A look at Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez

They are two right-handers from the Dominican Republic and they are two of the best starting pitchers remaining on the free agent market. They are 31-year-old Ervin Santana and 30-year-old Ubaldo Jimenez. To sign either, a club would have to give up a draft pick. For the Orioles that would mean giving up the 17th pick in the first round next June. Should they consider doing that? For Kansas City in 2013, Santana went 9-10 with an ERA of 3.24 over 211 innings in 32 starts. In his career, over eight seasons with the Angels and one with the Royals, Santana is 105-90 with a 4.19 ERA. For Cleveland, Jimenez went 13-9 with a 3.30 ERA over 182 2/3 innings in 32 starts last year. In eight big league seasons with Colorado and Cleveland, he is 82-75 with a 3.92 ERA. Santana has a few things going for him that make him attractive to most teams. For one, the ability to provide quality innings. Santana pitched 211 innings last season and has averaged 210 innings over the last four years. Last season, he went seven innings or more 18 times. Chris Tillman, who led the O's in innings in 2013, did that 13 times. Since 2011, Santana has averaged 6.5 innings per start, the most among the notable free agent pitchers. Santana pitched to a 1.14 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) last season and that would have ranked first among O's starters in 2013. His career mark is 1.28. He has good control, averaging just 2.2 walks per nine innings last season and 2.8 over his career. He was pretty consistent for the Royals, with an ERA of 3.37 before the All-Star break and 3.07 after. Left-handed batters hit .247 off him and right-handed hitters batted .227. On the downside, Santana had a poor year just two years ago when he pitched to an ERA of 5.16 for the Angels and he gave up a league-high 39 homers. After that season, he was traded to Kansas City for only a minor leaguer. Now, after his strong 2013 season, he's about to cash in with a nice contract. Jimenez capped his solid 2013 season with an exceptional finish. In 13 starts after the All-Star Game, he went 6-5 with a 1.82 ERA and 100 strikeouts over 84 innings. He pitched to an ERA of 1.09 in six September starts, which included six shutout innings against the Orioles on Sept. 3. Jimenez gives up fewer homers and strikes out more batters than Santana. He gave up 16 homers last year and allows just 0.7 per nine innings in his career. His strikeout rate of 9.6 per nine innings in 2013 was a career best. But Jimenez can walk too many batters and has averaged 4.0 walks per nine innings in his career. He has led the league twice in wild pitches. He averaged 3.9 walks per nine innings last season. He pitched seven or more innings only eight times. Before he pitched to an ERA of 3.30 in 2013, Jimenez had ERAs of 4.68 and 5.40 the previous two seasons - both well over the league average. He has also seen his velocity drop. Jimenez averaged 96 mph in 2009-10 when he had strong seasons with Colorado and was at 92.1 mph last season. A first-round draft pick is no guarantee. But that No. 17 pick will turn into an actual player next summer and thus the Orioles would essentially be trading that player along with paying the money to sign one of these pitchers. The Orioles have let other lower-dollar options go off the board here. They could have probably signed a pitcher for less by now, and might have been able to do that as well as one of these two right-handers. But they didn't. Bronson Arroyo is headed to Arizona and it appears A.J. Burnett will join him in the National League. It's getting late and the O's still need pitching. Both of these pitchers had ERAs over 5.00 as recently as the 2012 season. But both pitched well in 2013 and now they are ready to cash in. Is it time for the Orioles to give up the pick to get one of these two?