Baltimore Orioles Rumors: Team inquiring about Jake Odorizzi

The Baltimore Orioles continue to sign pitchers to minor league contracts, but this doesn’t do much to bolster the empty starting rotation.

It may not mean much until ink has dried, but the Baltimore Orioles are rumored to be interested in Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Jake Odorizzi.

This rumor comes via Ken Rosenthal with The Athletic. And, according to Rosenthal, Odorizzi is not the only pitcher the Orioles are showing interest.

The other pitcher that the Orioles are interested in is Collin McHugh of the Houston Astros. Read more about this rumor here.

Stats on Odorizzi

The Rays do a nice job of training young pitchers. Odorizzi would be a nice addition to the weak starting rotation in Birdland. Through his four seasons starting for the Rays, Odorizzi averaged 30 starts. With the Rays, he has an ERA of 3.83 and a WHIP of 1.242. In 2017, he pitched 143.1 innings and 28 starts, which averages to about five innings per start. As the Orioles have a strong bullpen, a five-inning starter with a sub-four ERA would work.

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Odorizzi is a 27-year-old right-handed pitcher who was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the first round of the 2008 draft. He is in his second year of arbitration and will enter free agency in 2020. The Rays paid him $4.1 million in 2017. His contract for 2018 has not yet been set. He asking $6.3 million from the Rays and they want to pay him $6.050 million according to the Arbitration Tracker at MLBTraderumors.com.

While it would be fantastic for the Orioles to get their hands on Chris Archer, Jake Odorizzi would not be a bad pick up for the team. According to Fangraphs, his fastball averages 91 MPH. He has a changeup, curveball, and slider. The slider was his strongest pitch in 2017.

Concerns with Odorizzi

Of course, no pitcher is perfect. While Odorizzi has been nothing but healthy in his four seasons with the Rays, he doesn’t have a great strikeout rate. In the last two seasons, he barely gets eight K’s per nine. When his pitches are put into play, 30 percent of them result in ground balls. This would be a good thing in the hitter-friendly Camden Yards. His ground-ball rate actually declined in 2017 from nearly 37 percent in 2016.

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As Odorizzi is under Rays control for a few more seasons, the Orioles would have to give up something to get him. Odorizzi is the number two starter behind Archer, so he is valuable. According to the Rays depth chart, they need help at first base and in their bullpen. The Orioles have plenty of relief pitchers in the organization and could trade a few to get a starter like Odorizzi.