Bullpen Options

[WI O’s Fan]

The bottom 4 of the bullpen has really underwhelmed- Baker, Tate , and Akin ( Irvin I will not count).  Looking at Norfolk, they have three interesting arms all from the left side.   Trey McGough, Luis Gonzalez , and Tucker Davidson.   Gonzo and  Davidson have good to great k/b rates and whip.
Time to bring one or two up for Akin and maybe Tate.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

I think they need to call up a fresh arm or two it’s still 2 or 3 weeks until Elias makes any trades for bullpen help. 

[Aristotelian]

I'd like to see McGough and Davidson. Would require a couple of DFA's though. Elias will probably have to get a bit more desperate but that could happen soon.

[sportsfan8703]

We all know the best thing for the bullpen… to have good SP and not have to overuse/over expose the bullpen. 

Tried and true method. 

[wildcard]

The  O's have Perez, Akin and Irvin as lefties in the pen.    Davidson, McGough, Gonzalez are all lefties.   What Elias needs is to add some right-handed relief.   McDermott is right-handed but will probably be needed in the rotation at some time in the near future.

As far as making space on the 40 man roster.   Its currently at 39 and both Bradish and Coulombe can be moved to the 60 day IL.

[LookitsPuck]

Akin should never see the light of day in a game with runners on base. He's a fine arm to bring in mop up duty or extra innings once everybody else has been exhausted.

Irvin really is clogging up a roster spot. My issue with Irvin right now is he's been beyond awful the last 4 appearances (1.116 OPS, 347 BA, 10.47 ERA). So something is definitely off. The issue is he's out of options. And there's zero chance he makes it through waivers. If he's a long/middle relief arm, that's redundant w/ Akin. And they both aren't trustable.

Dillon Tate has been very disappointing, too. Strikeout rate has fallen a bit, hit rate has went up tremendously. He's not great with runners on. 

The O's desperately need a reliever with a decent strikeout rate. Because in games where they can deploy the 4 headed monster (Kimbrel, Webb, Cano, Perez), they usually are pretty decent. But when the other Tier of relievers have to come in (Baker, Akin, Irvin, Tate) the game is really on shaky ground. I don't think you can afford to have 50% of your bullpen questionable to be effective. 

Elias needs to acquire an effective reliever. That should bump Tate out. He has options remaining. Leverage Irvin only in long relief until he gets his crap under wraps. I'm not sold on Baker, but he has options remaining. And he's been better than Tate has so far.