Orioles tab pitcher fans wish they could forget to fill Zach Eflin's rotation spot

The Baltimore Orioles are continuing to deal with the ripple effect of Zach Eflin going down in his first start of the season. When Eflin went down, everyone's first thought for who would take his place was Dean Kremer, who was the last starter optioned from the active roster in camp. Yet the Orioles have called up three starters since the injury, and none of them have been Kremer. With Eflin's turn in the rotation landing on today, the Orioles have called up Brandon Young, who made 12 starts for the Orioles in 2025 at a 6.24 ERA.

Because the Orioles knew they were going to need more bullpen help with Eflin going down early in his start and wouldn't need a starter for five days, they chose to call up Albert Suarez as the corresponding move for Eflin going on the IL.

Now, in the lead-up to what would have been Eflin's turn in the rotation, there have been two more injuries to Yaramil Hiraldo and Dietrich. The Orioles made Cade Povich the corresponding move for Hiraldo and Young the corresponding move for Enns.

Povich got game action on Sunday, and spared the bullpen from having to exhaust itself after another Chris Bassitt disaster, making Young the obvious choice to start in Eflin's spot.

The Baltimore Orioles definitely did not envision having to start Brandon Young this early in the season

This is very disappointing for Baltimore. The Orioles' offseason pitching strategy could be summarized as trying to put as much distance as possible between Young and the MLB rotation. After all the additions the Orioles made, Young was barely clinging to the 40-man roster.

Last season, of all the pitchers in baseball who threw at least 50 innings, Young's 6.24 ERA ranked 329 out of 339. Of the 10 players who were worse than Brandon Young, seven of them pitched for the Rockies. ERA isn't always the best stat for predicting future performance, but you can sort the leaderboards by any pitching stat you want, FIP, xFIP, SIERRA, it doesn't matter. Young is near the bottom in all of them.

It's really hard to be optimistic about Young pitching for the Orioles this early in the season. You look for something in his profile that indicates that he could have some success as a starter, and it's hard to find. He has a slightly above-average fastball and cutter, but his below-average secondaries make it easy to sit on those pitches, and at 93 mph, MLB hitters can find a way to make hard contact with them. He's also had a real walk problem in the majors.

One advantage he'll have is that he'll be facing the White Sox, who don't have a prolific offense, but the Sox just swept the defending AL champs and on the flip side if the Orioles blow a game against one of the "worst teams in the league becuase they had Brandon Young on the mound that's going to be hard to stomach.

This shouldn't be the Orioles ' long-term solution for their injured rotation. They'll have Dean Kremer skip his next start and line him up to take over this spot in the rotation. Maybe Brandon Young can stick around as a long reliever because the way most of the Orioles' starters are pitching, they're going to need more than one of those.