The Orioles have hung around the wild card race mostly on the backs of their starting rotation. Well, the rotation and the fact that the American League is filled with flawed teams. Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Shane Baz and Brandon Young have all pitched well over the last month.
Young has provided Baltimore a chance to win in almost every start this season. Bradish, despite a hiccup his last time out, has earned his recent five-year extension. Rogers pitched to a 2.05 ERA in June and somehow topped
it with a 1.48 ERA in July, and Baz’s 3.00 ERA this month has marked his lowest of the year.
Unfortunately, Dean Kremer has failed to match his teammate’s consistent performances. Kremer took the mound last night with a chance to deliver the Orioles a series win. Instead, he allowed eight runs over four laborious innings. The clunker came a week after Kremer allowed six runs in a 6-3 loss to Boston.
Kremer always felt like a guy that you could depend on in the back of your rotation. The seven-year veteran entered last night’s start with a career 4.30 ERA. Sometimes he’d go five innings, sometimes he’d go seven, but he’d usually provide the team a chance to win the game. That was true on July 1 when he delivered six innings of one-run ball, but Kremer has since strayed from his consistent reputation.
It’s been a strange season for one of Baltimore’s longest-tenured players. Kremer actually started the season in the minors when the Orioles added Zach Eflin and Chris Bassitt. Eflin went down almost immediately, and Kremer made two April starts before suffering a quad strain that landed him on the 60-day IL.
A lot happened in Birdland while Kremer worked his way back to the active roster. Bassitt went down with an injury, and Young emerged as one of the better pitchers in the organization. Trey Gibson appeared in eight games, and the Orioles dug a pretty deep hole in the AL East.
That hole is what brings Kremer into the spotlight. The Orioles left themselves no room for error. Now, with the team still under .500 less than a week before the trade deadline, every game feels like a must win. No team in the AL wild card race is going to win every game they play, but Baltimore cannot afford to be losing games in the first few innings. That’s what happened when Kremer coughed up four runs in the first last week, and that’s what happened in a blowout loss last night. The 30-year-old lasted only four innings on July 17, and he allowed four earned over five innings against the Cubs on July 8.
Despite their record, there’s a growing sense that the Orioles will be at least modest buyers at the deadline. The team could definitely use a reliever or two, and the lineup has more than a few holes without Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo. Filling any of those needs would require prospect capital. The Birds would have more resources to allocate toward addressing those concerns if they stayed away from the starting pitching market.
Eighty percent of the rotation has looked incredibly capable of chasing down the final playoff spot. At times, the unit even looks capable of winning games in the postseason. A the same time, the Orioles cannot afford to have a guy taking the ball every fifth day that doesn’t provide the team a chance to win. Is that what they have with Kremer?
Orioles beat writer Jake Rill did a thorough job capturing the low lights last night. Rill shared that Kremer was the first O’s pitcher to give up 14 earned runs over a span of two outings since Spenser Watkins in August 2021. The outing marked only the second time in Kremer’s career that he gave up six runs or more in consecutive starts, and his eight earned runs last night represented a career high.
Kremer struggled to locate his pitches and caught far too much of the zone. The Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich shared the location of a few pitches that led to hard contact.
It feels unfair to make this much out of a few bad starts, but the Orioles are simply out of time. The trade deadline is less than a week away, and there’s been reports that the organization is searching for another starting pitcher. The team shouldn’t need another starter if Kremer reverts to the mean, but it’s unclear if the front office is willing to wait.
The team should get Bassitt back relatively soon. The veteran starter gave up one run over 3.1 innings during his first rehab appearance at Norfolk last night. The 37-year-old posted a 5.12 ERA over 12 starts, so he’s hardly a sure thing either. Unlike Kremer, Bassitt has some experience working in relief, and he could potentially help a depleted bullpen down the stretch. However, things get less clear if Kremer cannot be trusted in the rotation.
The Orioles need to rattle off a few three or four game win streaks if they hope to make the playoffs. It’s difficult to do that with a hole in the rotation. At the same time, it gets a lot easier with five strong starters.
Do you think the Orioles should acquire a starting pitcher at the deadline? Do you think they will? Let us know in the comments below.
