Baltimore Orioles: Evaluating Josh Rogers’ Season

The Baltimore Orioles couldn’t capitalize on a strong start by Josh Rogers on Monday night in Seattle. We take a brief look at Rogers’ 2018 season, and what to expect next year

Josh Rogers and our Baltimore Orioles fell again to the Mariners in Seattle on Monday night by a final score of 2-1. The Orioles have now lost four in a row, and they sit 0-5 in their season series with the Mariners.

For the second day in a row, Jonathan Villar put the Orioles out in front with a solo home-run in the top of the 4^th, but unfortunately that was the only offense the O’s could come up with. Unlike yesterday, however, the Orioles had a chance to win this game.

Josh Rogers looked good in 5.1 innings allowing two runs on four hits and getting four strikeouts. He gave up back to back walks in the 4^th, and he got into a spot of trouble in the 5^th, allowing triples to both Cameron Maybin and Mitch Haniger but otherwise, Rogers was impressive.

Rogers has pitched well since the O’s acquired him in July

More from Birds Watcher

• Baltimore Orioles Sign RP Mychal Givens
• Gunnar Henderson: Destroyer of Four-Seam Fastballs
• Which Current Baltimore Orioles Pitchers Have the Best Curveballs?
• Orioles News: Should the O’s Pursue Eovaldi? + More MLB News
• Should the Baltimore Orioles Consider Signing Nathan Eovaldi?

Rogers came to the Orioles this year from the Yankees in the Zach Britton trade. He spent the majority of 2018 in Triple-A in Scranton for the Yankees, then in Norfolk for the O’s before being called up to the majors in mid-August.

Between the two clubs, Rogers threw 139.2 innings, posting a 3.54 ERA and racking up 101 strikeouts to 36 walks.

Rogers isn’t a hard-thrower; he’s usually sitting 88-90 mph with his four-seamer and he’s mostly four-seamer/slider pitch mix with an occasional change-up, but he does have a two-seam fastball and a curve which he uses significantly less.

His slider doesn’t have a ton of movement to it, therefore it doesn’t get a lot of swings and misses, but Rogers likes it as an out pitch against right-handed hitters. The change-up is more of a show-me pitch and Rogers struggles to miss bats with it.

Overall, Rogers season has been a successful one. His brief stint in the majors will be a great learning experience for him going into next season and we can expect him to spent the majority of his time in Baltimore in 2019.

He’s likely done for the year at this point, having reached 150 innings on the season which is easily a career high. We should expect Rogers in the back-end of the Orioles rotation come 2019; I’d be surprised to see him with an innings limit next year, but who knows with the Orioles pitching development team. We’ve seen them do strange things before.

What about Dillon Tate and Cody Carroll, the other prospects acquired in the Zach Britton trade?

We can’t call the Britton trade a win for the Orioles at this point, but Rogers has had some success in a limited sample size in the majors and pitched well for the Tides after the trade.

Dillon Tate hasn’t been particularly impressive in Bowie since the trade; he has a 5.75 ERA in 40.2 innings. However, that’s coupled with a strikingly low 59.1% strand rate and a 62.3% groundball rate. He should see better results once those numbers even out. Tate should see plenty of time in Norfolk in 2019.

Reliever Cody Carroll has only thrown 13.2 innings between Norfolk and Baltimore since the trade, but he hasn’t shown much outside of a high-90’s fastball that O’s fans need to be excited about.

Moving on

The Orioles will attempt to stave off another series loss when they meet the Mariners tonight in Seattle. Alex Cobb and his league-leading 15 losses head to the mound to face Wade LeBlanc.

Cobb floundered last time out against the Blue Jays, but he’s been impressive in five of his last six starts. We’ll see if he can make it six of seven tonight. First pitch at 10:10 est.