Zach Wilt: Bundy's been solid, but it's time for a breather

Despite his recent struggles, Dylan Bundy is telling Orioles fans everything they want to hear. He feels fine, his arm isn't an issue and he's comfortable pitching every fifth day. Unfortunately, the results just haven't been there for Bundy of late. He's pitched to a 6.46 ERA over his last five starts and his fastball velocity has dipped from 95-96 miles per hour to 92-93.

Whatever numbers Bundy finishes with in 2016, he's been a terrific story this season for the Orioles. The guy hadn't pitched in the big leagues since the Birds' playoff push in 2012, he then underwent Tommy John surgery in 2013 and was shut down indefinitely in July of 2015 with a shoulder injury. Out of minor league options, the Orioles placed Bundy on their opening day roster after a solid spring training performance.

Expectations were low, but there was certainly optimism surrounding the former top prospect. Bundy made his long awaited return to the big leagues on April 7, a whole 1,290 days after his last appearance with the Orioles, and became a dependable arm for Buck Showalter to turn to out of the bullpen. In six appearances in June, Bundy pitched to a 1.23 ERA over 14 2/3 innings pitched and limited opponents to a .236 batting average during that span.

As the Orioles' rotation struggles mounted and with nowhere else to turn, the club handed Bundy the ball on July 17 against the Rays for his first career start. Bundy gave up four earned runs over 3 1/3 innings pitched at The Trop, but looked sharper five days later in his next outing against the Cleveland Indians. He followed that performance up with five perfect innings against the Rockies before giving up a walk and a homer to catcher Nick Hundley. The Birds picked up wins over his next three starts in which he pitched to a 1.45 ERA, limited batters to a .131 average, walked four and struck out 19. Suddenly, the Bundy hype was national news and the game logs were reason to believe he was the real deal.

Yesterday's outing in St. Pete was Bundy's shortest outing since his first start in mid-July. The typically efficient righty threw 91 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, only 56 for strikes. While he shut out the Yankees over 5 2/3 frames on September 2, New York managed to score five runs on him over four innings the start before. He threw a quality start against the Nationals on August 22, but the Red Sox recorded nine hits and five earned runs over 4 1/3 innings against him on August 17.

His fastball velocity as a reliever in June was around 96 miles per hour and he averaged 96.15 mph in his first start on July 17. Since then though, it's dipped down to 94 mph on August 7 and into 93 in late August. Bundy averaged 94.23 against the Yankees on September 2. That kind of drop in velocity is typically a sign of fatigue, which is understandable given his history and workload this season. That's not to take anything away from what he's done in 2016.

Bundy has been exactly what the Orioles needed this season, a reliable arm in relief and a guy the organization could turn to when they desperately needed starts. Here in early September however, I believe it's time to give him a breather. If Chris Tillman looks healthy in his bullpen session tomorrow and strong in his return on Sunday against the Tigers, perhaps the O's can afford to at least skip Bundy's next start. Should they need him going forward, given the inconsistencies of Wade Miley and Yovani Gallardo, they can always go back to him.

Personally, I think the Orioles have gotten much more than they ever expected to from Bundy this season. I would love to see them be able to slide him back into a relief role for potentially some important innings in late September or throughout October.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zach_wilt. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.