SARASOTA, Fla. — Orioles right-handed pitcher Tyler Wells re-entered Baltimore’s rotation picture for outside observers as soon as general manager Mike Elias announced in mid-February that right-hander Kyle Bradish had a UCL sprain and lefty John Means was behind in his progression.
Wells has responded with a strong spring as he gears up to be part of the Opening Day rotation. The 6-foot-8, 260-pound right-hander has allowed two runs on seven hits in 10.2 innings in the Grapefruit League, most recently allowing one run on four hits in 4.2 innings against the Atlanta Braves on March 17.
Wells has been pounding the zone all spring as he typically does, throwing 57 of 70 pitches for strikes against the Braves.
“I’d rather challenge people and lose that way than kind of sit there and be around the zone,” Wells said following his outing. “I think that that’s very important to me, to go deeper into games. Like I said, during the season the biggest part of my job is to be able to take stress off the bullpen arms and be able to have them continue to carry us out through the postseason, so it’s definitely a long game for sure.”
The lone blemish for Wells was a first-inning solo shot by Braves All-Star third baseman Austin Riley. Otherwise, he struck out six and walked none.
“I love the way Wells has thrown all spring,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “He just kind of made that one mistake to a great hitter, a little slider — too much of the plate. Besides that, I thought he really located well all of his pitches once again. He’s just really commanding the ball extremely well this spring, and the fastball’s got good life to it.”
Wells, 29, will enter the season having shown he can be an effective starting pitcher but not for a full season. He had Tommy John surgery in May 2019 as a member of the Minnesota Twins organization and didn’t pitch at all in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 season.
Wells was then selected by the Orioles in the Rule 5 Draft in December 2020 and eased back into action with 57 innings across 44 appearances at the major league level in 2021. He was used almost exclusively as a starter in 2022 and 2023, but he was sidetracked each season.
An oblique strain and shoulder inflammation limited Wells in the second half of the 2022 campaign, and he appeared to simply hit a wall a year ago. Opposing batters hit .278/.458/.611 against Wells in his three starts following the All-Star break. That led to a minor league reset, leading to his contributions out of the bullpen for the Orioles down the stretch.
Wells threw 103.2 big league innings in 2022 and 118.2 in 2023. Is he determined to show he can be a high-level starter for a full season?
“The only thing that’s ever going to tell anyone that is my results, and that’s exactly what I plan on trying to do,” Wells said. “Each and every day, each and every offseason I go out there and try to continue to prove myself. Results are the only thing that’s going to show that.”
Wells attacks hitters with a five-pitch mix — four-seamer, cutter, changeup, slider and curveball — from a tough angle at 6-foot-8. He makes them uncomfortable by pounding the zone and inducing early contact, often in the air. The one hiccup — as is often the case for fly-ball pitchers — is the home-run ball (41 since 2022).
Wells showed just how good he could be in the first half of 2023, when he posted a 3.18 ERA and held hitters to a .193/.241/.409 slash line. He has one more start this spring — a tune-up, Hyde called it — before the regular season begins.
Wells says he’s “really happy” with how the spring has gone to this point.
“I’m trying to continue to refine my approach and take that into the season and just continue to build on it,” Wells said. “I think there’s still things that we can continue to work on and that’s not knocking all the good things that we did. It’s constantly being able to be able to look at yourself objectively and know that there’s work to be done. It’s a long season.”
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