Baltimore Orioles: Pitchers to Worry About Right Now

Oct 3, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph (36) speaks with starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez (31) on the pitching mound during the fifth inning against the New York Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /

With the spring training season getting serious now for the Baltimore Orioles, it is a very mixed bag of pitchers who look ready for the season and those who appear rather lost.

The big worry even before the preseason began revolved around the rotation in particular. And already this is indeed the category of greatest concern for the O’s.

As we did yesterday with position players, let’s think about those pitchers on the Birds who appear to be in form and ready to go. Of course, the situation surrounding who will comprise the 12-man staff is a bit less fixed than with the position players.

One who will surely be on the roster is Dylan Bundy. After all of the concerns as to if he would be in sufficient form to contribute, he has pitched very effectively in all but one of his appearances.

The back end of the bullpen is (not surprisingly) in good shape. Zach Britton, Darren O’Day, Mychal Givens and Brad Brach have all been touched-up a bit here and there, but on most occasions they appear ready to take on the 2016 season.

Health setbacks have affected both bullpen lefties in T.J. McFarland and Brian Matusz. The latter is particularly behind schedule in making a return. Where this goes is very uncertain.

But the Orioles have other options to turn to, though they may not be left-handed. Looking especially good is Oliver Drake, who is yet to be scored upon after six innings of four-hit baseball.

Vance Worley is another long relief possibility (if not in the rotation). Though his early numbers are far from stellar, his last outing was extremely good. It would seem that the Orioles need to find a way to include him. The injuries above may make that possible.

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Turning to the starting rotation, the concern grows more acute. Whereas a number of recent starts have been much improved, the jury is not only still out, it hasn’t been given instructions by the judge.

Kevin Gausman has looked the best of the presumed starters, but even there is room for improvement. And Chris Tillman is behind schedule, and today’s start will be a big moment of the spring in assessing where he is at.

Miguel Gonzalez, Yovani Gallardo and Ubaldo Jimenez have all had experiences all over the map, probably more poor than good. Jimenez is defined by inconsistencies and probably always will be. He does seem to be tightening the mechanics and getting some decent results. Gallardo is a week or so behind the others due to his late signing. And Gonzalez is only hanging on by a thread. Without his last outing of only two runs on four innings, he might be on the edge of replacement or assignment to AAA to work out whatever is wrong.

Tyler Wilson has had the best overall results of starting pitcher types with a 2.89 ERA. As we wrote a few days ago, why should he not be anything but a legitimate candidate for rotation consideration?

Related Story: https://thebaltimorewire.com/2016/03/16/baltimore-orioles-why-not-tyler-wilson-why-not/

The major theme for observation over the final two weeks of spring training will likely be that of the starting pitching and how they will be getting aligned for the regular season. Will there ever be a time where this is not an ongoing concern for the Orioles? Probably not. There are so few guarantees with starting pitching.

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