5 Orioles players that won't be back in 2024

Shintaro Fujinami

The Baltimore bullpen is hard to evaluate right now. On the one hand, Orioles' relievers ranked second in all of baseball in 2023 by fWAR at 7.5 and fifth in ERA at 3.55. Again, great news there. However, that production was very top heavy with Felix Bautista, Yennier Cano, and Danny Coulombe doing the bulk of the heavy lifting. When Bautista had to have Tommy John surgery, it became very apparent that the quality of the team's bullpen depth was questionable.

So where does Shintaro Fujinami fit into all of this? Well, he is a pending free agent which sort of forces the issue of whether or not to bring him back. More importantly, though, is that he hasn't been very good as he posted just a 7.18 ERA this season, although his 4.85 mark since joining Baltimore has been an improvement.

For a budget conscious team like the Orioles, one of the best bang for their buck ways to improve the roster in free agency is by adding bullpen arms. Sure, they are not likely to play in the deep end of the free agent reliever pool, but there are going to be a LOT of very decent right-handed relievers available this offseason for reasonably price tags.

Does Shintaro have some upside? Absolutely, but he also walks way too many hitters and just hasn't performed well enough to take another flyer on.

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