Grading the performance of the Orioles’ bullpen in 2026

With 22 blown saves on the season, the Baltimore Orioles’ bullpen wasn't always perfect in 2026. While that might seem like a very telling stat to base an opinion around, it doesn’t paint a complete picture. As the year went on and pieces began to fall into place, the pen transformed into one of the most solid aspects of the entire team.

Things didn’t look so pretty at the beginning of the year when closer Ryan Helsley struggled before going down with an injury and Félix Bautista remained out of the picture with an injury of his own. And when the Orioles traded reliever Tyler Wells to the Tampa Bay Rays at the trade deadline, many fans expected things to go south very quickly. 

Yet despite the injuries and the roster shakeup, the Orioles continued to remain in the AL Wild Card race until they were eliminated from contention in the last week of the season. A bullpen of forgotten arms and misfit journeyman pitchers was a big reason for that. 

Orioles' bullpen deserves a lot of credit for keeping the team in contention   

Much like the Orioles’ starting rotation, the team’s bullpen had to battle through their fair share of obstacles in order to succeed. And despite everything being thrown their way, the bullpen did an excellent job leaping over those obstacles. Not every pitcher that came out of the Orioles’ bullpen did an equally solid job, but as a unit, they excelled. 

With a combined 3.75 ERA in over 550 innings of work in 2026, the entire Orioles' bullpen deserves a lot of credit. However, only pitchers who finished the season with the Orioles and notched at least 45 innings out of the bullpen this season will receive their report card. It’s only fair to grade pitchers on a more complete full body of work. 

Rico Garcia: A+

It would be very difficult to give Rico Garcia anything but the highest possible grade for the 2026 season. Yes, he wasn’t perfect throughout the year as June and July offered a number of challenges for Garcia. That actually threatened to tank his entire season. But despite his mid-summer hiccup, he rediscovered his successful early-season form and delivered one heck of a season overall. It’s hard to imagine where the Orioles would have been without Garcia in 2026.  

Garcia appeared in 75 games in 2025. That’s more than double the amount of appearances through the first five years of his career. While his workload dramatically increased, he has never pitched better. In 67 innings, Garcia boasted a 3.09 ERA and an equally impressive 0.970 WHIP. With a 31.9% Whiff rate, the 32-year-old managed to miss bats all season. 

Yennier Cano: A 

With one of the best seasons of his career, there is not a whole lot more that Yennier Cano could have done to help get the Orioles into the postseason. In 68 appearances this season, the dominant sinker ball pitcher sported a 2.78 FIP, the top mark in his entire career. He may not rack up strikeouts, but Cano can demoralize opposing lineups all the same.    

More than 62% of all batted balls against Cano were ground balls. That resulted in Cano becoming one of the best in the entire league at inducing ground outs. Only Tim Hill of the New York Yankees and Tyler Roger of the Toronto Blue Jays induced grounders at a higher rate. For an Orioles bullpen in desperate need of consistency to start the season, Cano was that anchor.  

Grant Wolfram: B-

Grant Wolfram had a very interesting year in 2026. His season was filled with little weird tidbits that make grading him a bit of a challenge. The left-handed pitcher offers a deep arsenal of pitches, but he mostly relies on his sinker and four-seam fastball. Batters slugged .435 off of that sinker but just .386 off of the four-seamer. His ERA was also nearly two full runs higher at home (5.40) than when the Orioles were on the road (3.41). 

Thanks to his sinker, Wolfram did run into a bit of bad luck throughout the season. His .352 BABIP led the entire Orioles’ pitching staff. However, he stranded a higher percentage of base runners than anyone else on the team. On a similar note, his 2.66 FIP was also tops on the team as well. Wolfram has a lot of potential to be a solid arm out of the Orioles’ bullpen for years to come, and 2026 could be the perfect building block. He just needs to figure out how to put everything together.      

Albert Suárez: B-

Being a long man out of the bullpen is never an easy job for any pitcher. It certainly does not come with the glory and accolades of a closer or starting pitcher. Even without your best stuff, you are expected to hang in there and wear it for the sake of the team. That is where Albert Suárez comes in for the Orioles bullpen. Was he the best pitcher on the team at any point this season? No. But he still provided the team with much-needed innings to save their more important arms. 

A 3.86 ERA in 63 innings is nothing to scoff at either. Despite lacking elite stuff, Suárez allowed just 57 hits in his 28 appearances on the year. That said, the Orioles were 6-22 in games that Suárez pitched this season. That means that he usually showed up when things were already out of hand and the stakes were fairly low. But you can’t undervalue how important it is for a team to have a pitcher like Suárez on the roster. 

Anthony Nunez: C+

All things considered, Anthony Nunez had a solid rookie season in 2026. In 59.2 innings pitched, he sported a 4.07 ERA to go along with his 66 strikeouts. While he walked 26 batters, there is a lot to like about Nunez moving forward. His effective sweeper leads his arsenal of pitches, which only continue to improve. He wasn’t perfect this season, but he looked more comfortable on the mound as the year progressed, which makes sense considering this was just his second full season as a professional pitcher.  

Nunez has had quite a colorful journey for a player that only turned 25 years old a few months ago. Although he was drafted as an infielder in the 29th round by the San Diego Padres in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down his development as a ballplayer in 2020. Nunez was eventually ruled eligible to play college ball and enrolled at the University of Tampa where he became a two-way player. After signing with the New York Mets in 2024, he was dealt to the Orioles last year in the Cedric Mullins trade. So with more time to devleop his pitches, he could become a dangerous weapon out of the pen.

Andrew Kittredge: C

In a May 3 outing against the Yankees, Andrew Kittredge nearly threw a yes-hitter. He was lit up for seven hits and seven earned runs in just a third of an inning in the Orioles’ 11-3 loss at Yankee Stadium. It’s the type of game that could drag a pitcher down for the remainder of the year. But to Kittredge’s credit, he never let that game define his season. He surrendered multiple runs in just two other games in 2026. 

Despite that shelling in May, Kittredge ended the season with a respectable 3.54 ERA in 48.1 innings of work. That was due in part to his 40.4 Chase rate, which was one of the best in all of baseball. Equipped with his nasty slider, Kittredge became a very dependable arm in the bullpen this season. Considering his rough start this year, that is worth a solid little bump to his grade.   

Honorable mention: Josh Walker 

Josh Walker returned to the Orioles organization last December after being claimed off waivers from the Atlanta Braves. However, there weren't exactly a lot of expectations surrounding him. After all, the LHP had allowed 20 earned runs in just 27.1 innings in three abbreviated seasons in his big league career. At most, he was valuable as pitching depth in case of emergencies. 

But something just clicked for Walker in 2026. After shuttling back and forth between Baltimore and Triple-A Norfolk in the first half of the season, he became a more permanent fixture in the Orioles' bullpen by late-July. In 30.1 innings of work this season, Walker held batters to just a .214 batting average and a .597 OPS. While he doesn’t boast the most impressive arsenal of pitches, Walker avoided hard contact all season, surrendering just three barrels out of 84 batted balls. A very impressive performance for a pitcher who has bounced around his entire career.  

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