The Orioles prospect is getting a spot start and maybe if it goes well, he’ll stick around longer.
Hello, friends.
Throughout a lot of last season, there were times where things felt so dismal that I half-jokingly and half-seriously asked, “Worst (Orioles record) team ever?” I’m thinking about it again after watching the mess they played against the Marlins on Tuesday night, which seemed like it must have resulted from some kind of hex or curse placed upon the team. Worst 60-40 team ever?
The joke is that of course you aren’t bad at all if you’re 60-40. That’s a 97-win pace over a full season. It’s great. But it really sucked to watch Albert Suárez to get lit up by a punchless Miami offense, with the team having some baserunning and defensive decisions that could be at their most generously described as inattentive.
Worse still, the game came with a demoralizing and grotesque-looking injury, as Jorge Mateo and Gunnar Henderson both dove for the same ground ball and Mateo collided with Henderson’s leg. The replay was gnarly, Mateo’s elbow bending the complete wrong direction in slow motion, and in the immediate aftermath he did nothing more than hold it limply. After the game, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters that x-rays were negative for Mateo, though further testing including an MRI is still needed to determine the injury.
Suárez suffered an injury that knocked him out of the game too, a line drive that went off of his foot or leg and ricocheted into foul territory. It may be that this was a convenient time for the Orioles to pull Suárez or he might have actually been hurt in a similar way to what happened to Kyle Bradish in his first start last season.
These two things leave the Orioles with some short-term decisions that will have to be made while they are also engaged with longer-term thinking in what to do about the trade deadline. Mateo’s injury looked almost certain to be one that will result in extended missed time. Should the O’s choose to replace him with Connor Norby? Has Jackson Holliday has done enough in the minors to return and be the regular second baseman? What about calling up Coby Mayo and slide over Jordan Westburg from third to second, where he rates as a weaker defender?
After the game, reporters indicated that it would be Norby headed from the Tides to join the Orioles in case Mateo’s injury warrants an IL stint.
If Suárez goes on the injured list, that replacement is much more straightforward. The team had already brought prospect Chayce McDermott with them to Miami as a taxi squad player, with Corbin Burnes pushed back a day to start on Thursday and tonight’s starting pitcher listed as TBA. McDermott can swap in, make the start, and the Orioles can figure out what to do with the Suárez spot in another few days.
McDermott is definitely making the start today, because Hyde announced it after last night’s game. The update on Suárez was a shin contusion. I think that’s borderline on whether it will lead to a minimum-lengthy 15-day injured list stay or if Suárez will hang around. Presumably, if Suárez isn’t put on the IL, a reliever will be optioned. I’d drop Bryan Baker, but I don’t expect to be consulted before the move. It can’t be Mateo to the IL for McDermott because of the roster limit on pitchers.
I figure McDermott is here to make at least two starts. Normal rest slots him for one of the doubleheader games on Monday. The Orioles need two pitchers that day already. He might as well be one. I’m not a believer in McDermott as a prospect because of his walk rate but you bet I’m rooting for him to do great every time out with the O’s.
Maybe the Orioles will even have a new pitcher from outside the organization before Suárez’s next turn. Still, the focus of fan thinking about the deadline cannot even solely be limited to which prospects might get traded to improve the big league roster. ESPN’s Jeff Passan indicated that the Orioles are open to considering trades of Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle if there’s a contender-for-contender swap out there that could fortify the O’s and also a need on that other team. (The link goes to MLBTR, which posted an article with analysis of Passan’s subscriber-only news.)
The idea of the Orioles doing some kind of veteran-for-veteran trade is something that I won’t believe unless it happens. We just haven’t seen Mike Elias do anything of that sort and it doesn’t seem to be in his philosophical wheelhouse. You can see the sense in it, if you consider these guys as expendable to the O’s based on what prospects are either already broken in or are soon to break in. The Orioles could use some mid-range bullpen help in addition to starting pitching.
Here’s some good news. The Yankees lost to the Mets last night, so the Orioles did not lose any ground to the closest AL East competition. They play the Mets again at 7:05 tonight. The O’s, meanwhile, will have to try to find some life against the Marlins – supporting the rookie, McDermott, as he debuts – in a game that starts at 6:40. They’ll face Miami’s Edward Cabrera, who brings a 7+ ERA into the contest. Really.
Around the blogO’sphere
One example of the Orioles drafting a college pitcher and making him better (Steve Melewski)
I’m going to need to see some results from a higher level than Aberdeen before feeling like this claim has been supported. Hoping Jackson Baumeister can do some more developing.
Orioles minor league report: Kyle Stowers conquered Norfolk. What next? (The Baltimore Sun)
The Orioles have so many guys right now where it feels like they should be on some MLB roster somewhere that you can lose sight of them all.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 2018, the Orioles traded Zack Britton to the Yankees for Dillon Tate, Josh Rogers, and Cody Carroll. It could have turned out worse.
There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2012 pitcher Miguel Socolovich, and 1954-55 pitcher Duane Pillette.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Latin American independence heavyweight Simón Bolívar (1783), novelist Alexandre Dumas (1802), aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (1897), watermelon smasher Gallagher (1946), actress Lynda Carter (1951), basketball Hall of Famer Karl Malone (1963), singer/actress Jennifer Lopez (1969), and actress Elisabeth Moss (1982).
On this day in history…
In 1304, England’s Edward I used the largest trebuchet ever constructed, dubbed the “War Wolf” or “Loup-de-Guerre” to capture Scotland’s Stirling Castle.
In 1847, Brigham Young and his Mormon followers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, after which they established Salt Lake City.
In 1911, American explorer Hiram Bingham III arrived at Machu Picchu, rediscovering the Incan “lost city.”
In 1974, a unanimous Supreme Court determined that President Nixon could not withhold tapes from the special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation.
**
And that’s the way it is in Birdland on July 24. Have a safe Wednesday. Go O’s!