With Orioles’ injuries, starting pitching will be a need, not a luxury, at trade deadline | ANALYSIS
With the trade deadline just under two months away, Orioles GM Mike Elias must now add starting pitching to the top of his shopping list.
Tyler Wells threw his last pitch April 12. John Means threw his May 22. Neither of them will throw another this season after the Orioles announced Friday that both will undergo elbow surgery in the next few weeks.
Baltimore hasn’t seen much of either pitcher this year — Means and Wells combined for only seven starts — but the shocking loss of both at the same time changes the complexion of the Orioles’ rotation moving forward. With the trade deadline just under two months away, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias must now add starting pitching to the top of his shopping list for late July.
“That’s something that’s just such a continuous monitoring situation and everything, as I said before, is always developing this time of year,” Elias said of the trade market Thursday. “So, we’re in contact with other teams, clearly, and monitoring what’s going on with the standings in the rest of the league. … These injuries are significant developments, obviously. But it’s not something that I think we need to address today to get another starting pitcher in the organization.”
Depth, so far, hasn’t been an issue. Cole Irvin has been superb in the back end of the rotation and Albert Suárez, who started Friday night with Dean Kremer (triceps strain) on the injured list, has emerged as a surprise contributor. The Orioles are also bullish on top pitching prospects Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott, both of whom have impressed at Triple-A Norfolk this season. It’s understandable why Elias is in no rush to pick up the phone and call the Miami Marlins’ Peter Bendix about Jesús Luzardo.
“They’ve done a great job so far this year,” manager Brandon Hyde said of the rotation. “We’re going to have more injuries. So, this is just part of it and our guys have done a great job stepping in for guys that have been down and I see that same way going forward.”
The problem is not what the Orioles’ rotation looks like June 1. It’s about what it will look like Oct. 1, when every start is magnified on the postseason stage. Right now, their playoff rotation would consist of Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez and either Irvin or Kremer. That’s an excellent group that would rival any quartet they face in October. However, should an injury strike one of their top three arms, two of whom have already spent time on the IL this season, the Orioles’ rotation would lack the same punch.
“Overall, I think it’s a positive situation for us,” Elias said of their starting pitching corps. “But as we just saw, you always got to be paranoid about injuries when we’re talking about pitching and what I just described, unfortunately, it could change really quickly if we get some bad luck. So, we’ll keep scouring, we’ll keep trying to develop the guys we have in house.”
Had the diagnosis for either Means or Wells left open the possibility of them pitching again this season, the Orioles could have justified focusing most or all their resources upgrading other areas of the roster. But now the only healthy starting pitcher on their 40-man outside of their five current starters is prospect Seth Johnson, who is pitching for Double-A Bowie. Though Kremer and Triple-A Norfolk left-hander Bruce Zimmermann (hamstring) aren’t expected to be out long, the Orioles’ starting options have quickly dwindled.
Povich, and perhaps McDermott, should get a shot to prove themselves at the major league level this season. Yet given they’re players who have never appeared in an MLB game, the Orioles can’t count on consistent production from either down the stretch. Any value they provide should be considered a bonus for a club with serious World Series aspirations, especially one with a farm stocked deep enough to make blockbuster trades — and a payroll low enough to afford them.
“Cade is definitely a guy who’s on the tip of our tongues right now,” Elias said. “We are watching every little thing he does and as we enter this stretch now, with all of these games coming up, with no off days, we’ve had internal dialogue about six-man [rotations] for stretches and things like that and he’s put himself in position for that type of consideration and it’s something that’s become kind of a daily conversation for us.”
For the Orioles to put themselves in the best position to make a deep postseason run, they will need another starting pitcher to the mix. The trade market has yet to establish very many clear buyers and sellers; 25 teams entered play Friday within 6 1/2 games of a playoff spot. But there are a few names from the remaining five clubs who could be of interest to the Orioles, such as Luzardo (2-2, 4.18 ERA), the Chicago White Sox’s Erick Fedde (4-1, 2.80) and the Los Angeles Angels’ Tyler Anderson (5-5, 2.47). Luis Severino (2-2, 3.22) could join them on the block if the New York Mets continue to spiral.
Elias doesn’t want to make a panic move for a starter, and it’s hard to blame him with the rotation pitching as well as it has even without Means and Wells. When the July 31 trade deadline approaches, however, fortifying the rotation should be among the Orioles’ top priorities.
“Knock on wood, I still feel pretty good about the starting pitching options that we have at the moment,” Elias said, “but we’ll obviously monitor things and continue to see what happens both internally and externally over the next couple of months before closing the book on our starting situation.”