BALTIMORE—Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias isn’t thrilled with the Orioles’ start, and he hopes their starting pitching will get better.
Top-of-the-rotation starters Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez are on the 15-day injured list. So are Chayce McDermott and Trevor Rogers, who were counted on for depth. Albert Suárez, who began the season in the bullpen, could have slid into a starter’s slot had he not gotten hurt.
They knew that Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells weren’t going to pitch until the second half of the season after having elbow surgeries last June.
It seems likely that Brandon Young, who was transferred from Triple-A Norfolk to High-A Aberdeen to keep him local while the Tides are playing at Omaha, will start on Saturday.
“He has pitched very well so far in Triple-A, and I think you look at the landscape of guys that we have, and especially being on the 40-man roster, he’s certainly at the forefront of the conversation if and when we need a starter,” Elias said. “And it looks like we might need one pretty soon.”
Kyle Gibson allowed three runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings, striking out four without a walk in Triple-A Norfolk’s 9-8 loss to Omaha. He threw 63 pitches, 45 strikes. The 37-year-old Gibson was signed on March 21st and could be in the Orioles’ rotation soon.
“We’ll probably give him another turn that’s even longer if things continue to go smoothly,” Elias said. “The way that his contract is structured, we’ll be counting on him as soon as May 1th, but it’s always a possibility earlier.”
At the beginning of spring training, the Orioles looked as if they had starting options, and didn’t foresee having to use Young this quickly.
“I feel like we’ve already tapped into, basically, the depth,” Elias said. “To say that on April 15 was not the plan. Obviously, we knew Bradish was going to be out. But to have Grayson and Eflin on the shelf simultaneously this quickly into the season, at no point were we forecasting that, or expecting that. And that’s just the truth.
“We’ve also had a number of the depth starters go down during spring training or very late into the winter time, so there’s a combination of things that I think just speak to the unpredictable nature of pitching. We are doing the best that we can to keep enough quality starting upright to navigate a baseball season. This is not something we’re alone in.
“I think there’s a lot of teams right now, contending teams, that don’t have five of the guys they envisioned being part of their starting pitcher depth charts up and running right now, for whatever reason. I guess we count among those teams right now. We’re doing the best we can. The good news is we’re getting healthier and we expect to see some of these guys back. But certainly, this wasn’t what we were hoping for this quickly. But this kind of stuff happens, and you’ve got to be aware of that.”
Last week when the Orioles were in Arizona, their top starter from last season, Corbin Burnes, didn’t pitch, but it was reported that the Orioles offered him a four-year $180 million contract before he signed a $210 million, six-year deal with the Diamondbacks. Elias wasn’t able to land another ace, instead replacing Burnes with 41-year-old Charlie Morton and 35-year-old Japanese pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano. Neither has been effective, putting Elias on the defensive.
“Normally this isn’t something I’ve delved into talking about,” Elias said. “I feel, in my position, that I should be quiet about business activities that don’t come to fruition. Players talk about stuff and get out there. We made a good offer and a good run, good effort to retain Corbin Burnes. We knew it was going to be competitive. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“It ultimately didn’t end up with him staying with the team. I can’t criticize his going to the Diamondbacks. It makes sense to me [near his home]. We had a great experience with him and I wish him very wel,l but we move on and we’ll be adding more quality pitching as the years go on. We’ve got a great group here and a great team. It was something that we worked on and it didn’t cross the finish line.”
Elias said he’s continuing to pursue starting pitching.
“I think we attempted all manner of things throughout the offseason,” he said. “It is not feasible to land and execute every single thing that you want to do, try to do, in the offseason. And my entire job is balancing the needs of the team, the needs of the roster, versus the acquisition cost and what that might do to affect future seasons.
“That’s the job of being a general manager. That’s the job of being a front office. To the degree with which that works out, we’re certainly responsible for that and we’re aware of it. To try to avoid the balance of that, you’re not going to do the job well, you’re not going to do the job responsibly.
“So we made moves that we wanted to and I think we had some unfortunate breaks here early on. The outlook for the rest of the season and for the organization continues to be really strong. And we’re working on things behind the scenes to just keep getting better and keep the team on track or get people on track that need to be back on track. We’re doing our jobs.”
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