Baltimore Orioles: The Worst Pitching Staffs Of The Decade

Baltimore Orioles starting pitchers didn’t have much success last decade.

With another decade behind us, blogs and websites everywhere are putting together all kinds of fun All-Decade lists from top moments to best seasons and just about anything else you can think of. As much fun as they are to read, especially during the winter months of no baseball and zero offseason activity from the Baltimore Orioles, they are even more fun to put together as you look back at many of the more memorable moments of recent memory.

We have already put together our Orioles All-Decade Team (read here) and we have looked at the top pitchers of the decade (here), while Joe Trezza over at MLB.com has put together a number of All-Decade type lists, including the top ten home runs of the decade.

Most of these pieces have focused on the positives, but let’s switch things up a bit. The Orioles put up five seasons of .500 or better baseball over the last ten years, which included three trips to the playoffs, but one thing that haunted all of these teams was the pitching.

According to Fangraphs’ Wins Above Replacement, Baltimore Orioles starting pitchers were worth 10.0 fWAR in 2016, the best performance of the decade. For context, a 10.0 fWAR season in 2019 would have put the Orioles as the 19th best starting group in the majors, just behind the San Diego Padres.

One may assume that Orioles starters in 2019 put up the worst performance of the decade, but they definitely had some competition. Let’s take a look at the three worst seasons for starting pitchers in Baltimore since 2010 (these numbers do not include any work out of the bullpen, only games started). Did 2019 take the top spot?

Starting pitchers won just 28 games for the 2018 Baltimore Orioles.

Going a combined 28-84 with a 5.48 ERA, Orioles starters were worth just 4.5 fWAR in 2018, the second-worst performance of the decade.

Again, Dylan Bundy led the way with 171.2 innings and struck out nearly 10/9 IP, but he allowed a league-leading 41 home runs, allowed nearly 3 BB/9 IP, and finished the year with an 8-16 record and 5.45 ERA.

Andrew Cashner and Alex Cobb followed up with the second and third most starts and innings pitched, combining for a 9-30 record and just 201 strikeouts in more than 300 IP. Kevin Gausman was having the most success of the bunch with a 5-8 record and 4.43 ERA before he was traded to the Atlanta Braves during the great purge of 2018.

It’s also hard to believe that we saw seven starts from RHP Chris Tillman in 2018 (1-5, 10.46 ERA), in what would be the final outings of his Orioles career (although he is looking to make a comeback in 2020 after not pitching in 2019).

Overall, opponents hit .281 against Orioles starters in 2018, a number only one unit was able to surpass during the 2010s. That unit would be led by a man named Jeremy Guthrie and it tops our list of the worst starting pitching units of the Baltimore Orioles from 2010-2019.

The 2011 starting rotation produced a few really good pitchers, just not during their time with the Baltimore Orioles.

The 2011 Orioles finished with a record of 69-93, finishing in last place in the American League East, but at least we got to watch Vladimir Guerrero swing a bat in an Orioles uniform for 145 games, the final games of his major league Hall of Fame career.

As for the starting rotation, Orioles pitchers were worth a team-worst 3.6 fWAR in 2011, putting them atop the list of worst starting pitching performances this decade in Birdland.

A then 32-year-old Jeremy Guthrie led the way with 208 innings pitched, finishing with a 9-17 record and a 4.33 ERA. It was the second time he led the majors with 17 losses since joining the Orioles in 2007. Filling out that rotation was Jake Arrieta (10-8, 5.05 ERA, 22 starts), Zack Britton (11-11, 4.61 ERA, 28 starts), and Alfredo Simon (4-9, 4.90 ERA, 16 starts).

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A 23-year-old Chris Tillman and 24-year-old Brian Matusz also combined for 25 starts, going 4-14 with a 7.85 ERA.

Guthrie would go on to find some success with the Royals before calling it a career, while you already know what happened to Arrieta and Britton. At least in Britton’s case, he did produce some of the more dominant seasons out of the bullpen in Orioles history before being traded to the New York Yankees.

Starters went a combined 46-72 with a 5.39 ERA, racking up just 5.96 K/9IP while walking 3.36/9 IP. Their .284 average against and 1.52 WHIP are both the worst numbers from any Orioles starting unit last decade.

Will the 2020 starting unit crack this list or will year two under Mike Elias and his staff produce better results with minimal talent? Stay tuned!