The Orioles are converting right-hander Mike Baumann to a short relief role, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters after today’s Spring Training contest (relayed by Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun). Baumann worked one inning, the eighth, in today’s game against the Blue Jays.
Prospect evaluators have suggested for a few seasons that Baumann might be better served for a bullpen role. The former third-round selection has drawn praise for a quality fastball-slider combination at the front of his arsenal. His changeup has drawn more middling reviews, while frequent double-digit walk rates in the minor leagues have led to concerns about his command holding up out of a rotation.
Baumann had worked exclusively out of the rotation in the minors until last season. The O’s deployed him as more of a swing option last year. He started nine of 20 appearances with Triple-A Norfolk but threw 60 innings, typically working multiple frames regardless of role. It was a similar story in his big league action. Baumann started just four of 13 MLB outings but tallied 34 1/3 frames and reached or exceeded six outs in eight of his appearances.
Now it seems the O’s are planning to simplify things by deploying the 27-year-old in shorter stints. While Baumann could still work multiple innings on occasion, he’ll be no longer be in consideration for a rotation or swing role — at least in the short term. He’s down to his final minor league option year, meaning the O’s only have one more season to determine whether he can be a permanent member of the big league staff in some capacity.
Baltimore’s bullpen was strong last year. The relief corps finished ninth in ERA despite a middling strikeout rate, one of the main reasons they surprisingly finished above .500 and flirted with a postseason spot. Baltimore brings back breakout rookie Félix Bautista in the ninth inning, while free agent pickup Mychal Givens steps into a setup role alongside Bryan Baker. Left-handers Keegan Akin and Cionel Pérez are strong matchup weapons. The O’s will be without Dillon Tate for at least the first month of the year due to a flexor strain in his forearm, though, leaving some opportunity for another right-handed middle innings option.
There’s no guarantee Baumann will crack the Opening Day roster, much less jump right into high-leverage innings. The O’s will evaluate his repertoire in shorter stints over the final couple weeks of exhibition play and into the season.
Converting Baumann to relief removes one of the many options for the back of the rotation. Cole Irvin and Kyle Gibson are locks, while the final three spots have yet to be defined. Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Spenser Watkins and Austin Voth all took a decent amount of starting work last season. Bruce Zimmermann has done the same in prior years. The O’s have maintained that top prospect Grayson Rodriguez will be given a legitimate opportunity to break camp after a lat strain dashed his hope of making his big league debut last year.
He’s an all star this year . remember this comment
You can’t tell me what to do
YOU TYRANT!!! 1776 WILL COMMENCE AGAIN IF TRY TO FORCE US TOO SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR OUTLANDISH PREDICTIONS.
Are you the tip of the spear?
I just forgot your comment. Tell me again.
Oh yeah baby, I am paying for a banner to be flown by one of those planes at the beach during the summer to remember this comment
Here comes Grayson!
Grayson should easily win ROY even as a SP
>sad Gunnar noises<
Dual wielding gunnars. Henderson in 2023 and Hoglund in 2024. And we can all feast in Valhalla.
That’s a strange way to spell “Hunter Brown”.
The rotation is set for all intents and purposes. Gibson, Irvin, Bradish, Kremer, Grayson.
Baumann to relief. Interesting. In Elias we trust. No mention of Wells in this article. Thought we’d here about him transitioning to relief before a Baumann or the like. If so, would that mean a Kriebal or Baker are now out?
Baker is a lock. Kreihbel is prob out. I thought Baumann was already a reliever. That was pretty clear to me for awhile.
Gibson. Irvin, Kremer, Bradish, Rodriguez in no particular order. Idk why we’re even having this discussion anymore. Seems pretty set to me.
Please check Santander’s Instagram account of misogynists posts and get back to us will ya?
This is a superb decision IMO, much like Akin to a relief role. I firmly believe M Baumann will thrive in a relief role and provide a fantastic depth piece to the Oriole’s 2023 bullpen.
Baumann spent the better portion of last season as a reliever. This is far from some new move.
Baumann to the pen makes sense.
But as far as rotation goes, I’m surprised that so many have Kramer in the rotation. For me, I thought Wells looked like the stronger candidate for rotation over Kramer– Kramer always seemed to be battling himself on the mound, whereas Wells seemed to battle the hitters. I’ve watched too many games where Dean kinda self-implodes on the mound, and one of his best pitches (a crazy good Curve ball) he never seemed to throw. Instead, he favored a Cutter.
In the end, I don’t think there’s an ocean of difference between them, but I just got better “vibes” about Wells on the bump than Kramer.
Wells was terrible after returning from injury. No way the Orioles are tossing away Kremer and his strong BB and HR rates for that type of question mark.
Kremer has been off to a fast and solid start to the Spring. I think that Kremer has a tad more ceiling than Wells and that Wells is going to be in the pen as a piggyback with Rodriguez to help keep his IP down so the Os can have him some should they see some October action. I’m concerned for Watkins and Voth. Can’t option Voth down and I really don’t want to see the team trade him for cash considerations although if John Angelos thinks he can use the cash to bring some concert in, he’d sell in a heartbeat.
That’s not how booking concerts works; John Angelos doesn’t have to sell players to attract musical acts to play OPACY. This Voth will not be sold for that reason you claim.
Sure, but Wells was consistently very good before the injury. He may be healthier now then he was when he came back.
This seems to happen a lot, guys are hyped as starters and as they get to AAA or the start of their MLB careers it is better determined that they are really relievers. This goes back to Zach Britton, includes guys like Baumann, Hunter Harvey, etc.
Does this happen to the Orioles more than other teams? In my opinion, it does, and it aligns with the Orioles’ ongoing inability to develop top flight starting pitchers who can be a #1 or #2 rotation guy and get you 180-200+ innings of quality starting pitching a year.
Very well said……
Stupid comment. There is nobody in the organization’s front office or coaching staff that was employed when Britton, etc. were prospects. And Harvey always was/still is a head case.
PS: Only 27 pitchers reached 180 IPs last year and only 12 of them had ERAs under 3.00. Looks like the Orioles are not the only team having difficulty producing the elite TORs. At least not yet they haven’t.
Yeah it’s fairly common, Mariano Rivera started 10 games as a rookie and was used almost exclusively as a starter in the minors. You can find a decent bit of guys who started all through the minors and then found themselves in the bullpen full time