Left-hander Cole Irvin is back with the Orioles, as the team announced Tuesday that he’s been recalled from Triple-A Norfolk. Right-hander Logan Gillaspie has been optioned to Norfolk in a corresponding move.
Baltimore’s decision to option Irvin to Norfolk came as something of a surprise earlier this season. The Orioles’ acquisition of Irvin was one of just two moves made to fortify the starting rotation over the winter (along with the Kyle Gibson signing), and the team parted with an infield prospect of some note (Darell Hernaiz) in order to acquire him. There’s no getting around how rough Irvin’s start to the season was — 15 earned runs in 12 2/3 innings through three starts — but his track record and the manner in which the O’s acquired him led many to presume he’d have a longer leash to get back on track.
To Irvin’s credit, he’s largely done that in Norfolk. The lefty took the ball five times for the Tides and pitched 31 innings with a sharp 3.19 ERA. His 13.4% strikeout rate is still a red flag, but Irvin also only walked 3.1% of his opponents in Triple-A.
Strikeouts have never been a big part of Irvin’s game anyhow. He’s spent the past two seasons anchoring the Athletics’ rotation in Oakland, making 62 starts with a 4.11 ERA, 16.8% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate. Irvin, who’s averaged 90.9 mph on his fastball in his career, has succeeded more with precision and command than by overpowering his opponents.
The role Irvin will occupy with the O’s this time around hasn’t been formally laid out. Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun tweets that he could provide some length out of the bullpen for the time being, although one would imagine that a return to the starting staff could be in order if Irvin pitches well in a long relief capacity. Baltimore starters have combined for a 5.08 ERA this season, although Irvin’s own struggles weigh into that number. Over the past month, the O’s have used Gibson, Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells, Kyle Bradish and top prospect Grayson Rodriguez in the rotation, and that quintet has combined for a more palatable 4.28 mark. Rodriguez (6.51 ERA), Gibson (5.08) and Bradish (4.88) have all posted lackluster bottom-line results in that time.
From a service time vantage point, Irvin’s demotion isn’t likely to change his trajectory. He entered the season with two years, 120 days of big league service time, meaning he needed only 52 days in the Majors to reach three years of service and become arbitration-eligible following the current season. It’s highly likely he’ll hit that mark this year even with a month-long stay in Norfolk. That’ll keep him on pace to become a free agent following the the 2026 season. This is Irvin’s final minor league option year, so the team can technically shuttle him between Norfolk and the Majors throughout the season if they like, but if Irvin can round back into his 2021-22 form he’ll have a clear role on the big league staff.
He got himself right down in Norfolk.
He’s gonna tear up hitters like raw cabbage now and lay down Cole’s law!
Looks like the Tides are turning.
Sad to say Jake Irvin May no longer be the best pitcher in MLB with the last name of “Irvin”
Bradish has a 2.57 ERA if you remove the one clunker vs Boston.
Exactly – this piece is badly behind recent results – last night’s game aside.
Exactly – this piece is badly behind recent results – other than last night.
I really wish they’d have added a better starting pitcher than Irvin and Gibson. Kinda made sense as buy low guys but they need a top 3 rotation piece, both of them are 4-5 guys on most clubs. I don’t expect much from Irvin, very average career numbers and weak stuff.
Eovaldi would have been a great fit.
Maybe they get someone at the deadline but who’s out there? E-Rod, Giolito or Lynn? Rentals though. Maybe a Giants starter?
Looking around at the results of this past FA SP class, it’s pretty spotty at best. Between health and production, yikes!
Trade deadline will be interesting for sure.
Ya they are in a pretty decent spot considering they’ll have the farm to acquire just about in pitcher they want. It still is pretty bad that they didn’t bring in anybody good to lead that rotation. That’ll likely be the Achilles heel of whether or not they make the playoffs this year.
Considering the O’s were never going to spend on deGrom or Verlander, when you look at the results of last winters pitching market and Nate Eovaldi, Zach Eflin and Seth Lugo have put up the best numbers. While Eovaldi to the Orioles made a ton of sense there was no way of predicting Eflin/Lugo would be any better than Gibson/Irvin
Bassitt would have been a pretty good transitional arm for them as well
I don’t like Bassitt at $21MM per.
His underlying numbers are showing some cracks already. Id pass on his age 35 & 36 seasons.
Glad to see him back, I was not a fan of the decision to send him down to Norfolk to begin with. It seemed kind of disrespectful to demote a guy who’d pitched to a 4.11 ERA and 1.24 WHIP and averaged almost 6 innings per start over 62 MLB starts in 2021-2022 after just 3 bad outings to start 2023 (granted that they were really bad).
Will Eduardo Rodriguez be with the Os by end of the season?
I know E-Rod always throws a gem against us.
Just dreaming of what it would take to improve the rotation…
So if Eduardo Rodriguez opts out of the last 3 yrs of his contract, does that automatically make him an FA? And if we entice him to sign, we don’t have to use draft capital to acquire for next season, and it’s just money? (Although cash is kind of worse for John Angelo’s than prospects… Less for him to spend on trying to lure musical acts to come play CYards)
It’d just be money for ERod. He has already received a QO. I think he’s going to be far too pricey if he continues to pitch this way. Fairly risky too given he hasn’t been the picture of perfect health throughout his career.
Can’t see us ponying up the cash for his age 31+ seasons.
Someone will trade for Eduardo Rodriguez for 1/2 season or the next 3-1/2. I don’t see him on the Tigers after July.
The list of Orioles starting pitchers who could do very well or dominate AAA but got lit up like the Grizwold family Christmas tree in MLB is very long.
The list of Orioles starting pitchers acquired in the 21st century who got themselves right and pitched well at the MLB level is pretty short.
It’d be pretty great if Irvin made the shorter of these lists.