Prior to today’s game, the Orioles placed right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to April 2) due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Left-hander Cade Povich was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move, and Povich was immediately needed for 5 2/3 innings of long relief work after starter Chris Bassitt was hit hard early in an 8-2 O’s loss to the Pirates.
The 30-year-old Hiraldo made his MLB debut last season, posting a 4.58 ERA over 19 2/3 innings and 18 appearances for the Orioles. Between his decent Spring Training performance and some injuries up and down Baltimore’s pitching staff, Hiraldo won a spot on the Opening Day roster, though he has a 21.60 ERA over 1 2/3 innings of work early in this season. Three of Hiraldo’s four earned runs allowed came in his last outing on Tuesday, and his shoulder issue may have impacted that rough performance.
Hiraldo will now get some time to heal up, while Povich joins the roster in perhaps more than just a bullpen capacity. MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko wrote yesterday that Povich was brought up as a member of the Orioles’ medical taxi squad, so perhaps the team already had a feeling that Hiraldo would require an IL stint. However, the feeling was that Povich was in line to start Monday’s game as the replacement for the injured Zach Eflin, but that plan is obviously out the window given Povich’s usage today.
Dean Kremer was optioned to Triple-A before the season began, as the longtime starter was the odd man out given Baltimore’s full rotation of Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, Bassitt, and Eflin. Since injuries are inevitable, Kremer was expected to be called up sooner rather than later, though Kremer just made a Triple-A start on Friday. Rogers’ last start was last Wednesday, so he might end up going on Monday on normal rest, rather than benefiting from an extra rest day provided by the Orioles’ off-day last Thursday.
O’s are brutal. Bassitt is garbage.
Nah, age 33-37 he was consistently 10% above avg pitcher. Aube at 38 he loses it, maybe still good. Today he might have been hurt by the liner that hit him.
I didnt have a problem w elias signing him, i was just really really surprised.
After last year signing 3 starters on the down side of their thirties and having them all go from rather poorly to disastrously, its shocking that he would try signing another one.
When a team has to give significant innings to a bad pitcher, its a bad sign and a strong indicator that there will not be playoffs in the future.
Povich has 200 innings of 25% below avg performance. How many others does that criteria describe in the last 3 years? Two. Out of 175 other pitchers, two have been as bad as Povich.
He has clearly demonstrated that he is not a major league pitcher. And he will likely get a significant role now. If the Poviches of the world are upin AAA, the team stands a chance. If this bad a pitcher is relied upon, its another wasted year.
The jays had injuries and brought up mantiply and voth. That is pitching depth; povich is a lack of pitching depth. Neither is going to be great and Mantiply was hurt last year, but both are legitimate mlb arms that have never performed anywhere near as ineffectively as povich.