O's rotation looking thin, but reinforcements on the way

BALTIMORE -- The Orioles’ bruised, banged-up, beleaguered starting rotation is through four turns, so it’s a good time to take stock of where things stand on that front.

The answer? Not ideal, as those who have been watching along have observed.

On Thursday, Tomoyuki Sugano turned in the longest (and best) outing by a Baltimore starter this season when he tossed seven innings of two-run ball in a victory over Cleveland. A day later, Cade Povich allowed seven runs (the most by an O’s hurler this year) over 3 1/3 innings (tied for the fewest by an O’s starter) in Friday’s 8-3 loss to Cincinnati at Camden Yards.

“Just didn’t think the command was there,” manager Brandon Hyde said of Povich. “Just a ton of arm-side misses, kind of uncompetitive pitches outside the strike zone.”

After four outings apiece, the Orioles’ four healthy starters have the following numbers:

Sugano: 3.43 ERA in 21 innings
Povich: 6.38 ERA in 18 1/3 innings
Dean Kremer: 6.41 ERA in 19 2/3 innings
Charlie Morton: 8.84 ERA in 18 1/3 innings

That quartet -- along with Zach Eflin, who had a 3.00 ERA in three starts before going on the injured list due to a right lat strain -- has combined for a 5.57 rotation ERA that ranks 29th in MLB. The only team with a higher mark is Colorado (5.73).

In other years, maybe there would have been a shakeup by this point. But Baltimore’s starting-pitching depth has quickly dissipated due to its bad injury luck.

These seven starters are all on the IL: Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez (right elbow inflammation/shoulder soreness), Kyle Bradish (Tommy John surgery), Tyler Wells (right UCL repair surgery), Albert Suárez (right subscapularis strain), Trevor Rogers (left knee subluxation) and Chayce McDermott (right lat strain).

Eflin could be back in May, while Rogers and McDermott may also become options by that point. But the rest of that group is unlikely to return until June or later, including Rodriguez, whose status is uncertain following his recent setback.

Two reinforcements are coming to attempt to provide the Orioles’ starting staff a boost, though.

Brandon Young (Baltimore’s No. 19 prospect per MLB Pipeline) will be called up from Triple-A Norfolk to make his MLB debut by starting Saturday’s game vs. the Reds. It’s possible the 26-year-old right-hander will need to settle in before having success, but he has high upside.

Kyle Gibson (who signed a one-year deal worth $5.25 million on March 21) has made two Triple-A starts as he builds up to a starter’s workload. The 37-year-old righty must be called up by May 1 based on his contract, but he could be in the big leagues even sooner than that.

But even if Young and/or Gibson pitch well, the O’s need better results from the starters already in their rotation. The 35-year-old Sugano has been encouraging since arriving from Japan, but the struggles from Morton and Kremer have been unexpected. Povich, meanwhile, is still enduring growing pains 20 starts into his career and trying to take positives from tough outings.

“[Friday] was a game where I gave up too many hits and had a lot of guys on base because of the [five] walks,” said Povich, who yielded three home runs. “I think there’s a little bit of learning to do, just for the past couple of games.”

The offense has been inconsistent, as it again was Friday, when home runs from Cedric Mullins and Heston Kjerstad were two of only four Orioles hits. But Baltimore has also frequently been facing large deficits early in games (it trailed Cincinnati 7-1 after four innings), making it challenging to climb out of a hole.

Earlier this week, general manager Mike Elias was asked whether he had any regrets of not adding a bona fide ace this past offseason, when the O’s signed Morton, Sugano and Gibson after losing Corbin Burnes (who signed with the D-backs).

“It is not feasible to land and execute every single thing that you want to do, try to do, in the offseason. And my entire job is balancing the needs of the team, the needs of the roster, vs. the acquisition cost and what that might do to affect future seasons,” Elias said. “We made moves that we wanted to, and I think we’ve had some unfortunate breaks here early on. The outlook for the rest of the season and for the organization continues to be really strong. And we’re working on things behind the scenes to just keep getting better and keep the team on track.”