With their 2021 season set to begin at Fenway Park on Thursday, the Orioles have begun revealing the pieces of their initial five-man rotation behind Opening Day starter John Means.
A day after announcing veteran Matt Harvey would pitch the second game of the season against Boston next Saturday, manager Brandon Hyde said rookie left-hander Bruce Zimmermann would start the series finale against the Red Sox on April 4. That No. 3 starter appointment rewards a spring in which the Ellicott City native and Loyola Blakefield graduate was arguably Baltimore’s best pitcher with nine scoreless innings that included 10 strikeouts, three walks, and just one hit allowed in Grapefruit League action.
Acquired from Atlanta in the Kevin Gausman trade in 2018, Zimmermann made his major league debut last September and surrendered six earned runs in seven innings over two appearances. Entering the spring, most observers viewed fellow rookies Dean Kremer and Keegan Akin as the better bets to be part of the Opening Day rotation, but Zimmermann outperformed both by a wide margin.
“He’s pitched outstanding in camp. I really feel like he’s had a really good spring training,” Hyde said. “He’s had some good starts here; he’s pitching outstanding on the back field that you guys haven’t seen in a B game and some other things that he’s done. I really like his stuff. I think this guy’s a four-pitch guy, he’s pounded the strike zone all spring, his velocity’s ticked up, his breaking balls have been sharper, and he’s healthy and ready to go. He’s earned it with how he pitched this spring, and I’m looking forward to watching him pitch.”
As of Sunday afternoon, Hyde hadn’t yet revealed the final two members of his season-opening rotation, but Kremer and Jorge Lopez appear to be the top candidates with Wade LeBlanc serving in a long-relief capacity and Felix Hernandez slowed by a sore elbow over the last two weeks. The Orioles also acquired Cleveland right-hander Adam Plutko over the weekend to give them another long reliever out of the bullpen to begin the season.
Baltimore seems likely to open 2021 with 14 pitchers on the 26-man roster as general manager Mike Elias has repeatedly discussed the unsettling and unprecedented challenge of going from a 60-game season in the pandemic-shortened 2020 back to the regular 162-game slate. Whether trying to maximize wins in the present or emphasize long-term development, all clubs will be monitoring the health of their pitchers in 2021, meaning no one in the Opening Day rotation or bullpen should get too comfortable.
“We’re concerned about pitching innings. I think every organization in baseball is concerned about pitching innings,” Elias said. “These guys are coming off a shortened season and going into a full season. Nobody knows what to make of that. Adding to that, we have considerations about our young pitchers. Some of these guys are unproven — they may not perform, their pitch counts may run up early. Others may be pitching well but need spells during the year to keep their innings totals down.
“We’re kind of going into a long, unknown season. We want to put ourselves in a position to protect our young starters, to not overtax our bullpen and our young relievers. It’s going to be all hands on deck.”
While Zimmermann has been a pleasant surprise, Akin was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk on Friday after a disappointing spring in which he allowed 10 earned runs, 15 hits, and seven walks over nine innings in the Grapefruit League. The lefty posted a 4.56 ERA and struck out 35 batters over 25 2/3 innings last season and was viewed as one of the favorites to crack the starting rotation to open 2021.
Turning 26 later this week, Akin is likely to be back in Baltimore sooner than later, but the command he showed in his first major league action last season didn’t carry over to his performance in Sarasota, a disappointing development for a club needing as much quality pitching as it can find.
“We just thought that Keegan needed a little bit more time,” Hyde said. “We still think really highly of him. Talking to him this afternoon, it was about just being a little sharper with his pitches. Command wasn’t quite there during this spring, being able to locate to both sides of the plate. I’d like to see the improvement in his off-speed stuff being able to land it for strikes. It was a little bit of a scuffle for him this spring. He’s going to have time to go down there.
“We’re just looking for him to go down there and do what he did last year, and that was really find a nice rhythm in his delivery and attack the strike zone.”
Pivot at second base
It’s not often a projected starting second baseman is designated for assignment to create roster space for a long reliever days before the start of the season, but that’s exactly what the Orioles did with Yolmer Sanchez on Saturday.
The 2019 Gold Glove winner was claimed off waivers in late October to play good defense behind a young pitching staff, but Sanchez, 28, batted just .190 with a .451 on-base plus slugging percentage in 46 plate appearances this spring and clearly didn’t have the stronghold on the job many assumed. After spending a decade in the Chicago White Sox organization, Sanchez signed with San Francisco last winter and was released last August before returning to the White Sox and playing sparingly the rest of the way.
With Sanchez now out of the picture, the Orioles could open the season using some combination of Pat Valaika, Ramon Urias, and even Rio Ruiz at second base with hopes of a higher-ceiling option like Jahmai Jones eventually getting the call from the minors.
