Baltimore Orioles: Dispensable pitching

Yesterday I wrote about Andrew Miller and whether or not his price has gone up with some of the goings on around the league. One might look at this as a continuation of that column, albeit from a different perspective. The Baltimore Orioles are always on the lookout for pitching, be it starters or relievers. However let’s keep in mind that there’s always a chance that we’re looking at this from the wrong angle. Is it not possible that the Orioles’ pitching is in fact more dispensable than we think?

I would submit that the wild card is Dylan Bundy. He’s of course a commodity that we thought the Birds would have in the big leagues by now.

Courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

However Tommy John surgery derailed that goal, however I digress. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that a starter (such as perhaps Bud Norris) could be dispensable to the team. But again – I digress…for the moment at least.

Again, yesterday I talked about Andrew Miller and the bullpen. Would the O’s consider putting someone like Bundy in the pen presuming that Miller ends up elsewhere? You’ll recall that at the tail end of 2012 the Orioles brought Bundy up to “the show,” and placed him in the bullpen. (He was promoted in the wake of a 17-inning game in Seattle so as to act as bullpen support.) He didn’t see much action in the two weeks that were left in the season at that point, but he made a couple of relief appearances.

I would submit that Bundy won’t start the season with the Orioles unless they have a boatload of injuries in spring training, or Bundy pitches lights out during the Grapefruit League season. But whenever it’s deemed ready for him to come up, I do think that he could be strong in the role in which we saw Miller in 2014. Of course when he was drafted the Orioles envisioned him as a power starter, and that’s most certainly still possible. But when you’re a team who could once again be in contention in 2015 such as the Orioles, players need to be prepared to play wherever they’re needed. If Bundy is asked to play that role, I have no doubt he’ll relish the opportunity.