The Baltimore Orioles’ Inability to Develop Pitching Prospects

Since Mike Mussina, when was the last time the Baltimore Orioles had a homegrown pitching prospect develop into a top-of-the-rotation starter?

It has been a very long time since Mike Mussina was the ace of the Baltimore Orioles rotation and, since that time, no other Orioles pitching prospect has ever been able to make it as a top-of-the-rotation starter. Why can’t the Orioles organization develop their own pitching prospects into high-end Major League starters?  It seems like other teams develop homegrown pitching prospects all the time, but yet, the Orioles can’t.

I’ve seen plenty of pitching prospects get called up to the Majors for the Orioles in hopes of being the next ace of the rotation, but they’ve always disappointed me. Here are some of the players that I thought would be the next Mike Mussina: Rocky Coppinger, Josh Towers, Daniel Cabrera, Erik Bedard, Sidney Ponson, Garrett Olson, Adam Loewen, Brad Bergesen, Jake Arrieta, Kevin Gausman, and Dylan Bundy. Whatever happened to the team’s 2016 first-round pick, Cody Sedlock? I was looking forward to him being part of the future, but injuries have hurt his development.

We can all agree that Jake Arrieta and Kevin Gausman finally figured it out after leaving the Orioles organization. Arrieta won the 2015 National League Cy Young Award as a member of the Chicago Cubs and Gausman won a career-high 14 games as a member of the San Francisco Giants this past year. It’s no secret that the Baltimore Orioles organization has had its problems with developing homegrown pitching prospects that can make an impact.

How confident are you during this rebuild that top pitching prospects like Grayson Rodriguez and D.L. Hall can change the narrative and start a new chapter for the Baltimore Orioles organization? They could be the start of a new era that turns pitching prospects into legit Major League starters.