Orioles could give Mike Elias second shot at a pitching project he didn't finish

Ever since Mike Elias took over as GM of the Baltimore Orioles he has kept a close eye on the players he scouted and drafted during his time as director of amateur scouting and assistant general manager of the Astros.

Last year, former Astros draft picks Shawn Dubin, Corbin Martin, and Ramon Laureano all played for the Orioles. Over the years when the Orioles have needed stop gap production at various positions, they've gone out and snagged former Astros picks like Tony Kemp and Brett Phillips. Other former top Astros picks like Daz Cameron and Thomas Eshelman both have had multiple stints in the organization as Triple-A depth.

As it turns out the Astros designated J.P. France for assignment last week. France was one of the very last draft picks made during the Mike Elias era in Houston. Now Elias has the opportunity to reunite with yet another former draft pick of his to fortify a position of need.

France has been dealing with a shoulder injury for awhile but if you look at the season long under the hood numbers on France's 2023 rookie season are not very good. He had an xERA of 4.96, a FIP of 4.66, a WHIP of 1.357 and a meager 6.7 K/9. Those numbers aren't great but France gave the Astros valuable innings. 2023 was the year that the Rangers looked like they were going to run away with the AL West and the Astros ran them down over the course of the season despite having several members of their rotation go down with injury. France had a lot to do with that.

Orioles need bullpen depth and J.P. France could be a great value addition

There are many reasons why the 2025 Orioles failed to make the playoffs but one of the more under discussed issues with the team was that after Albert Suarez went down with an injury, the Orioles didn't have anyone who could come out of the bullpen and and either eat innings after the starter got chased early or make spot starts in a pinch. In the Orioles first 40 games, their starter failed to reach the 5th inning in 17 of those games. To get through those games, the O's had to use a lot of relievers and by early May the pen was spent.

The Orioles hope that Suarez will be back, but 2025 showed how important it is have depth in that swingman role. That's where J.P. France comes in. Right now he is available for almost nothing, he has an option and should the Orioles acquire him he would cost them less than a million dollars for the upcoming season.

Besides just being able to eat innings, it would be interesting to see how France's stuff would play up in a bullpen role where he's not trying to get six/seven innings deep each start. In 2023, his Stuff+ was 94 which is below average. However, when a starter moves to the bullpen it is typical for them to experience an increase in Stuff+ of about 5.5 which would get France to about league average Stuff. Combine that with he already above average command (France's location+ in 2023 was 103) and you'd have a pretty effective pitcher.