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.
Question: What can the Orioles realistically do with Cedric Mullins if his .123 batting average since May 1st continues to decline? From: Richard Kalwarski
Answer: Richard, similar questions were also posed by Dwight Wanken and Mirvin Metzger.
Realistically, the Orioles have two choices with Mullins. They can stick with him and hope that he gets out of his offensive funk because he still brings defense and speed. They can also option him to Triple-A Norfolk because he does have one option remaining.
Sending him to Norfolk would be a drastic move and, yes, they did send him to the minor leagues in 2019 after a rough start, but it’s not often that a team would send a 30-30 player with an All-Star start to the minors.
They’re not going to trade him because his value is down, and teams would be reluctant to assume the rest of his $6.33 million salary. They’re also not going to release him when they could send him to the minor leagues. They won’t designate him for assignment because he has an option remaining.
I’d say they’ll probably stick with him for now and hope he gets better because they still are an excellent club even with his offensive woes, but I wouldn’t rule anything out.
Question: Is there a metric that’s used to suggest removing pitchers at 100 pitches used to either reduce the wear and tear of a pitcher’s arm or has it been shown that a pitcher’s effectiveness drops after 100 pitches regardless of how well they are doing up to that point? From: John Flato
Answer: John, there are no definitive rules about whether throwing more than 100 pitches increases the risk of injury or reduces their effectiveness. However, with the number of injuries to pitchers, teams are being more and more careful with them.
Through Wednesday, there have been just 10 complete games in the major leagues, a drastic reduction over the time we’ve been watching baseball.
There is research shown that many pitchers are less effective throwing to a hitter a fourth time in a game, and some teams adhere to that.
This is a subject where there’s been lots of speculation and no real answer.