Done after depth?<\/p>\n
This is just one of the lingering questions after the Orioles brought back Zach Eflin on a one-year, $10 million contract Sunday with a mutual option for 2027.<\/p>\n
President of baseball operations\/general manager Mike Elias has negotiated with some of the top starters on the free agent market, including Framber Valdez and Ranger Su\u00e1rez. He alluded to the possibility, or maybe it was likelihood, of another big acquisition following first baseman Pete Alonso, who received $155 million over five seasons in the second-largest deal in franchise history.<\/p>\n
Eflin isn\u2019t that guy. He won\u2019t reprise his role as 2025 Opening Day starter. He might not be ready on that date after undergoing a lumbar microdiscectomy on Aug. 18 to cure the persistent lower-back pain that accounted for the last two of his three trips to the injured list last season.<\/p>\n
Elias wanted to strengthen the back end of the rotation and give manager Craig Albernaz more options following a season when the Orioles used a franchise-record 70 players and 41 different pitchers, the organization\u2019s second-highest total. Left unspoken for now is whether Elias shifts his full attention to the bullpen and potential role players or continues his pursuit of a potential No. 1 or 2 starter.<\/p>\n
The payroll can handle it. The roster would make room for it.<\/p>\n
Eflin\u2019s contract puts the club about $13 million below where it finished in 2025. Not that money really matters that much, right? The Orioles aren\u2019t spending like the Dodgers and Yankees, but they\u2019ll remind everyone again that they have no financial constraints. Dollars fuel the liftoff.<\/p>\n
The latest example is Eflin. When did you imagine the Orioles spending a guaranteed $10 million on one player to improve their depth?<\/p>\n
The roster is a separate topic. If Eflin begins the season on the injured list, the Orioles probably field a rotation of Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Shane Baz, Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells from their current group of candidates. Eflin\u2019s return probably would bump Wells to the bullpen again, where he could fill a variety of roles. He\u2019s closed and he\u2019s been a consumer of innings. He could set up for Ryan Helsley or work in a swingman role, which also might be Albert Su\u00e1rez\u2019s calling after he signed a minor league deal.<\/p>\n
The complication, which the Orioles happily will tackle, is another newcomer joining the staff. If Elias isn\u2019t done shopping, they could end up with five starters in March, plus Wells in the bullpen and Eflin on the injured list. \u00a0Now, let\u2019s say Eflin is ready to be reinstated early in the season \u2013 again, assuming that he stays back in Sarasota. The Orioles aren\u2019t going with a six-man rotation. They aren\u2019t messing with Bradish, Rogers and Baz. Kremer led the team in innings last season with 171 2\/3 and has ranked in the top three in each of the past four years.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re gonna put a workhorse in a \u2018pen?<\/p>\n
Kremer comes as close to that description as anyone on the staff.<\/p>\n
Guess what? The Orioles will deal with it later. They\u2019ll never step into the trap of having \u201ctoo much pitching,\u201d because it doesn\u2019t exist. That\u2019s a myth with steel teeth.<\/p>\n
The 1,804 player games spent on the IL last season ranked second in the American League behind the Astros and fourth in the majors. Bradish\u2019s only full season is 2023 with 30 starts, and he went on the injured list after his first outing with a bruised foot. Rogers made only 18 starts last season due to a knee injury and time spent at Triple-A. Baz underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2022, missed the 2023 season and made 14 starts in 2024. Wells underwent his second reconstructive elbow surgery in 2024 and has made seven appearances in the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
The Orioles didn\u2019t let the number of first basemen stop them from signing Alonso and they aren\u2019t letting the number of starters dissuade them from making other moves. Either they will sort it out or fate will do it for them.<\/p>\n
You can probably forget Eflin going to the bullpen. He\u2019s done it only 12 times out of 200 major league appearances over 10 seasons. His track record should shield him from it. There would have to be some extenuating circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think any of that conversation\u2019s been had,\u201d he said in yesterday\u2019s video call. \u201cI plan to start. I\u2019m a starter. I\u2019m gonna train to show up as a starter and that\u2019s kind of how I\u2019ve always been. But if there\u2019s conversations to be had, I\u2019m sure we\u2019re going to have that in the future. But as of now, I\u2019m gearing up plenty ready to be a starter and that\u2019s the mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eflin wants redemption after last summer\u2019s miserable performance and health, which clearly were linked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I would be lying if I said \u2018no,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKind of going\u00a0back to the loyalty thing, these guys wanted me back after missing all those starts and having an arm injury and having\u00a0a back\u00a0surgery.\u00a0I get a chance to go back and show what I really am, and that’s what I’m really excited\u00a0for.\u00a0I’m\u00a0excited to go out and compete with these guys and be healthy and just be competitive with them, because\u00a0that’s\u00a0what\u00a0it’s\u00a0all about\u00a0is being around the guys and being competitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m\u00a0just\u00a0thankful for the opportunity to come back\u00a0and,\u00a0it was\u00a0weighing on\u00a0me all\u00a0offseason and throughout the process of getting surgery.\u00a0It’s\u00a0hard to not feel like I let people down,\u00a0and to be on the other side of that, to feel as good as I do and to have the chance to come back is\u00a0just such a blessing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Done after depth? This is just one of the lingering questions after the Orioles brought back Zach Eflin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,48262,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-377788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-orioles","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}