The Orioles will go to a six-man rotation next week, interim manager Tony Mansolino tells reporters (including Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun). Tyler Wells made his final rehab start tonight to complete his return from May 2024 elbow surgery. Wells threw 6 1/3 frames of two-run ball on 90 pitches for Triple-A Norfolk.
Baltimore will reinstate Wells from the 60-day injured list next week. Active rosters expand on September 1, so the O’s can stick with an eight-man bullpen while running a six-man rotation. It’ll buy an extra day of rest for each of Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Tomoyuki Sugano, Cade Povich and Dean Kremer. Bradish just returned from his own elbow procedure last night.
Wells, 31, flashed back-of-the-rotation ability before his injury. He had his best season in 2023. The righty turned in a career-low 3.64 earned run average across 118 2/3 innings. Wells fanned a quarter of opponents with a solid 7.2% walk rate. He surrendered almost two home runs per nine frames, however, and was the beneficiary of a depressed .200 batting average on balls in play.
It was a good enough showing for Wells to open the ’24 season in the rotation. He only made it through three starts before suffering the elbow injury that required UCL surgery. It wound up costing him the better part of two seasons. Wells will probably make four starts to finish the season. That should position him for a normal offseason as he prepares to battle for a rotation spot next spring. Wells is making $2.075MM this season; he’ll be paid a similar amount next year in his second trip through arbitration. He’s controllable through 2027.
This team will be way better next season, better health. I think they need one more starter and reliever, they are closer than people think.
Roansy Contreras looked great tonight. Might be a gem for them next year.
As disappointed as I was that we wasted Bradish’s return like that. I kinda felt he would have similar stuff from before he was injured. Really just hoping for guys to just stay healthy. Its a big ask given the recent history, but the talent is for sure there. Like you say, a quality reliably healthy starter and reliever and they are a force to be reckoned with. The offense has been inconsistent but a lot of those guys are also very young still.
Doesn’t really matter how many they use when as collectively those starters have an ERA around 5.00.
To be competitive in 2026 they will either need to spend a lot of money in the offseason on starting pitching, stop prospect hoarding and trade several for pitching, or some combination of both. Last offseason they did neither.
Rogers, Bradish, Wells, Povich, Kremer. Not a bad rotation talent wise. Most of them still have question marks attached to them. Rogers is currently doing his best impression of aces from years past and is healthy. No one realistically is going to expect this level of performance to continue but he is showing top of rotation talent. Can he keep that type of performance going is the question. Bradish and Wells have the same question between them, can you stay healthy? Bradish seems to not have missed a damn beat, Wells still needs to get back in there but I imagine hes got similar capabilities to what he had before he got hurt. Povich has been both pretty good and pretty bad. The talent and stuff is there but he has to prove himself consistent. Kremer is the guy I’m least worried about to be honest. Last 3 years, 4.12, 4.10, 4.19 ERA. ERA ain’t the be all, end all but he’s proven himself healthy and reliable at a 4th or 5th slot in the rotation.
Needless to say, you gotta look for some depth that can be both productive and healthy. I would like to see another top of rotation arm added based on how the gamble of last offseason went in regards to “lets get some guys who can hold us over until the injured guys come back” went.
They could really use Wells in the bullpen