Baltimore Orioles: Could Kyle Lohse be coming to town?

The Baltimore Orioles rotation needs some help and the team seems to be looking outside the organization for possible upgrades.

Going into the 2016 season, the Baltimore Orioles had the makings of a explosive offense with the additions of Mark Trumbo and Pedro Alvarez, accompanied by the return of Chris Davis. This combined with the continued development of Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop had the team thinking they could be a top five offense in the league. The club was also able to maintain their dominant bullpen by re-signing set up man Darren O’Day in the offseason pair with their all-star closer Zach Britton. The one concern that pretty much everyone had for the O’s this year was their starting rotation.

Baltimore’s starters had the 25th worst combined ERA in 2015, finishing the year with a dismal 4.53 mark. The Orioles starters were also not good at going deep into games, coming in at 22nd in the MLB in total innings pitched. This was a major regression from the club’s successful 2014 season, when many of the club’s starting pitchers like Chris Tillman, Miguel Gonzalez and Bud Norris had career years. However, nearly one of the team’s starters suffered a serious setback last season, which seemed to put improving the team’s rotation as one of the primary objectives for Orioles’ Vice President Dan Duquette in the winter. However, there was not much change in the club’s projected starting rotation, in fact an argument could be made that the Orioles starting options were worse than the previous year.

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The club essentially replaced Wei Yin Chen, the team’s most productive starter, with veteran right-hander Yovani Gallardo, while coming off a solid year in 2015, suffered from a decrease in strikeouts and velocity. This was a major reason why many teams decided that he wasn’t worth giving up a first round draft pick. Baltimore also released Miguel Gonzalez after an unimpressive spring training and had to place Kevin Gausman on the disabled list after an injury to his arm.

This left the team with a combination of Tillman, Gallardo, Ubaldo Jimenez, Mike Wright, Tyler Wilson and Vance Worley; not exactly names that you would feel comfortable with penciling in every game. The first 11 games have put some credibility to the concerns that many people had about the Orioles’ starters going into the season. Even though the team is 8-3, their starting rotation has only given them one quality start all year and has the 13th worst ERA in the American League at 5.13. This is not a real encouraging start for a squad that came into the year with a lot of questions.

The poor play from the starters could have the team looking outside the organization for assistance. According to the MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, the O’s have made a formal offer to 37 year-old Kyle Lohse.

While this would bring a new option into the Orioles’ rotation, this move may not bring excitement to many O’s fans due to the recent play of the veteran starter. Last season, Lohse finished the year with a 5.85 ERA after only making 22 starts and being regulated to bullpen work. According to FanGraphs, his fastball velocity sunk to the lowest of his career, while his walk rate increased as well. Lohse has never been a pitcher that is going to throw the fastball by many players and is not going to rack up the strikeouts. If he is going to be successful, he must use his offspeed pitches effectively and pitch to weak contact.

The former Brewer and Cardinal does have a track record of performing well in the major leagues for multiple seasons, which is something that cannot be said for many of the Orioles’curerent starting pitchers. In fact from 2011-2014, he did not throw for an ERA of over 3.55 and walked hitters at a career-low rate. Lohse was kind of a late bloomer not really having his first string of successful seasons until he was 32-35 years old.

Even with this success, the tires may be close to fully falling off for the 37 year-old right-hander having seen him pitch  last season. But the problem is that there aren’t many better options for the Orioles to turn to at this point. Baltimore will have to hope that Lohse can find his form and provide a bit of leadership to a young rotation. The Orioles should not expect much from the right-hander if they sign him, but having him come into the organization on a minor league deal may be worth a shot. Butt make no mistake, the Orioles will not be riding their starting rotation to the playoffs in 2016, but they will have to do just well enough for the club’s offense and bullpen to carry them.

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What do you think of the possibility of the O’s signing Kyle Lohse? Share your thoughts in the comments below.