One of the most difficult tasks that the Orioles front office is facing this offseason is that they need to completely overhaul the bullpen. Going into an offseason with zero serious backend relief options is not an entirely new experience for this front office but this year will be the first time they go into an offseason with so few real bullpen arms AND the expectation that the bullpen needs to be good next year.
Think of how good the Orioles bullpen was in 2023 when they won the AL East. That year the Orioles bullpen was 2nd in WAR, 1st in FIP, 5th in ERA and sent 2 relievers to the all star game.
How’d that bullpen get so good? Did they sign a big free agent closer? Did they trade a top prospect for a set up guy? No, their big signing was Mychal Givens and the only reliever they traded for that offseason was Danny Coulombe who they got in exchange for cash.
The way that the Orioles built their dominant 2023 bullpen was through “The Churn”.
The Churn is perhaps the most underrated benefit of being a really bad team. When you are the kind of team that takes the field on opening day with a 0% chance of making the playoffs the stakes are low and it doesn’t really matter if your bullpen blows a bunch of games.
That kind of low stakes environment allows bad teams to churn through relievers until they hit on one. You start the season with 8 guys you’re interested in and throughout the year you send them down to triple A or you DFA them and grab guys off waivers. You give those guys a shot and if they’re no good you DFA them and you grab more guys off waivers.
These days especially there are so many incredibly talented pitchers kicking around the outskirts of the league or bouncing around in the minors that are just waiting for the right pitching coach to unlock them. There are guys that have nasty stuff that are just a new pitch grip or a change in arm angle away from being a legit reliever.
Good teams don’t always have time or the margin for error to wait around for them to figure it out or try to fix these guys so they’ll DFA them or throw them into trades or whatever and teams like the 100 loss Orioles will happily snatch them up.
The 100-loss Orioles do have the time and the margin for error to let a talented but wild flamethrower blow a game by surrendering a bases loaded walk. They can afford to lose a game because their new left handed reliever gave up a grand slam trying to throw a sweeper for the first time.
These losses help the team’s draft position and if along the way it turns out one of these relievers end up being a real guy that’s just a bonus. As a front office it’s a win-win situation, if the guy you claimed off waivers turns a corner then you’re a genius scout who saw a diamond in the rough and if he stays bad you just churn him. If someone pops a little early and they’re suddenly great but the team is still a ways away you can trade him for more pitchers and just keep right on churning.
If you churn long and hard enough you’ll eventually have a group of relievers that is not only pretty solid but also dirt cheap since you’re either signing them for the minimum or picking them up on pre-arb deals after they wash out with their original team.
Let’s look at the Orioles original Churn under Mike Elias
In 2019 the Orioles used 26 relievers
In 2020 they used 21 (in a 60 game season)
In 2021 they used 34
In 2022 they used 25
That’s a lot of churn. Just numbers of pitchers isn’t the perfect metric because sometimes good teams can still end up using a lot of relievers in a season if they suffer a lot of injuries or remake their bullpen at the deadline but if you look at teams that were trying to compete in that same time frame when the Orioles were churning there is a clear difference. In 2021 when the Orioles used 34 relievers the Astros used 23, the Yankees used 21 and the White Sox used 15 (they won 93 games that year remember).
You could also just compare those Orioles Churn years to the subsequent non Churn years. In 2023 they came into the season with Felix Bautista, Yennier Cano, Mike Baumann, Cionel Perez, Danny Coloumbe, Bryan Baker and Austin Voth already on the roster and those 8 guys accounted for over 380 innings of work. That is a large majority of the bullpen innings for the entire season being eaten up by just 8 guys.
Because the Orioles had a set core of bullpen arms doing most of the work there just wasn’t opportunity/need to churn through a bunch of waiver claims. That season the O’s only used 21 relievers.
The following season many of the same arms returned and they only used 22 relievers even though most of their reliable arms from 2023 performed worse in 2024. Again no serious churn.
By the time 2025 rolled around it had been over 2 seasons since the Orioles had the freedom to use The Churn to get effective relievers on dirt cheap contracts. Instead they had done what contending teams have to do which is sign or trade for known major league relievers on real contracts.
In the previous offseason/ deadline they had acquired Seranthony Dominguez. Gregory Soto and Andrew Kittredge. All of which were/are solid relievers but when you acquire real relievers on real contracts you can’t send them down if they under perform.
At the same time longtime bullpen arms Keegan Akin, Bryan Baker, and Cionel Perez were out of options so they couldn’t be sent down either. So between the new guys on major league deals and the old guys out of options the O’s didn’t have a lot of flexibility.
That is how it goes when you can’t churn. One of the difficult parts of being a team that attempts to contend every year is that your bullpen can’t be full of experiments and projects, you need bankable talent and experience. Dependable bullpen arms cost money and typically don’t love to be bounced up and down between the majors and the minors.
When the Orioles season went sideways the front office took the opportunity to jettison their expensive bullpen arms and do a second half of the season bullpen churn. This Mini-Churn produced some interesting results. We got to see Kade Strowd in some high leverage innings, Dietrich Enns came out of nowhere and Rico Garcia had some electric moments in his second stint churning for the Orioles.
However a half season bullpen churn isn’t enough to get the Orioles back to where they were in 2023. The Orioles have a lot of work to do to get their bullpen ready for 2026 and if they want to take advantage of this window they can’t afford to do another 3 season bullpen churn.
Can they do it without The Churn?
You look at the relief pitchers Elias has signed the last few offseasons and it doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence.
I mentioned in 2023 his big relief pitcher signing was Mychal Givens, that was quite bad.
In 2024 he signed Craig Kimbrel which was painful.
Most recently in 2025 he signed Andrew Kittredge who was fine but like Kimbral and Givens did not finish the season with the Orioles. In fact Mike Elias has never signed a free agent relief pitcher to a major league contract and had them make it all the way through the season with the Orioles.
Not great!
Free agents aren’t the only avenue to improve the bullpen, there’s also trades. In his tenure Elias has generally had a bit more luck in the trade market than he’s had in free agency. You look at the last few years and the Seranthony Dominguez and Gregory Soto trades stand out as quality moves and you could also include Danny Coulombe as a trade success story.
So all in all maybe you just call that a mixed bag.
How many bullpen arms do the Orioles need to bring in?
I’ve been saying throughout this blog the Orioles need a full bullpen overhaul but that is me being a bit hyperbolic. I am not suggesting that the Orioles sign 8 free agent relievers to fill out their pen. Between the guys who flashed some talent in the Orioles second half bullpen churn and some of the prospects the Orioles got at the deadline the O’s should be able to fill a chunk of the bullpen with internal options.
In fact as I looked at the internal options the Orioles have I found myself pleasantly surprised at the amount of depth that they have internally.
Normally you have 8 relievers on your active roster but when you look at how many relievers most teams use in a season it is rare to see a team use less than 20.
The Orioles have 33 guys that are either on the 40 man or hanging around in the upper minors that I could see pitching out of the bullpen in 2026 so they are well stocked to make it through the season in that regard.
However when I look at those 33 names I don’t see anyone that any of the teams in the ALCS or NLCS would’ve wanted to put on the mound in the final 3 innings of a close game.
Akin and Cano are the only guys with a surplus of late inning experience and if the Orioles are serious about being good again next year they should be trying very hard to make sure neither of those guys appears in the 8th innings or later in a close game.
I think Tyler Wells has the potential to be a good reliever but we haven’t really seen it to the point where you could go into a season saying we know that Tyler Wells is going to be our 8th inning guy. Grayson Rodriguez has closer stuff but I really don’t want him to have to be a reliever.
There are young guys and prospects like Kade Strowd, Tyson Neighbors and Anthony Nunez who I believe have a shot at being pretty solid major league relievers but it would be irresponsible to go into a season with aspirations of making the playoffs and the expectation that a bunch of rookies are going to be responsible for the bulk of your high leverage innings.
So if the Orioles want to sell me on the fact that they are trying to compete for the AL East I would like to see them bring in at least 3 bullpen arms either through free agency or via trade that they plan to have pitch in the 8th and 9th innings throughout the year.
How hard could that be?
To put it briefly, very hard.
Relief pitchers are notoriously volatile. Even if you’re shopping at the top of the market and bringing in guys with extensive track records of success there is no guarantee that you’re going to see results. With any kind of free agent signing there is a worry that it could turn out to be a bust but with relievers that worry is heightened.
Let’s look at some of the big reliever acquisitions from last offseason.
Tanner Scott was really good in 2023 and 2024. Across those 2 seasons he put up a 2.04 ERA and a 2.53 FIP. Against lefties in particular he was especially dominant. The Dodgers gave him 72 million dollars in return he burped up a 4.74 ERA and 4.70 FIP.
In 2 seasons with the Phillies Jeff Hoffman put up a 2.28 ERA and 2.54 FIP. He did just punch the Jays ticket to the World Series so maybe they’re feeling good about giving him 33 million dollars but during the season he was really bad putting up an ERA of 4.37 with a FIP of 4.70
He wasn’t a free agent but Devin Williams had been one of the very best relievers in baseball in his six seasons with the Brewers. The man got MVP votes in multiple different seasons as a reliever. The Yankees traded for him and he immediately had the worst season of his career with an ERA of 4.79.
So bringing in 3 relief pitchers who are capable of pitching in high leverage innings is no small task. But the alternative is going into the 2026 season with Rico Garcia, Kade Strowd and Keegan Akin as your 7-8-9 guys and if that’s the case you might as well wave the white flag.
Who should the Orioles pursue?
The good news for the Orioles is that there are a lot of very solid veteran bullpen arms available in free agency this year. I counted 30 names of upcoming free agents who would immediately become a top 3 arm in the Orioles bullpen and that’s not even including guys that could be acquired via trade.
If you’ve read past Dishwasher blogs you know that I was tempted to try to rank them but instead I opted to just pick 3 free agents and 3 trade targets to write about.
I’m not saying the Orioles need to get 3 of these 6 guys, like I said there’s lots of good options out there this year, but if they could get 1 of my 6 favorites I’d feel pretty good about the direction of their offseason.
Free Agency targets
Robert Suarez
IP: 69.2 | ERA: 2.97 | FIP: 2.88 | WHIP: 0.904 | xERA: 3.67 | xFIP: 3.33 | K%: 27.9% | BB%: 5.9% | WAR: 1.9
Wouldn’t it be fun to have both Suarez brothers in the bullpen together?
Besides the good vibes Suarez would be a perfect addition to this Orioles bullpen. Over the past 2 seasons on a Padres team whose strength was the bullpen Suarez was the locked down the closer role in San Diego.
He’s been both durable and consistent for the Padres. His fastball heavy approach is aggressive. He throws his fastball hard in the middle of the zone and just let’s it do it’s thing and gets great results. He has good command and he doesn’t nibble around the zone so even if someone does manage to run into one of his fastballs and barrel him up the bases are usually empty so that damage is minimal.
He’ll be 35 next year so this will be his best shot at getting a real payday. If there is one free agent reliever the Orioles should be willing to give a 2-3 year deal it should be Suarez.
Devin Williams
IP: 62 | ERA: 4.79 | FIP: 2.68 | WHIP: 1.129 | xERA: 3.07 | xFIP: 2.95 | K%: 34.7% | BB%: 9.7% | WAR: 1.4
You might be asking yourself, “Devin Williams?! Didn’t you just use him as an example of how acquiring a big time reliever can go wrong?!”
Yes I did, BUT look at those expected numbers!
When you are asking yourself the question did that trade work out for the Yankees, you have to look at the actual results of Willaims work this past year. Stuff like ERA and blown saves matters.
However when the question is should the Orioles try to sign Devin Williams than those expected numbers become a lot more important.
The lesson I get from those numbers is that Williams is not washed and he didn’t get figured out. When it comes to predicting future performance he was the same guy in all the ways that matter. He still got a ton of chase, a ton of whiff and he even walked fewer guys than ever.
I’m not fazed by his 2025 season at all.
Tyler Rogers
IP: 77.1 | ERA: 1.98 | FIP: 2.88 | WHIP: 1.098 | xERA: 2.63 | xFIP: 3.08 | K%: 16.1% | BB%: 2.3% | WAR: 1.3
The Orioles have a rich history (Darren O’Day) of having a submarine pitcher on their best teams and one could argue that’s exactly what they’ve been missing these past few seasons.
Rogers has been the most durable reliever in baseball leading the league in games pitched in 4 of the last 6 seasons. He doesn’t just show up for work though, over his entire run with the Giants and then very briefly with the Mets he’s been incredibly effective.
You look at his savant page he’s 100th percentile in BB%, Barrel% and 98th percentile in ground ball rate. Basically more than any other pitcher in the league if you’re facing Tyler Rogers you just have to hope that the groundball you’re about to hit sneaks through the infield because he’s not going to walk you and you’re not going to elevate him.
I’d even be down for the Orioles to get the other Rogers brother as well.
Trade Targets
Pete Fairbanks
IP: 60.1 | ERA: 2.83 | FIP: 3.63 | WHIP: 1.044 | xERA: 3.00 | xFIP: 3.76 | K%: 24.2% | BB%: 7.4% | WAR: 1.0
I was one of many people not happy when Pete Fairbanks blew the Orioles a kiss and then called them “LEGO loving people” in his post game interview but apparently he’s also a LEGO loving person and the kiss was meant for a heckler.
With that in mind I would like to officially declare that The Dishwasher community has forgiven Pete Fairbanks and is ready for him to come join the Orioles, close a bunch of games and play LEGOs with Colton Cowser.
Like many Rays pitchers Fairbanks has shown that he can be very good when healthy but he has struggled to maintain his health for an entire season. 2025 was his first season since 202o where he didn’t hit the IL.
Fairbanks could be a free agent if the Rays decline his option but reportedly they are going to pick it up. That would mean in 2026 he’d be an expensive reliever in his final year with the Rays which makes him a lock to be traded.
Bryan Abreu
IP: 71 | ERA: 2.28 | FIP: 2.39 | WHIP: 1.155 | xERA: 3.45 | xFIP: 2.98 | K%: 35.5% | BB%: 10.5% | WAR: 2.2
Bryan Abreu is currently on a 4 year run of being one of the best relievers in baseball. He’s got elite swing and miss stuff that leads to elite strikeout rates.
Usually someone this good wouldn’t be available but the Astros have shown a willingness to gradually keep taking steps back. Last year they punted on Kyle Tucker in his last year of arbitration and now that Abreu is in his final year of free agency I think it’s possible the Astros entertain moving him and getting more aggressive about the mini rebuild they are doing right now.
I don’t think it would be cheap, trading for Abreu would be the equivalent of the Orioles front office swinging for the fences in 2026 so I’m not holding my breath that this will happen but if he’s available the Orioles should be one of the first teams to call.
JoJo Romero
IP: 61 | ERA: 2.07 | FIP: 3.28 | WHIP: 1.246 | xERA: 3.31 | xFIP: 4.12 | K%: 21.6% | BB%: 11.4% | WAR: 0.9
I haven’t touched on this yet so I’ll say it now. At least one of the Orioles reliever acquisitions needs to be left handed because that is an area where they’re especially lacking.
Romero took awhile to get his career going but over the last 2 seasons he’s established himself as a reliable back end of the bullpen arm. This year all but 1 of his innings came after the 7th.
He probably isn’t quite as good as his 2.07 ERA suggests but even if he were to see a full run of regression next year he’d be a great addition to the Orioles pen. He struggles with walks a little bit but he’s great at keeping the ball on the ground and batters struggle to hit him very hard.
It would be like trading for a better version of Cionel Perez.
Like I said there are a lot of good options out there, I didn’t even mention Raisel Iglesias, Emilio Pagan or Ryan Helsley.
The only thing the Orioles can’t do is say that Akin really showed something last year as a high leverage reliever, sign Kenley Jansen and call it a day like they have in years past.
By Nathan Skidmore
The Dishwasher 
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