Orioles could end up benefitting from Pirates rotation drama

While the Baltimore Orioles are once again struggling on the pitching front, the Pittsburgh Pirates are suffering from their own pitching development success. Like the Mariners, the Pirates also have more quality starting pitchers than can fit in a rotation, and as all their best arms get healthy, things are starting to get a little uncomfortable. At the start of the season, the Orioles were hopeful that they would also be one of these teams with too many pitchers, but injuries and underperformance have made it so the questions for the Orioles are "how can they improve this rotation?" rather than "which of their many quality starters has to move to the bullpen?" Needless to say, if the Pirates need to offload an extra starter, the Orioles should be open to doing business.

So far this season, the Pirates' rotation of Paul Skenes, Braxton Ashcraft, Mitch Keller, Carmen Mlodzinski, and Bubba Chandler has been one of the best in the big leagues, but with Jared Jones returning from Tommy John, if the Pirates wanted to integrate him back into the rotation, somebody had to get bumped. When that somebody ended up being Mlodzinski, he did something that is incredibly rare for young baseball players to do. He tried to push back.

The pushback was quite short-lived as the Pirates quickly put him on the restricted list and Mlodzinski swiftly adjusted his attitude. In the short term, it would appear that the minor emergency of Mlodzinski bucking against being sent to the bullpen is over, but this is not a problem that is just going to go away.

At some point the Pirates are going to have to trade a starter and the Orioles should be first in line when that happens

Even if he is saying the right things now, Mlodzinski wants to be a starter, and he has pitched well enough as a starter to justify that desire. Looking at the talented arms the Pirates are prioritizing over him, it's hard to argue that he should be in the rotation over any of them, but with how valuable capable starters are, keeping one in the bullpen as a reliever is not the best use of that arm. Not to mention that the Pirates have multiple well-regarded starting pitching prospects just hanging out in Triple-A, so it's not like they are one injury away from a disaster in their rotation.

The Pirates can afford to deal from a position of strength to address certain weaknesses, and depending on which of their pitchers they are open to dealing, they could really enhance their team.

Skenes and Ashcraft have to be considered untouchable, but after them, the Pirates should be willing to get creative. If they were willing to put either Chandler or Jones on the table, they could get a trade return containing both major league talent and prospect capital.

It could look something like the Orioles get Jared Jones for a package built around Dylan Beavers, Aron Estrada, and Ike Irish. If a couple of DSL players have to get thrown in there to make it work, so be it.

If the Pirates were only willing to deal Mlodzinski or some of their blocked pitching prospects like Hunter Barco or Thomas Harrington, the return would obviously be much more modest, but still could be useful to the Pirates. The Orioles could part with Coby Mayo or Enrique Bradfield Jr as the centerpieces in a trade for a starter of that caliber.

The whole Pirates situation is worth monitoring for Orioles fans, and if it reaches a boiling point, the Orioles should try to be the team that's there to help relieve some pressure.

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