Orioles bet on Wade Miley to bolster pitching rotation
Just hours after briefly losing their grasp on first place to the Toronto Blue Jays, the Baltimore Orioles went out and upgraded their rotation. The Orioles are set to pick up pitcher Wade Miley from the Seattle Mariners.
It’s important to note that the deal is pending physicals. In most cases, it would be easy to assume it will go through, but this is the Orioles we’re talking about. Over the past few years, the team has cancelled a deal with Grant Balfour, passed on re-signing Nick Markakis and put Yovani Gallardo’s deal on hold for days due to medicals.
Miley has been durable over his career, and shown no sign of injury, so it would be surprising if the deal somehow falls apart at this point.
Durability is Miley’s main asset. The 29-year-old has tossed close to 200 innings in each of the past four seasons. His performance leaves a lot to be desired. After posting a solid 3.44 ERA over his first two full seasons in Arizona, Miley has put up a 4.53 ERA over the past three seasons. His 88 ERA+ over that period indicates that he’s been 12 percent worse than an average pitcher.
This year has been more of the same. The left-hander has a career-high 4.98 ERA over 112 innings. Home runs have been a much bigger issue for Miley this season. His 15.8 percent HR/FB rate is current the highest of his career, and not likely to get better in tiny Camden Yards.
Miley’s performance, while underwhelming, immediately makes him the third-best pitcher on the Orioles staff. Chris Tillman has been a nice surprise, and Kevin Gausman has finally lived up to expectations, but the rest of the O’s staff is unreliable.
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With the exception of Vance Worley and Dylan Bundy, every other Orioles starter has an ERA over 5.00 this year. Worley only made four starts and Bundy has only made three. Both have mostly pitched out of the bullpen this season. As starters, they both have 4.50 ERAs.
At the very least, Miley should eat up innings. While he’ll occasionally get knocked around, he at least tends to remain in games to soak up some frames. Miley’s shortest start of the season lasted just 3 2/3 innings. By comparison, Ubaldo Jimenez, Baltimore’s current No. 3 starter, has thrown fewer innings than that in four starts this year.
Baltimore didn’t give up much to acquire Miley. In exchange, they sent over 27-year-old Cuban pitcher Ariel Miranda. In 100 2/3 innings at Triple-A, Miranda has a 3.93 ERA.
While Miley should help, the deal is pretty underwhelming. The Orioles have succeeded this season despite an awful starting staff, so they really just need a pitcher to soak up innings while the offense goes to work. Miley can do that better than most of the current pitchers on the staff, so that makes him an upgrade.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
