2024 Rotation

[Spy Fox]

Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, John Means, Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells, DL Hall, Cole Irvin. There's seven internal candidates for next year's rotation, before you even consider offseason additions. 

Bradish/GRod/Means you have to assume are locks if healthy. After that it gets interesting. 

Kremer has posted back to back years of pretty solid pitching, but he's outperformed his peripherals and several folks have expressed interest in upgrading that slot. Wells maybe can't be relied on for a full season, but he's pitched well both out of the rotation and bullpen. DL Hall looked great out of the bullpen at the end of the year... is he next year's closer, or does he get one more chance at starting? Irvin is the least sexy of all these, but in the end he's still an acceptable 5th starter option, particularly if they go the bullpen route with Wells/Hall.

How would you handle these guys? Are Wells, Hall, and Irvin starters or relievers in your 2024 plan? How many SPs would you try to bring in on top of this group to compete for the rotation?

[Bahama O's Fan]

Keep all of them; bring in one top of the rotation candidate. We have pretty good, but we need great. Give us one guy that we can rely on almost every time he goes out there against the good teams. 

[Aristotelian]

Sign Sonny Gray. Rotation of Bradish, Gray, Grayson, Means, Kremer. Bullpen of Cano, Wells, Cionel, Hall, Coulombe, Irvin, plus a free agent (or one of Tate, Webb, etc).

Next man up could be Irvin or McDermott if he progresses.

I think that would be a very solid pitching staff. 

[Billy F-Face3]

We need left handers in the starting rotation. Means is one of them, but can he complete a full season healthy? DL Hall could potentially be another, but can he reach his full potential and pitch more efficiently effectively to go 5+ innings per start?

Irvin is a possibility. But it seems like someone in the organization doesn't care for him based on the bumber of times he got optioned and inexplicably was left off the playoff roster. 

Sonny Gray is a good pitcher, but I think an offseason target should prioritize relief pitchers and a closer. Then I also think a Left Handed top starter like Blake Snell should be pursued. At one point some might have included J. Urias in that discussion but I was not impressed with him for the Dodgers this season.

We might even consider trade options. However, it's mote efficient if you can keep all your top prospects/players and just add to them through signing good free agents.

[oriole]

I think two spots need to be filled. Kremer isn’t a bad option, but there’s room for improvement and they’ve got the means to do it. Just a couple example moves I’d make is something like Montgomery in FA and Gilbert traded for. Put something like Kjerstad, Urias, and Norby on the table and they might bite. 
 

Injuries/ineffectiveness will get someone like Kremer plenty of starts. But he should not be handed a spot. 

[banks703]

5 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

Sign Sonny Gray. Rotation of Bradish, Gray, Grayson, Means, Kremer. Bullpen of Cano, Wells, Cionel, Hall, Coulombe, Irvin, plus a free agent (or one of Tate, Webb, etc).

Next man up could be Irvin or McDermott if he progresses.

I think that would be a very solid pitching staff. 

They won’t be but I would be all over Sonny Gray. 

[CaptainRedbeard]

They need at least one more quality SP. If Hall and Wells are intended to be RP, they need another at least for depth purposes - they can’t go into the season with Irvin as the 6th SP on the depth chart and then be reliant on McDermott or Povich immediately if injuries require them to dip further.

Irvin is out of options but a great fit to be the swing man in the pen, and if injuries require him to be in the rotation he won’t kill you. 

Kremer is a solid 5th starter on a playoff team, but should ideally be stacked 6th on the depth chart to start the season. Given pitcher injury rates you have to be prepared for your 6th starter to have the opportunity for a full season even if they are not in the “on paper” rotation. Kremer still has options if needed to start the year in AAA if all SP are healthy. The Orioles were fortunate with SP injuries last season but they need to be prepared for more hardship there. But realistically, I only expect the Orioles to add one SP and keep Kremer slotted 4th or 5th.

[wildcard]

3 hours ago, CaptainRedbeard said:

They need at least one more quality SP. If Hall and Wells are intended to be RP, they need another at least for depth purposes - they can’t go into the season with Irvin as the 6th SP on the depth chart and then be reliant on McDermott or Povich immediately if injuries require them to dip further.

Irvin is out of options but a great fit to be the swing man in the pen, and if injuries require him to be in the rotation he won’t kill you. 

Kremer is a solid 5th starter on a playoff team, but should ideally be stacked 6th on the depth chart to start the season. Given pitcher injury rates you have to be prepared for your 6th starter to have the opportunity for a full season even if they are not in the “on paper” rotation. Kremer still has options if needed to start the year in AAA if all SP are healthy. The Orioles were fortunate with SP injuries last season but they need to be prepared for more hardship there. But realistically, I only expect the Orioles to add one SP and keep Kremer slotted 4th or 5th.

Kremer makes 32 starts, 172.2 IP with a 13-5 record and you think he is ideally the 6th starter?   I think there at least 25 teams that would want him in their rotation including the Orioles.

[SemperFi]

14 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

We need left handers in the starting rotation. Means is one of them, but can he complete a full season healthy? DL Hall could potentially be another, but can he reach his full potential and pitch more efficiently effectively to go 5+ innings per start?

Irvin is a possibility. But it seems like someone in the organization doesn't care for him based on the bumber of times he got optioned and inexplicably was left off the playoff roster. 

Sonny Gray is a good pitcher, but I think an offseason target should prioritize relief pitchers and a closer. Then I also think a Left Handed top starter like Blake Snell should be pursued. At one point some might have included J. Urias in that discussion but I was not impressed with him for the Dodgers this season.

We might even consider trade options. However, it's mote efficient if you can keep all your top prospects/players and just add to them through signing good free agents.

Yes, we need another LH starter-that's one of the reasons the wall was built and the Rangers exploited it in the playoffs.  Would love Snell but think the Orioles will aim lower, for the first time in a long time guys looking for one year "make good" contracts will be interested in the O's and we all know Elias's fascination with reclamation types.  I think he will want to add another seasoned starter like Gibson, just hope it's a lefty.  Elias built the wall to attract free agent pitchers-let's see if he lives up to his word.

[Jagwar]

The O's cannot go into next season status quo. Bradish, Means and GRod are a solid trio. Wells is great but will he be able to make it through the entire season in the rotation? Kremer is a great 5th starter IMO, but I'd love to acquire top flight starters to push him into a long man role.   

The O's have the prospects and the payroll room to add pitching. I have no idea what wheels Elias will turn, but my ideal offseason would be adding 2 starters who are at least #2-3 on ANY team, a slam dunk back end reliever, and a proven power bat/run producer. 

A Jagwar can dream. 

[IPlayGM]

12 minutes ago, Jagwar said:

The O's cannot go into next season status quo. Bradish, Means and GRod are a solid trio. Wells is great but will he be able to make it through the entire season in the rotation? Kremer is a great 5th starter IMO, but I'd love to acquire top flight starters to push him into a long man role.   

The O's have the prospects and the payroll room to add pitching. I have no idea what wheels Elias will turn, but my ideal offseason would be adding 2 starters who are at least #2-3 on ANY team, a slam dunk back end reliever, and a proven power bat/run producer. 

A Jagwar can dream. 

I think acquiring one legit starter would make a huge difference. To me, it then slots everyone else right where they should be, especially Kremer as a 5. 
 

I would like to see Hall stretched out in the Spring just to see, and be completely happy if he ends up back in the bullpen.

[RZNJ]

16 minutes ago, Jagwar said:

The O's cannot go into next season status quo. Bradish, Means and GRod are a solid trio. Wells is great but will he be able to make it through the entire season in the rotation? Kremer is a great 5th starter IMO, but I'd love to acquire top flight starters to push him into a long man role.   

The O's have the prospects and the payroll room to add pitching. I have no idea what wheels Elias will turn, but my ideal offseason would be adding 2 starters who are at least #2-3 on ANY team, a slam dunk back end reliever, and a proven power bat/run producer. 

A Jagwar can dream. 

There is a fine line between dreaming and hallucinating.

[ChosenOne21]

2 hours ago, wildcard said:

Kremer makes 32 starts, 172.2 IP with a 13-5 record and you think he is ideally the 6th starter?   I think there at least 25 teams that would want him in their rotation including the Orioles.

I mean, ideally we have dozens of pitchers better than him, but you're right that he'd probably be in the rotation for most teams. I think he's a solid 4th starter on a playoff team, maybe 5th if you're stacked with rotation talent.

He's put up some incredible stretches, but he's inconsistent.

[Matt Bennett]

40 minutes ago, ChosenOne21 said:

I mean, ideally we have dozens of pitchers better than him, but you're right that he'd probably be in the rotation for most teams. I think he's a solid 4th starter on a playoff team, maybe 5th if you're stacked with rotation talent.

He's put up some incredible stretches, but he's inconsistent.

I'm completely fine going into the year with Kremer as the #5 and that's what I expect. He had a bad April (post World Baseball Classic) and has been good the last two years. Him going into the year as the #6 may be an embarrassment of riches, but Elias likes hoarding his assets. I could be convinced it's the right move to do, given we added two significant upgrades in the rotation. The #6 will still get many starts over the course of the season. The O's deployed a 6 man rotation a bit towards the end of the year. I wonder if that's under any kind of consideration going forward? Could a 6 man rotation until an injury reduces the rotation to 5 be utilized? Probably not as in this scenario you're putting significant capital into the two rotation upgrades. 

[Morgan423]

I don't expect Tyler Wells to be able to hang the entire season as a starter, I just don't think he has enough innings in him. 

But he can be the guy who spot starts on double header days or when a front line starter goes through a 10 day IL for a minor injury.  And I think he has huge value if we stick him in a long man role...  we aren't getting consistency in that spot, and it'd be great to have it.  

I would love for us to add a solid, consistent FA pitcher to the rotation, but I'm not exactly optimistic on our super-cheapo owner allowing any significant money to be spent.