich has his moments but lacks a solid, consistent fastball to support his great curveball and struggles with his changeup, which if it worked well, would be a really solid weapon for him to throw to right-handed hitters.

Meanwhile, Sugano is obviously a big unknown, but a guy I expect to be an innings eater who isn’t going to wow you with strikeouts each game but should be able to limit walks and put the team in a decent position to win. And of course with Morton, who knows what we’re going to get given his age, but hopefully he can continue to ride the curveball to success.

It’s certainly a shaky rotation (I didn’t even mention Kremer, who Orioles fan know very well is inconsistent to say the least), and to have an injury to Kittredge, who was expected to be a fairly big piece of the bullpen, on top of everything really raises a massive question mark for the Orioles from a pitching perspective.

Now, obviously having Felix Bautista back and fairly healthy is a great boon for the bullpen, and eventually getting Bradish and Wells back will also be a big help. And it’s also quite possible that Rodriguez’s injury won’t be that severe and won’t keep him out for long, but elbow injuries are always nerve-wracking.

The range of outcomes for the Orioles’ rotation is all over the place. It could easily be a rock solid rotation and it could just as easily be an absolute nightmare for Orioles fans to watch day-to-day.

The reality is probably somewhere in between, and certainly getting Bradish and Wells back at some point (and hopefully Rodriguez) will help stabilize things, but that’s not likely to happen til around halfway through the season. I think the Orioles’ rotation will get there, but it’s likely to be a pretty bumpy ride.

The post The potential impact of the Orioles’ recent injuries appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

So far, the Orioles haven’t done much as far as pitching goes, but they did make an interesting move earlier this month, signing 35-year-old Japanese pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year, $13 million deal.

Sugano has spent his entire 12-year career with the Yomiuri Giants in the NPB over in Japan, and posted some pretty gaudy numbers last year, including a 1.67 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and a 2.6% walk rate over 156.2 innings. Now, he also only had 111 strikeouts, meaning he’s not a massive strikeout machine (which could hinder him in the majors) but rather a command and control kind of guy. He also comes with a kitchen sink style approach, throwing six different pitches, including a pretty nasty-looking splitter. 

Now, obviously NPB stats don’t necessarily predict how a guy is going to pitch in the U.S., but the fact that Sugano posted such ridiculous numbers last year is at least encouraging, even if he does regress.

Regardless, the Orioles’ rotation needs help, and Sugano looks at least more interesting than Trevor Rogers or Albert Suárez.

If the season started today, the Orioles’ rotation would likely look like this: Zach Eflin/Grayson Rodriguez/Dean Kremer/Tomoyuki Sugano/either Trevor Rogers or Albert Suárez.

Even with Bradish likely coming back midseason (and potentially Wells at some point), that’s still not the rotation you want to have if you’re a team with World Series aspirations. So after the Sugano signing, who’s left for the Orioles in free agency?

We’ve seen just about all of the big aces get signed, but obviously the big elephant in the free agency room is Corbin Burnes. The latest reports suggest Burnes is seeking a deal in the $245 million range, which if the Orioles committed to that, would be the biggest contract in team history by nearly $100 million.

Given recent reports and the fact the Orioles and Mike Elias in general have been reticent to sign players to very large, long contracts, it’s not seeming likely that Burnes is going to end up in Baltimore. So after him, who else is there?

It’s important to note before diving into some of these players that obviously the Orioles could make a trade (for say, Dylan Cease or Ranger Suárez for example) that could fill the hole Burnes left, and if I had to make a guess, I’d say they’re more likely to do that than anything. However, let’s take a look at a few of the remaining pitchers out there in free agency:

• Jack Flaherty: It’s deja vu all over again, perhaps Jack Flaherty ends up back in Baltimore? As far as seasons to have before you become a free agency, Flaherty couldn’t have asked for better, posting a 3.17 ERA with a 29.9% strikeout rate and a 1.07 WHIP over 162 innings. It’s worth noting that Flaherty’s time with the Tigers was notably better than his time with the Dodgers, posting a 2.95 ERA with a 3.12 FIP with the Tigers and a 3.58 ERA with a 4.16 FIP with the Dodgers. In L.A., Flaherty’s slider got notably worse and he wasn’t quite the same pitcher he was in Detroit, and that would make me nervous giving him a deal around the five-year, $115 million MLB Trade Rumors projects him to get.

• Justin Verlander: We all wondered how long it would take for Father Time to catch up to Justin Verlander and it feels like it has. Last year, amid injuries, Verlander pitched to a 5.48 ERA with a 1.38 WHIP and an 18.7% strikeout rate. Also notably, Verlander saw his fastball velocity drop and had an 11.5% on his slider, which normally sits around 20% or higher. It’s entirely possible Verlander could turn things around, if anyone can he can, but it feels like this is the beginning of the end of his career.

• Max Scherzer: Speaking of old guys who are probably bound for the Hall of Fame, Max Scherzer turned in a better year than Verlander did, posting a 3.95 ERA with a 1.15 WHIP and a 22.6% strikeout rate over 43.1 innings. Assuming Scherzer’s slider still keeps working the way it has been (a 36.7% CSW last year is ridiculous), he should at least be somewhat productive. Obviously also an injury risk too.

• Andrew Heaney: Whatever upside Andrew Heaney used to have has sort of faded, making him more of a decent four or five guy if you want a lefty in the rotation. A 4.28 ERA last year with a 1.25 WHIP and 22.9% strikeout rate is pretty whatever, and while there were some starts where Heaney did a good job locating his fastballs up high and his breakers down low, it didn’t happen consistently throughout the season. Could the Orioles help him make a tweak to be more consistent start-to-start? Sure, but the Orioles also don’t need another project.

• Nick Pivetta: Nick Pivetta’s season last year was a rollercoaster of great starts (6 IP, 2 ER, 10 K against the Blue Jays in August) and awful starts (5 IP, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K against the Astros the start before that). He could be an interesting guy if he could consistently make his fastball/sweeper/cutter combo work, and maybe the Orioles could help him do that (and help him stop giving up as many home runs as he often does). It’s also possible Pivetta accepts the qualifying offer from the Red Sox and chooses to wait another year for free agency, so we’ll see what happens. (EDIT: Pivetta did decline the qualifier.)

• Jose Quintana: Speaking of pitchers who have trouble with consistency – Jose Quintana posted some pretty decent season-long numbers last year with a 3.75 ERA over 170.1 innings, but that also came with a mediocre 1.25 WHIP and a miserable 18.8% strikeout rate. When Quintana can locate his changeups and curveballs down in the zone consistently while locating his fastballs up and sinkers arm-side, he can look pretty darn good, but he definitely does not do that consistently.

• Spencer Turnbull: He’s another project pitcher, but one the Orioles could probably sign for pretty cheap and one that has shown plenty of flashes in the past. Turnbull found his groove in Philly for a good handful of starts and then the Phillies decided “hey Taijuan Walker looks cool, let’s start him instead” for whatever reason. Then, Turnbull got hurt and that was kind of that. Turnbull has battled injuries over the years but when he’s been healthy, he’s shown lots of potential. Obviously Turnbull isn’t even remotely close to the answer for the Orioles’ rotation, but if they did sign him, to me he’s definitely more interesting than someone like Trevor Rogers.

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