Baltimore Orioles: The long journey for Tyler Wells to the big leagues

Tyler Wells, currently pitching like the ace for the Baltimore Orioles (a sentence no Orioles fan thought would be said coming into this season as he was one the team’s best relievers last year), has had a long road to the big leagues.

A 15th-round pick out of California State University’s San Bernardo campus by the Minnesota Twins back in 2016, Wells would bounce around the minor leagues between rookie ball, Single-A, and High-A ball in the Twins organization. Wells would finally make Double-A in the 2018 season, before having to be shut down and needing Tommy John surgery.

Tyler Wells of the Baltimore Orioles has had to deal with a lot of adversity in his life even before the devastating elbow injury he had in Double-A Chattanooga.

Wells lost his mother at an extremely young age to cancer, and then suddenly lost his grandmother when he was in high school, right before he was getting ready to make his first start on his school’s junior varsity team. Even with that, he was still able to be dominant on the mound that day, then realizing he could possibly have a future in professional baseball.

After being drafted in 2016, he would bounce around plenty in the Twins organization. However, after being put on the IL for Tommy John in 2018, and the pandemic completely wiping out the 2020 minor league season, the Twins decided not to protect Wells, and the Baltimore Orioles would then pick him up in the Rule 5 draft. What a pick up that has been for Mike Elias and the Orioles.

In 2021, Wells would spend the entire season in the Orioles’ bullpen, posting a 2-3 record through 44 appearances, 57 IP, a 4.11 ERA, and 65 strikeouts. Wells was one of the most consistent pieces for a horrible Orioles bullpen in 2021, of which the team as a whole would finish 52-110, tied for the worst record in all of baseball.

Going into the 2022 season, Wells looked locked to be one of the Orioles’ top relievers. However, that would not be the case.

The Orioles decided that Wells should be in the rotation this year, and that has been one of the best decisions the Orioles could have made. Wells has turned himself into the Orioles’ ace, following the loss of John Means until 2023. Through July 11, Wells has a 7-4 record in 17 starts, a 3.28 ERA in nearly 80 innings pitched, a 1.054 WHIP, and an ERA+ of 122.

Wells becoming the Orioles’ best and most consistent starters is one of the reasons that, heading into Tuesday’s game at the Chicago Cubs, the Orioles are 43-44, sitting just two games out of a Wild Card slot. The only question remaining for Wells is if he is on an innings restriction, being that this is his first season being a starter since 2018.