Every MLB team finds a few gem relievers every year.
It just happens. Guys return from stints in Korea and dominate. Dudes are signed out of semi-pro ball or the Mexican League and get hot and salvage their careers. It's like the most basic, most rote, area of roster dumpster diving, and it seems to be somewhat automatic.
Many of these discoveries end up reverting to form, and the success can be fleeting outside a single season. But they happen. Accept, well, not in Baltimore. Not on Mike Elias's pathetic watch. Not with this inept front office. And they haven't even found a failed minor-league starter in their own organization to come through and provide any quality innings in the pen.
It's just another sad aspect of another lost season with only about 40 games to play. Rico Garcia was amazing for a while, and he fits the above description, but they stumbled into him a year ago. Doesn't count for 2026. In terms of interesting arms out of the pen for them, it's just been the dudes they are paying decent money to do it, and who have a track record - Yennier Cano , Andrew Kittredge , Tyler Wells (until they dealt him).
Leave it to Elias to mess even this up , putting his latest puppet skipper in a tough situation.
There were two arms Elias pushed hard to make a thing this season. One of them is back in Norfolk, not even getting another shot after they sold Wells - Anthony Nunez . The converted infielder got off to a decent start but they forced him into high leverage role, he faltered badly and lost command and confidence and he has a 4.60 ERA in MLB this year, getting less swing and miss the more he pitched.
And the arm that Elias clearly wanted to work out the most was Grant Wolfram . Without a decent lefty in their pen all year, they loved the reverse splits Wolfram posted and thought it made them look really smart, but he's been overexposed too and the bottom is starting to fall out as he was forced into high-leverage spots.
Wolfram is now wearing a 5.75 ERA, pretty unreal for a reliever. His WHIP is now an ungodly 1.5. Nothing trending in the right direction here, with a 9.39 ERA since the All-Star break (7 2/3 IP), and they're going to have a hard time salvaging anything here with him down the stretch.
Alex Hoppe is the new favorite, who was utterly horrible in Seattle , and was part of the salary-dump transaction for Taylor Ward . He's wild and erratic but has fastball life, and he's gotten a few outs early in his Orioles career. Expect to see a lot of him now. Elias needs someone to pop. Bet this one doesn't end well, either.
There are a litany of reasons to doubt this team heavily in the final weeks, especially with four games looming in Tampa . The lack of anyone outside of their "A team" of relievers showing much positive at all this season is part of the problem.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/orioles/onsi as Every Team Finds Some Hidden Gens In Their Bullpen. What About The Orioles? .
