Question: I love the bats we’ve added. And I’m sure we’re still looking for starting pitchers. But I don’t hear much about the bullpen and that seems like a major weakness. Looking over the projected names in the bullpen, there aren’t many I trust. How concerned are you? From: Rick Zittle
Answer: Rick, there are still many free-agent relievers on the market, and lots of time between now and spring training. The Orioles have already added a proven closer, Ryan Helsley, and a setup man, Andrew Kittredge, and the guess here is that they’ll add another proven reliever or two.
Last season, the team had 15 pitchers who pitched in relief 15 or more times, so let’s say they’ll need the same number of pitchers capable of doing that this season.
Besides Helsley and Kittredge, they have Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns, Kade Strowd, Yaramil Hiraldo, Colin Selby, Yennier Cano, Rico Garcia and Grant Wolfram, all of whom pitched extensively for the team last season.
Also on the 40-man roster are Jose Espada, Cameron Foster, Chayce McDermott, Anthony Nunez, George Soriano and Josh Walker.
On Wednesday, they re-signed Albert Suárez, who could provide depth in the bullpen, too.
It’s possible that Cade Povich, Tyler Wells and Brandon Young could see time in the bullpen, and also possible that Félix Bautista could return late in the season.
I’m not taking into account some of the relievers who were signed to minor league contracts who could be invited to spring training — Andrew Magno, Enoldi Paredes, Richard Guasch, Jeisson Cabrera and Jean Henriquez.
From all these names with a few additional acquisitions, I think the Orioles’ bullpen could be more than adequate.
Question: I understand the concept of framing pitches and there some catchers referred to as elite framers, like Adley Rutschman. Is there any metric related to it? Do they track pitches that are called strikes but were actually out of the strike zone? From: Rick Staley
Answer: Rick, Baseball Savant has a Catcher Framing Leaderboard. It shows what they call “attack zones,” which are up to 4 inches away from he strike zone.
Patrick Bailey of the San Francisco Giants saved an estimated 25 runs last season by converting 47.7 percent of the pitches taken into strikes, the highest percentage in baseball. Rutschman was 14th of 57 catchers with two runs saved and converting 43.5 percent of the pitches taken into strikes.
Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.