Surprise injury gives red hot minor-league pitcher another chance to prove himself

The Baltimore Orioles made a surprising announcement ahead of their series with the Boston Red Sox. Friday's projected starter, Dean Kremer, is headed for the injured list, and last week's International League Pitcher of the Week, Brandon Young, is set to take the mound in his stead. This was unexpected, considering that Kremer walked off the mound at the end of his last start seemingly healthy, and there had not been a peep about any injury concern since.

The Orioles, for their part, have been tight-lipped about the injury. They have designated the injury as a right quad strain and have not elaborated on when or how it was sustained. Quad injuries aren't as alarming as elbow or shoulder injuries for pitchers, but soft tissue injuries have a way of lingering, so it will be important to keep an eye on what the Orioles let on about Kremer's progress with this injury.

Brandon Young finally has his deserved opportunity

In the meantime, it will be fascinating to see if Young can repeat his success from his first call-up of the season when he pitched five scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox following Zach Eflin's injury.

On one hand, five scoreless innings is five scoreless innings, and the White Sox are not the dumpster fire they've been in years past, so that's nothing to scoff at. On the other hand, the peripheral stats on that start were not great. Young did not induce many swings and misses and only managed two strikeouts. He also surrendered a hard-hit rate of 50%, which means every other time the White Sox made contact, they were putting a charge into the ball, and the Orioles defense managed to be in the right spots.

Young, to his credit, returned to the minors after his start and has maintained his success after pitching 5 and 2/3 hitless innings and striking out 10. In his three minor league starts this year, he's certainly looked like a big leaguer in waiting, sporting a 1.08 ERA across 16.2 innings.

Young might have gotten a little fortunate in his start against the White Sox, but the numbers he's putting up in Triple-A are not the result of luck. He's putting up career-best whiff, chase, and strikeout numbers.

If those numbers can translate to the big leagues, the Orioles will very suddenly have another serviceable starter under team control for a long time. With so many of the Orioles' current starters set to be free agents after this season, that's a big deal. In the short term, if Kremer's injury lingers longer than expected and Bassitt continues to flounder, then Young being a solid starter could save this rotation.

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