Baltimore Orioles: Dylan Bundy Starting To Show Promise, Again

The Baltimore Orioles have seen a stretch of positive starts from Dylan Bundy. Is he turning a corner and finally showing a bit of the promise he once had?

Dylan Bundy has been good. The Baltimore Orioles starter and former number two overall prospect in all of baseball might finally be figuring it out again.

When Bundy was drafted fourth overall in the 2011 draft, he was viewed as a can’t miss guy who would finally be the ace the Orioles needed and had been looking for ever since Mike Mussina left for the New York Yankees.

He showed out in his first season in the minors back in 2012 posting a 2.08 ERA in time spent with Delmarva, Frederick, and Bowie. His numbers were good enough for a September call-up to the Orioles where he had two solid outings in relief.

Then the injuries ensued. Bundy missed the entire 2013 season due to Tommy John surgery. In 2014, he came back and pitched a few times in the minors as part of his rehab. In 2015, a shoulder issue limited him to just eight appearances.

Bundy would finally return to the majors in 2016 and have an inconsistent season, but showed a lot of promise. After starting the year in the bullpen, he was moved to a full-time starting role and had a fair deal of success, going 8-5 with a 4.52 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, and .231 opponents batting average in 14 starts.

However, the potential shown in Bundy’s first full season in Baltimore has not translated to much of anything. He has yet to show anything close to what was expected of him and was especially bad in 2018, posting a 5.45 ERA while leading the league in both losses (16) and home runs allowed (41).

Bundy’s struggles last year led me to believe it was over for Bundy. I wrote him off as a bust. I looked even more right after Bundy’s first month this season. In March/April, Bundy went 0-4 with a 6.67 ERA in six starts. Opponents were slugging .595 against him and he gave up nine home runs.

Since then, Bundy has been good. He has not been exceptional but he has been a reliable and consistent starter. In May, he posted a 2.64 ERA in five starts with 0.98 WHIP and a .217 opponents’ average on balls in play. So far in June, he has regressed to the mean a little bit with a 3.94 ERA in three starts but the Orioles will definitely take that over what he showed in March/April and last season.

The last time Bundy gave up more than three earned runs was April 28th. He has also been going deeper into games with two seven-plus inning performances in May and a six-inning performance on June 9th against the Houston Astros and their powerful lineup.

Why the improvement?

Bundy told the Baltimore Sun he has been working on throwing fewer fastballs, a pitch hitters had no problem with last year.

More from Birds Watcher

"“Everyone’s bringing up [throwing] less than 50% fastballs,” Bundy said. “It’s not something where I just said, ‘Oh, I’m going to go do that.’ You can’t just go and do it. It’s not that easy.”“It’s more so that you have to see it to believe it, and you’re seeing them swing and miss on changeups and sliders. You’re getting ahead early with an 0-0 curveball and they’re not hitting it out of the ballpark. And you’re like, ‘OK, I can keep doing this.’ You keep doing things until they stop working. … Just reading swings, I think, is the biggest part. These big league hitters will let you know.”"

Bundy is still toward the bottom of the league in home runs allowed per nine innings but the fact he is allowing less earned runs, in general, is promising. Maybe if he can start giving up fewer home runs and continue on his positive upward trend, he can finally become something close to the guy featured in Sports Illustrated in 2012. At only 26, there is a lot more time left in his career to turn it around and be a solid and reliable starter for the Baltimore Orioles going forward.

Next. Orioles Draft Signings Roll In, Savings Add Up. dark

Dylan Bundy’s next start is scheduled to come on the road against the Seattle Mariners.

Home/Orioles News