The Orioles have a top heavy bullpen. The top 3 guys have been incredible and they have the best closer in Baseball which is awesome but meanwhile everyone else has been somewhere between OK and bad. Just this week they made their first trade for a reliever in Shintaro Fujimani and hopefully more moves are coming to bolster the bullpen in preparation for a playoff push.
So here is a tiered list of all of the Orioles bullpen options
The Mountain
Felix Bautista
ERA: .96 | WHIP: .851 | ERA+: 438 | FIP: 1.58 | K/9: 17.4 | SV: 26 |
Felix Bautista is incredible. He has been lights out all year. His stuff is almost unhittable. Baseball Savant has him as a 100th percentile pitcher in K%, Whiff %, xBA, and xERA/xwOBA and 99th percentile in fastball velocity and xSLG. The strikeouts are especially notable; nobody has ever struck out batters at the rate that Felix Bautista is doing it. Stepping into the box vs Felix Bautista must be one of the most helpless feelings in baseball. Once a month he hangs a splitter and someone hits it out but if that is the price to pay for the most dominant closer in the league then I’ll make that deal.
Trustworthy Studs
These are 2 guys that I feel great about when they take the mound and they have been 2 of the best relievers in all of baseball.
Yennier Cano
ERA: 1.53 | WHIP: .915 | ERA+: 274 | FIP: 2.61 | K/9: 7.9 | HLD: 22 |
Yennier Cano has been so good it is easy to forget that he was not on the opening day roster. Once he did get called up he had one of the best starts to a season for a reliever ever getting the first 22 batters he faced out. If it wasn’t for Cano breaking out the way that he has, the Orioles would have been dead in the water with the way the rest of the bullpen has played. Having Cano lock down the 8th and hand over the ball to Bautista has made it so if you’re not beating the O’s after 7 you’re not beating them at all. He has done a good job making Mike Elias look very smart for getting him as a throw in piece in the Jorge Lopez trade and he was rewarded for his excellent work with a trip to the All Star game. Lately he has gotten hit a little more as batters have adjusted to him so it will be interesting to see how he responds. The fact that he has struggled a little bit recently is a good reminder that nothing is guaranteed in the bullpen and that the Orioles need to add some help at the deadline.
Danny Coulombe
ERA: 2.70 | WHIP: 1.050 | ERA+: 156 | FIP: 2.81 | K/9: 11.1 | HLD: 16 |
Danny Coulombe was a last minute addition to the team and has been by far the third best reliever in the pen. Looking at his career numbers I am surprised his season is not getting more attention. He went from being a mediocre journeyman reliever to the king of soft contact. Maybe it’s more spin on his fastball or maybe it’s the addition of a sweeper to his pitch mix but either way Danny Coulombe has become impossible to barrel up His approach can lead to him getting BABIP’d to death but he’s been rock solid this year.
Good until they’re not
These are 2 guys that are kind of hit or miss. They have had some great moments and some really not great moments but I think they are ultimately positives in the bullpen. If I had my choice the Orioles would trade for an arm or 2 that could be better than these guys but if they don’t I’m fine with these guys taking the mound in the playoffs.
Bryan Baker
ERA: 3.83 | WHIP: 1.300 | ERA+: 110 | FIP: 3.66 | K/9: 10.8 | HLD: 11 |
When Bryan Baker has it going he is a very good pitcher, when he doesn’t it can get ugly fast. On Twitter you’ll see fans tweet “Let Bryan bake” with a picture of a cake and it’s either the most beautiful cake you’ve ever seen or a burnt lump of bread and that’s pretty much how it feels. Their numbers are similar but I think I prefer Baker over the other guy in this tier Mike Baumann His either lockdown or meltdown approach will be nerve wracking when he inevitably takes the mound in the playoffs.
Mike Baumann
ERA: 3.69 | WHIP: 1.295 | ERA+: 114 | FIP: 4.06 | K/9: 9.7 | HLD: 8 |
Big Mike Baumann has had a pretty good season considering at the start of the year I thought he’d be one of the first people we moved on from. He was a spot starter/ long relief guy who bounced between the Majors and the Minors last year and this year he has been good being one of the first guys to get up in the bullpen when the starter is struggling early in the game but the advanced numbers are little more skeptical of Baumann and I would feel better if he was more of a cleanup guy rather than one of the first guys off the bench.
I’m begging you to be good again
These guys were good last year but have been bad this year. If the playoffs started today I would not want either of these guys to pitch even one inning unless it’s a blowout. I am hopeful that they can turn things around and be good again but I wouldn’t count on it.
Cionel Perez
ERA: 4.88 | WHIP: 1.851 | ERA+: 86 | FIP: 4.66 | K/9: 6.6 | HLD: 8 |
Cionel Perez was one of the best relievers in baseball last year, his numbers were about equal to what Yennier Cano has done this year and he has had a really tough year this year. It feels like a cop out but I think the main culprit has been the pitch clock, last year Cionel was one of the slowest pitchers in the league and the pitch clock has clearly thrown off his rhythm. The pitch clock is not going away so if Cionel wants to continue to be a major league reliever he is going to have to figure out a way to be effective and fast. The Orioles have tried to use him in low leverage situation to get his confidence and right before he went on the IL he was starting to pitch better. He was just activated and if he could come back and be even 80% of last year’s Cionel Perez it would be a huge boost to the bullpen, like trading for an impact reliever without having to trade for an impact reliever unfortunately he looked really bad in his first appearance back so I fear the clock may be ticking on Cionel Perez.
Austin Voth
ERA: 4.94 | WHIP: 1.581 | ERA+: 85 | FIP: 5.45 | K/9: 9.0 | HLD: 4 |
Last year Austin Voth was one the Orioles best reclamation projects, the acquired him after he started the year with Washington with an ERA over 10 and for the rest of the year he was a good pitcher out of the bullpen and as a starter. This year he got off to a really bad start with a crazy streak of giving up homers in every appearance. He started to turn it around as the season went on but was hardly lights out before going on the IL. Similar to Cionel if he comes off the IL and is last year’s Austin Voth that’s a huge boost but if not I think the O’s need to be quick to pull the plug. The good thing for the Orioles is that if they do have to DFA Voth or Perez there is a decent chance they go unclaimed because they’ve been so bad.
Mysterious Circumstances
These guys are all over the place. There are mystery nagging injuries and weird strength and conditioning assignments and guys getting bounced up and down between the Majors and Minors. It is unclear if any of these guys will be on the Orioles playoff roster.
Dillon Tate
ERA: 3.05 | WHIP: .991 | ERA+: 128 | FIP: 3.48 | K/9: 7.3 | HLD: 16 | (Last Year)
Dillon Tate was excellent last year and was in line to be the Orioles 8th inning guy this year before suffering an injury that caused him to miss the beginning of the season. Since then he has had multiple setbacks and just a little over a week ago was shut down again. It is looking less and less likely that he will be joining the team and if he does there will be concerns about him adjusting to pitching after almost a year.
Nick Vespi
ERA: 3.00 | WHIP: 1.111 | ERA+: 144 | FIP: 3.84 | K/9: 7.0 | HLD: 1 |
Vespi has not been able to lock down consistent time on the 26 man roster this year despite the fact that he has been very good in his short stints. The problem is that the under performing members of the bullpen that Vespi should replace do not have any options and the team hasn’t wanted to DFA players like Austin Voth and Cionel Perez in favor of bringing up Vespi full time so he has been stuck ping ponging back and forth between the Majors and Triple A. I think that Vespi should be a full time member of the bullpen and that he will eventually get that spot once the front office has more clarity on what they want to do with some of the struggling relievers.
DL Hall
ERA: 5.94 | WHIP: 1.740 | ERA+: 69 | FIP: 2.06 | K/9: 14.0 | SV: 1 | (Career)
DL Hall has had a weird year. After being on the team to end the 2022 season he had some injury struggled in the off season then made one appearance with Major League team follow by sporadic appearances in Triple A and some different assignments trying to work on his command and most recently his “Strength” as his velocity has been down. Last year there were high hopes for him and he showed some flashes despite the numbers not being awesome at the Major League level but it doesn’t seem like he is close to rejoining the Major League team.
It’s Over
Anytime any of these guys take the mound I have absolutely zero confidence in them. I hope we don’t see any of these guys pitch on the Major League team again unless a bus with all our other relievers gets lost on the way to the game.
Keegan Akin
ERA: 6.85 | WHIP: 1.785 | ERA+: 62 | FIP: 2.99 | K/9: 10.3 | HLD: 3 |
Keegan Akin has been terrible this year and it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Besides a good stretch to start the 2022 season he has always been a mediocre pitcher and I don’t think you can bank on him coming back off the IL and being good again. I would be very disappointed if the Orioles lose any games down the stretch of this season because they were determined to make Keegan Akin happen while good relievers like Vespi are stuck in the Triple A. If the Orioles DFA him I can almost guarantee nobody will be interested in a reliever with an ERA hanging around 7.
Logan Gillaspie
ERA: 6.00 | WHIP: 2.111 | ERA+: 72 | FIP: 6.40 | K/9: 8.0 | HLD: 2 |
Logan Gillaspie at his best is a mop up reliever. I am just not interested in having make any more appearances for the team this year. He just got optioned in favor of the Orioles new addition Shintaro Fujinami. Hopefully he has a good rest of his season in Triple A.
Mychal Givens
ERA: 3.38 | WHIP: 1.321 | ERA+: 121 | FIP: 3.96 | K/9: 10.4 | HLD: 7 | (Last Year)
Givens was a fun offseason addition but he was hurt to start the season and when he finally made his season debut he was pretty bad not only were the numbers bad but the stuff did not look like Mychal Givens stuff.. He was really good last year with the Cubs before joining the Mets where he struggled, now he has been hurt and struggling in Baltimore. There’s hope that he has just been hurt and that he needs to take him time to get better and he’ll bounce back but I think we can forget about him helping the 2023 Orioles.
Bruce Zimmerman
ERA: 5.56 | WHIP: 1.324 | ERA+: 77 | FIP: 5.14 | K/9: 9.5 |
Bruce Zimmerman is what he is and what he is is a 5.50 ERA pitcher whether he is starting or not. He isn’t a starter on a team that hopes to win more than 60 games and he doesn’t really have the stuff to be a shut down 1 inning reliever. He can be serviceable as an innings eater guy maybe if you have an unexpected double header but I would be fine if we never saw him on the Major League roster again. We’ll always have those first 2 weeks of 2022.
Bonus
Shintaro Fujinami
ERA: 8.57 | WHIP: 1.662 | ERA+: 47 | FIP: 4.93 | K/9: 9.3 |
The Orioles are officially buyers! We sent over a Triple A pitcher that was about to be rule 5 eligible. If the A’s like him then they can put him on their 40 man and maybe he’ll have a good career but I don’t think it was a big loss to the Orioles who are now taking a flier on Shintaro Fujinami. Shintaro started the year as a starter and that experiment failed pretty quickly, he then transferred to the bullpen.The numbers look bad but if you’ve read anything about this deal I’m sure it was mentioned that he has been much better in his last several appearances. He has had some command issues but he can hit 102 and has a splitter so hopefully the Orioles can work their magic on him and make him into a mini Felix. I wouldn’t say this move is THE move to solidify the bullpen but it is cool to see the Orioles bring in someone with a big arm.
Other notes:
Cole Irvin has moved the bullpen since Grayson Rodriguez got called up but I didn’t write anything about him because he got covered pretty well in the starting pitching blog I wrote. He will be a bulk guy and already had his first really good bulk relief appearance after Tyler Wells got shelled out of the game in the 2nd.
Eduard Bazardo has made a few appearances but that was a pure emergency mop up stuff and I don’t really have an opinion on him.
Seth Johnson and Drew Rom are on the 40 man but I don’t think they will make much of an impact this year.
The Dishwasher 
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