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.
A lot of pitchers suddenly look good this time of year but yes he did look damn good. Look at McClain with the Mets. He seems to be the real deal but let’s see with everyone what happens when hitters see them for the second time.
DFA, so maybe not quite good enough…
Puzzling…
I saw enough as a Sox fan the other night to happily welcome him to Boston. That was high quality long relief, especially(!) after such a big absence.
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.
You should have willed them to be better this season.
Key word….health
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.
Respectfully, perhaps you should stick to the Pads. What you’ve commented is just tropes that aren’t rooted in current reality. The O’s don’t have prospects left to hoard, they’ve promoted or traded all the notable ones. Your comment about the rotation’s collective ERA is invalid since the entire point of the article is that two guys are returning from long absences – and those two guys aren’t in the current group’s collective ERA. Plus, I’m not sure you even know what the current starters’ ERAs are:
Rogers – 1.40
Sugano – 4.06
Kremer – 4.19
Povich – 5.13
Those are four of the six for the six-man rotation. The other two, Bradish and Wells, have had one start (Bradish) and zero (Wells) in 2025. The current four, who have been in the rotation most of the year, average out to 3.70, so how you got “collective 5 ERA” seems to be a math fail more than anything. Add in Bradish’s 3.00 from ONE start and the collective ERA drops to 3.55. Brandon Young, the worst of the group, is on the 60-Day IL and done for the year (and lowest on the totem pole anyways), and so is Eflin.
Last offseason the O’s signed Sugano and Morton. Now, we can debate the efficacy of those signings, since Morton had the worst stretch of his career to start the season – but he did rebound, and rebounded back to his career norm quite well. Sugano pitched over his head when the O’s were really bad in April and May, and has since functioned more like a number 5. Either way, hard to blame him for the club’s ills when their record is anchored by that awful April & May stretch when Sugano was the only capable pitcher of the bunch.
Also consider, with the signings of Sugano and Morton, Baltimore had the following group of MLB-level starting pitchers:
Zach Eflin
Grayson Rodriguez
Dean Kremer
Charlie Morton
Cade Povich
Tomoyuki Sugano
Trevor Rogers
with prospects Chayce McDermott and Brandon Young in the mix, as well as Wells and Bradish returning from TJ during the season. Then they signed Kyle Gibson, as well.
That’s TWELVE starters. And of those twelve, injuries shelved FIVE within the first two months of the season, and then of course, Bradish and Wells’ returns were delayed. Now Young is injured as well.
So out of a depth of 12 starters, eight were cut down by injury throughout the year.
Sure, the O’s pitching has been a disappointment. But it’s stupid to ignore the injuries and act like they didn’t bolster the rotation. The real problem, across the board, is that their supposedly offensive juggernaut of young hitters regressed and injuries took key pieces like Henderson, Cowser, Westburg and even Rutschman – twice on the latter two guys – out of the mix for extended periods. They’ve had to use seven catchers this year for Christ’s sakes. The problems with the 2025 Orioles go far beyond the starting pitching. Blaming their woes on SP is a myth that has gone too far. Their absolute failure to hit with RISP, their lack of home run power, their reliance on homers to score runs, their pathetic defense, the revolving door of catchers, their immature base running, their lack of overall aggression, and their mind-boggling lack of plate discipline have all driven the failure of 2025 just as much as those first two months of awful starting pitching.
I agree with a lot of what is being said here but also the original point that it is important to spend big (or trade big) for SPs in the offseason. Is it the only problem? No. But think the approach with SPs has been lets see if we can be good enough. Lets get value. And you can sit there and say okay, maybe some of these plays work to a degree and maybe this guy plays above his dollars paid but at the end of the day do teams trying to win championships and teams that go deep in the playoffs try to approach it that way.
I think on the roster there are pitchers that can contribute. That is great. But lets get some guys who maybe can dominate. Lets have an SP1 and SP2 that look like great SP1s or SP2s. That can beat other good team’s SP1s and SP2s. Aces. We need aces. And yes, there are other issues but when you have a guy that just does not allow runs in big games it can make the other issues seem less important.
If they want to just hang in there Oakland As style and do better than expected for the payroll and have people write books and articles about how economically savvy they are and win regular season games and get knocked out in the playoffs quick, then I think their approach will work just fine.
I do see there are other issues. Leadership/chemistry is probably an issue and maybe its time for a team shakeup with the bats side of the roster. I dont like seeing Gunnar comment on how he needs to be part of a winning culture when its like okay maybe you need to help create one. Body language seems off a lot. Maybe reset on a lot of the Boras guys and find guys happy to be here. See if that changes this negative clubhouse buzz that seems to be trending.
Bullpen has been an issue too. Dont think the front office moves there were exemplary and injuries have not helped either. I like the prospects collected for Soto and Dominguez cause I was never a fan of them. The Kittredge situation felt odd cause hey you need a bullpen, he has another year, you just traded two bullpen guys, do you want to compete next year or do you love hoarding prospects more than the idea of being competitive in 2026. Same with Laureano.
Kittredge wasn’t supposed to get hurt either, so the pen SHOULD have been very good with Kittredge, Akin, Bautista, Dominguez, Soto, Suarez (who I should have included in the starter list), Baker. Cano being so bad was a surprise. The only missteps I see is that they relied on Perez for too long, and then didn’t retain one of Coulombe or Webb. Also what was Kittredge’s option? Team? I don’t remember. In any event, trading guys who had value at the TD is fine with me. Kittredge was a good solidifying piece but with moving Dominguez, Baker, and Soto, may as well cash in on him this season and get someone a smidge younger for 26.
The culture is certainly a problem. I think it stems from Gunnar. He oozes anger. That, and Rutschman seems to be totally lost and lacking confidence.
That being said, I’d be surprised if a team that had 27 players fall victim to injuries and had their manager fired, plus sold off nine guys at the deadline, was able to retain a good culture after going through a year of such rampant disappointment. What gets lost in the SP blithering is that it wasn’t JUST the SP that imploded – it was literally everything, all at once. Everything that could go wrong, did. Every effort to course correct backfired too. Snake-bitten.
And that’s why I commented (and made an account). I’m sick of seeing the O’s problems chalked up to prospect hoarding (which they don’t have) or just starting pitching (which they actually had a surplus of, on paper) while giving the pathetic offense and team chemistry a pass.
Perfect example – Burnes was light out in the WC last year. And got beat 1-0. So SP is not the main problem, everything else is. The failure to score runs doomed them last year and exacerbated this year’s faults. The hitters can’t perform under pressure. Except Westburg.
I hear you. I like the idea of prioritizing gaining elite pitching. Its not the only thing. Its just first thing on my list. I just feel like sometimes it can cover up some warts. Yeah, with Burnes they still lose. But I will still say I want that from the pitching side all day every day. If we still had Burnes I would be less concerned and prioritizing front of the rotation pitching less. But now that he is gone feels like if we made the playoffs it might be less 1-0 and more 5-0. I mean 2023 with Kyle Grayson Dean it was uglier from the pitching side.
I think the #1 problem is we have a team that was a squad of popsicles in the playoffs whatever position they played. Just absolutely historically cold. Boston curse. Old Cubs cold. Marty Schottenheimer playoffs. Bengals playoffs. Toronto Maple Leafs playoffs. Small sample size but it couldn’t have been more Antarctic. And maybe the problem is how do you fix that?
I think the Brandon Hyde dismissal was an important step 1. What were the elements of those two colossal whiffs? A number of things. Manager sure matters. Ryan Flaherty maybe for next year. Feels like a nice fit. Mansolino, hey, competent, but I might shop around a little. I’m a little impressed but not feeling this has to be the guy. But in my opinion a better option than Hyde.
After that its like okay maybe these players freeze when it matters and who was at the core of those teams. Adley sure. Glad its not only me that feels Gunnar is an issue. Hey Detroit, we just left you a voice-mail. Call us back. (In November) Think that is a nice fit. Then I guess its works if Dean Grayson Kyle are on the team but I dont want to rely on any of them for game 1 of a playoff series.
I think we just felt we had our young core in Adley Gunnar Cowser and just dont think those are the guys to rely on in the years going forward. Maybe the solution does not have us competing for a division title next year. But I am optimistic about a core that could include Basallo Holliday Westburg Beavers, maybe Mayo but lets get him his ABs and find out, maybe Bradfield. Maybe the guys we get in a trade for Gunnar and Adley. The guys drafted this year are killing it at Delmarva. Not saying this group could not compete next year but maybe its the 2027 2028 team that could look real impressive.
You need to see who’s starting at year end… the 5+ Era guys likely won’t be on the 26 man next year as these guys return from injury. Won’t be room for them. Can’t use 9 starters.
Morton and Gibson are gone too. Team Era is misleading…
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.
Might be a good 5 if we add a TOR and push povich to depth/bullpen. Wells might be a more valuable option as closer. So then need two fa starters.
They could really use Wells in the bullpen
Elias has shown a history of being able to cobble together spare parts in late bloomers to be a solid bullpen. what the Orioles have struggled with is starter health and consistency. sometimes their starters ping pong between incredibly dominant and wholly unsure of themselves, (like their adjustments can’t be held for more than a game or two.) I’m not sure why I think about this all the time, but Dean Kramer had an incredible start in Houston several years ago and you see flashes of that now as well. however, even when he’s healthy, it’s like he forgets who he is. now in Dean’s particular case, I don’t see him as a #1, 2 or 3, but he has the ability to flash a game or two of dominance. I keep wondering what it would be like if all the cylinders were firing at the same time. especially since most of the media and fandom believe that the raw material from which the Orioles are drawing their starters from are kind of just meh.
it’s interesting. I was listening to the Bird Notice podcast and thinking a little bit more about the possibility that there’s a leadership problem in the locker room. I don’t know. ultimately if there is, but if there is, it seems to me that the couple pieces of the rotation that they’ll need to get this off-season will need to include a strong leader that holds everyone on the team accountable for making the most of their talent and giving 110% every night.
it’s not enough to have the ability to dominate in a game or two, the pitching staff need to be able to gut through nights when their stuff isn’t very good. and the offense needs to especially focus in on situational hitting on those nights to pick up the slack for the pitchers.
I think when you look at a team like the Brewers you see a team working together beyond any superstars just carrying them.
Starters are more rare, and Wells is a strong starter when healthy. He has spent less of his professional career in the bullpen (really only his Rule 5 year) than in the rotation. He was a starter in the minors too. Bullpen guys are pretty easy to find, and less expensive than starters, so if Wells can stay in the rotation, that’s the obvious play.
They could really use a good arm or 6 in the bullpen…
With Bradish, Wells, Suarez, and Rodriguez all returning in 2026 after lost 2025 seasons and thus innings limited at least Wells or Rodriguez has to be the closer for 2026. Neither Wells nor Rodriguez have shown they can stay in the rotation for a full season. Wells’ second half of 2024 showed diminished stuff/results. Rodriguez has had multiple minor issues (non-UCL injuries) and maybe a move to the bullpen will help. With Bautista out and the current bullpen’s poor results a closer is needed. If they can sign a #1 or #2 starter in the off season, moving either Wells or Rodriguez to the closer role is the obvious move.
Exactly. Can’t hope for the best like Elias did this season. Need to sign or trade for some starters and bullpen. The bullpen has been terrible this year. Cano must go. I don’t care about season ERA. The bullpen has lost many many games this year. Remember the bullpen blew 13 or 14 games in the first month and half of the season
Signing Kyle Tucker would also solve a lot of offensive drought issues.
Hey, the owner publicly said “no restrictions on payroll”. Let’s go!
Dear MLBTR, action shots are better than mugshots 🤣
better to just plan on them not returning and staff accordingly. if/when they do… it’ll be icing on the cake. but to not acquire the pieces hoping that the “late season internal candidates” come to the rescue, that’s malpractice by the FO.
hopefully, Elias will have learned that lesson for next year.