Orioles executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette said today that the club is once again looking to add arms at the deadline, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports (Twitter links). “Our pitching we’re looking to upgrade for sure,” said Duquette. He indicated that the club could be looking to improve both its rotation and its pen.
Baltimore paid a big price last year to acquire ace reliever Andrew Miller. The southpaw helped charge the team’s late-season success, but left promising young starter Eduardo Rodriguez playing elsewhere in the division. Baltimore has also dealt for pitchers like Scott Feldman and Bud Norris in recent years, evidencing the front office’s willingness to add arms over the summer.
The Orioles have received good results from starters such as Ubaldo Jimenez, Wei-Yin Chen, and Miguel Gonzalez, though the latter two especially have outperformed their peripherals by a wide margin. And while young hurler Kevin Gausman is now slotting in at the back end, the aforementioned Norris and Chris Tillman have both struggled to provide good innings. All said, there’s definitely room for improvement in the rotation.
It’s less apparent that the relief staff is an area of need, though the club obviously saw the value of installing another dominant arm last year. Baltimore’s pen has combined to rate sixth in both reliever ERA and fWAR to date. Late-inning arms Zach Britton and Darren O’Day continue to excel, while the O’s have received quality contributions (at least, in terms of results) from pitchers such as Brad Brach, Chaz Roe, and Brian Matusz.
Duquette added that he still hopes to work out a deal for recently-designated outfielder and bench bat Delmon Young. “We’re still working with a couple of teams and hopefully it will come together,” he explained. Young, who’s playing on a $2.25MM deal this year, was designated on July 1, meaning that Baltimore still has a few days to get something done.
There isn’t room in the rotation to add a starter unless the team is giving up on both Norris and Tillman. Norris has been put in the bullpen for the time being, but Tillman was supposed to be the ace and I can’t see the O’s replacing him at this time. I can definitely see the team adding another back end reliever, because Hunter has proven again that he is inconsistent at best. If the A’s are going to make Clippard and Zobrist available, the O’s could make a play for both of them in one deal and that would be the best move they could make, IMHO. Not sure what it would take, but with them both being impending free agents and making a combined $16MM, I think a deal is there to be made.
Agreed, although the price would be steep (think Bundy)..
Bundy is a wreck. He’s shut down for the year, again, what is this his third time in a row? Any team acquiring him would surely be only as a lottery ticket and hope much like Arrieta, once he leaves the O’s and their horrible ways of developing pitching can fix him.
I would rather see the Orioles get someone that creates a commanding presence in the line-up. Pitching doesn’t really concern me as much as there is not someone that garners a great respect. Don’t get me wrong, we have some good hitters, but no one scary and that is what we need
Could the Mets and Orioles make a deal here?
Mets have some very good starting pitching for sure in Snydergard, Harvey, deGrom and even the injured Wheeler, but the ones it seems they seem determined to move (Niese, Colon, Gee) have little to no trade value in the NL, much less the AL.
Doubt the Mets will move anything until they finally clear out those back end guys they have an over abundance of.
Not to mention, Matz, Harvey, deGrom, Syndergaard all look like 1-2 starters and Wheeler a 3-4 with maybe 2 if he ever figures out how to control his stuff. With that said, the only bats I see the Mets wanting is Machado, maybe just maybe Schoop, and that’s it. Don’t know much on their system other than they suck at developing pitching.
Not sure if they match up well, what the O’s have to offer doesn’t exactly help the major league team. I don’t see a package for one of the young hard throwers being beneficial.
Maybe a spare part deal of Gee for Young, but with Lagares having pronounced troubles hitting RH hitters the LH bench bat needs to be able to play center. Hence the recycling of Kirk/Ceciliani/Kirk