Finding a starter: O's moved Alex Pham to the rotation and his numbers got better

SARASOTA, Fla. – Here is yet another reason to praise the Orioles organization: making more good decisions on their farm.

Last year, they took a minor league pitcher that had thrown a combined 44 2/3 innings out of the bullpen in the 2021 and 2022 minor league seasons and made him a starter.

They saw something and the move worked. Right-hander Alex Pham, mostly a reliever in college and exclusively a reliever in his first two pro seasons, had a huge year as a starter pitching at High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie.

He went 3-5 with an ERA of 2.57. Over 112 innings he allowed 72 hits, posting a .182 average against and 1.02 WHIP. He recorded a 3.4 walk rate and 10.5 K per nine rate. He had 13.3 K per nine rate with Aberdeen, where he went 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in May and was the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month.

Yep, this starting thing was indeed working out.

“It was a bit of stepping out of my comfort zone, but I was grateful for the opportunity and just kind of ran with it,” Pham, 24, told me this week at Twin Lakes Park.

The guy pitched four years at the University of San Francisco, making just seven starts among 73 appearances. For the O’s in the lower minors in 2021-2022, all 26 games he pitched in were in relief.

Not bad for a pitcher signed as a 19^th-round pick out of USF in the 2021 draft. He signed for just $25,000.

One reason the O’s might have made this move – his deep repertoire of pitches.

“They probably did this because I have a five-pitch mix and they wanted to see if they could get me more innings. I like being able to keep the hitters guessing.”

Pham throws a four-seamer that averaged 92 mph last year and touches the mid 90s. He can also throw a cutter, slider, curve and splitter as his changeup.

“I feel very confident to throw all my pitches in any count, at any time and in any location,” he said.

Pham had pitched to an ERA of 4.63 in his first pro year of 2021 and 4.09 the following season. But as a starter, his numbers really ticked up and he finished the 2023 season No. 1 among all O’s pitchers on the farm with 80 or more innings in ERA and WHIP and second in batting average against. His 29.4 K percentage ranked fifth.

The O’s with potentially quite the find in round 19.

And now he is getting noticed by prospect analysts and is ranked in the Baltimore top 30 at No. 25 by MLBPipeline.com and No. 27 via Baseball America.

Those outlets essentially grade all his pitches around a 50 on the MLB scouting scale, so all about MLB average. No elite pitch, but all five can be effective. He has a lot of weapons to get hitters out.

He said he was a three-pitch pitcher for the most part in college but has developed the split on the O’s watch and reworked his slider with coaches' help on the farm.

Pham got a call from O’s minors coach Forrest Herrmann not long after the 2022 season ended to see if he would be up to covert to starting pitching. Herrmann will be the club’s Minor League lower level pitching coordinator this season but worked closely with Pham as pitching coach at Aberdeen in 2022 and Bowie last year.

“We have worked really well together,” he said of his relationship with Herrmann. “He is really versed in the analytics side of it and pitch design. Some things I am not too well versed in, he is able to fill in the blanks for me and really set a clear path for me and guide me.”

It had to excite the Orioles that as he moved up to Bowie last summer, Pham kept producing numbers. With the Baysox in14 games, he had an ERA of 2.67 and a  0.99 WHIP in 60 2/3 innings.

Pham seems like a real even-keel personality and getting prospect recognition won’t change much about his approach to the 2024 season.

“Getting recognition is a very nice thing, but, regardless I am just here to, I guess, earn the right to wear an Oriole on my chest,” he said.

He hasn’t heard yet which affiliate he will be with this season, but perhaps he starts in the Bowie rotation with a chance to advance to Triple-A.

“The steps get bigger and more challenging as you move up. Getting closer and closer and the dream is to make the big leagues,” said Pham.