Means’ health concern puts even brighter spotlight on next wave of Orioles pitching prospects

Six games into the 2022 season, the Orioles are already holding their breath over their starting rotation.

OK, Brandon Hyde was likely feeling that way long before Opening Day, especially with the lockout disrupting spring training and the only meaningful offseason addition being veteran Jordan Lyles and his 5.23 career ERA. But No. 1 starting pitcher John Means leaving Wednesday’s start due to left forearm tightness is disconcerting at best and could prove catastrophic for a rotation that struggled simply to navigate the 2021 season on the way to an obscene 5.99 ERA, easily the worst mark in the majors. While the Orioles will hope for the best with Means’ health and improvement from the current group of mid-20s pitchers who struggled dramatically last year, the potential absence of their ace only shines a brighter spotlight on the next wave of pitching prospects regarded as the cream of the crop in the current farm system.

So, when might we see Grayson Rodriguez, DL Hall, and Kyle Bradish in Baltimore?

Even the night before Means exited after throwing just 51 pitches through four innings against Milwaukee, at least a few reporters in the Camden Yards press box were wondering why the Orioles were starting 29-year-old Spenser Watkins in the fifth game of the season over Bradish, who pitched four shutout innings and struck out six in his season debut for Triple-A Norfolk on Tuesday. A key part of the Dylan Bundy trade, the 25-year-old Bradish doesn’t have the same ceiling as Rodriguez or Hall, but he’s the closest of the three to graduating after logging 86 2/3 innings for the Tides last season and impressing with four scoreless frames in the Grapefruit League last month. Short of stretching him out — he threw 58 pitches in his 2022 debut — for another start or two, the Orioles seemingly have little reason to keep Bradish at the Triple-A level much longer, especially considering his 2.70 ERA over his last 50 innings for Norfolk.

Bradish should arrive much sooner than later, which will pique fan interest and hopefully help the rotation.

Despite at least one respected pundit suggesting Rodriguez is “probably big-league ready right now,” the 22-year-old was preparing to make just his second career Triple-A start on Thursday, so you wouldn’t expect the Orioles to rush the 2018 first-round pick to Baltimore before the summer months at least. Last season, Rodriguez was promoted from High-A Aberdeen after only five starts and then made 18 starts and posted a 2.60 ERA at Double-A Bowie, making it difficult to gauge how long the Orioles would like him to pitch for the Tides before summoning him to the majors.

Rodriguez dominated in his Triple-A debut and is regarded by some as the best pitching prospect in baseball, but a little more patience is warranted.

The lefty Hall’s arrival is the most difficult to predict after a stress reaction in his pitching elbow ended his 2021 season last June. The 2017 first-round pick is healthy again and turned quite a few heads with his lone Grapefruit League appearance last month, but he is currently building up his workload in Sarasota before joining an affiliate, making it unlikely that we’ll see him in the majors until later in the 2022 season. How the Orioles handled current reliever Mike Baumann — who made his first four major league appearances last September — coming off a 2020 injury could be a gauge for anticipating Hall’s Baltimore debut, but they certainly need to be careful with such a talented pitcher who’s still only 23.

Despite the state of the current rotation that may now exclude its best pitcher, there’s certainly light at the end of the tunnel growing brighter.

But given the methodical pace at which Elias has rebuilt other facets of the organization before prioritizing winning in the major leagues, you’d hardly expect a potential Means absence to alter the Orioles’ plans for their top pitching prospects in any meaningful way. That might be the correct call for the long run, but it won’t make Baltimore’s rotation any easier to watch in the meantime.