Baltimore Orioles Rumors: Team showing interest in Collin McHugh

Now that All-Star pitcher Yu Darvish has a team, the time is ripe for the Baltimore Orioles to get started signing their own pitchers.

Hopefully, Baltimore Orioles fans were not dreaming that Darvish would be added to Birdland as his asking price was clearly out of Birdland range.

But, there are rumors that the Orioles are showing interest in real, live pitchers that are actually in rotations on actual MLB teams.

One rumor comes via Roch Kubatko and his School of Roch blog and involves Houston Astros right-hander Collin McHugh. While he may not be the arm that fans were hoping to see, he’s not a bad option. The only question is what would the O’s have to give up to get him?

Problems with the Astros pitching staff

Unfortunately, the Orioles have not had much luck wooing Astros pitching. Mike Fiers was in the team’s sites, but he chose to go to the Detroit Tigers instead. According to Kubatko, Fiers was offered two years in Baltimore before accepting one year to go to the Motor City.

The Astros have a unique problem that most teams only dream of: too many pitchers. This leaves Collin McHugh has the seventh starter in a rotation that includes Justin Verlander, Dallas Keuchel, Gerrit Cole, and more.

Stats on McHugh

McHugh was drafted by the New York Mets in 2008. He had a few starts with the Mets before being traded to the Colorado Rockies. They put him on waivers in 2013 and he was nabbed by the Astros where he has been since. He is in his second years of arbitration and will enter free agency in 2020. In 2014, he finished fourth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. And, in 2015, he finished eighth in the Cy Young Award voting.

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He had 12 starts in 2017 and pitched an ERA of 3.55 with a WHIP of 1.295. According to Fangraphs, McHugh has five pitches with a fastball that averages 90 MPH. After his fastball, his go-to pitch is a curveball that he slows down to the mid-70s. His cutter is his put-away pitch.

McHugh red flag

McHugh is better than most of the options that Orioles have. The only concern is that he had tendonitis in his elbow in 2017. He did not need Tommy John surgery, but any elbow injury can be cause for alarm. The elbow issue kept him out of the rotation at the beginning of the season.

So, what would the Astros want in exchange for McHugh? Their 40-man roster is about as perfect as it gets, so it is doubtful that the World Series Champions would want to make any changes there. The odds are good that the Astros would ask for prospects or a minor leaguer or two.

Next: Orioles sign two lefties to minor league contracts

If this trade does happen, hopefully, the Orioles will not give up too much for an end-of-the-rotation pitcher.