It’s more than a bit ironic that on the day former Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde finally chatted with the Baltimore media about what went wrong in 2025, Zach Eflin made his first Grapefruit League start of 2026 against the Tampa Bay Rays in Port Charlotte.
First off, Hyde handled his chat with grace. He had the common decency to thank Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias for the opportunity he gave him back in December 2018 to manage the Orioles.
While Hyde didn’t mention any players by name, it wasn’t necessary to mention the early injuries to Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez, which diminished a pitching staff that had already lost Corbin Burnes to free agency. Dean Kremer, Charlie Morton and Cade Povich started slowly as well. For about a month, the only starter Hyde could count on was Tomoyuki Sugano. That, too, proved short-lived.
To say the organizational starting pitching depth was lacking is an all-time understatement.
A year later, Rodriguez is in Anaheim. Sugano is in Colorado. Morton hasn’t formally announced his retirement but is likely done. The Orioles didn’t make a blockbuster signing, but they do have six healthy starters.
While I don’t think it is a great rotation, the Orioles are way ahead of where they were this time last year. Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers form a 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation. Throw in the acquisition of a great stuff guy in Shane Baz, the free-agent signing of a savvy veteran in Chris Bassitt and the returns of Eflin and Kremer. As such, the Orioles don’t look to be short on starters early in the season.
So, the big question now: With Eflin’s spring debut in the books, will the Orioles go with a six-man rotation? I say doing that out of the gate makes very little sense, especially with five scheduled off days in March and April — and probably a couple more due to inclement weather.
What I think we are more likely to see is some form of piggybacking with Bassitt and Eflin in the early going to keep them both fresh.
The old adage is that a team can’t have enough good starting pitching. That rings true here with the eventuality of at least one injury at some point. That could happen even before the Orioles open the season on March 26.
I asked Orioles manager Craig Albernaz if he was happy with the starting depth beyond what looks like a solid six. He threw the question back at me and asked if I was happy with it. I said “reasonably,” and he again tossed it back at me, “Why only reasonably?” I said because it’s been a very long time since I have seen the Orioles develop one of their own starters.
Most importantly, he pointed to four arms he is confident can help the club in the short term — Nestor German, Trey Gibson, Luis De León and Levi Wells. They were all mentioned before Povich and Brandon Young.
So while all six starters are healthy on March 6, I would not worry in the least about how Albernaz will work that out. The good news this year is that there are some decent members of the minor league cavalry who actually might be able to help if the number of healthy starters suddenly drops from six to four.
See Also:
• Stan ‘The Fan’ Charles Predicts The Orioles’ 2026 Opening Day Roster
Photo Credits: Kenya Allen and Colin Murphy/PressBox