Andrew Stetka: Rotation fixes still needed for O's

Despite what you may have seen over the past few weeks, the Orioles still don't have a ton of pitching at their disposal. The starting rotation has been the weakest link on this team for years, and the 2017 campaign has been no different. O's starters have the worst ERA in the American League at 5.53, second-worst in the majors only to the Cincinnati Reds. Baltimore also ranks 13^th in innings pitched from its starters in the AL, ahead of only the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox.

On the surface, the last few weeks have looked a bit better. Kevin Gausman has improved, Dylan Bundy has looked a bit better and prior to yesterday, Jeremy Hellickson's first few starts with the Birds were going smoothly. Even Ubaldo Jiménez has proven capable of contributing some positive innings in recent weeks. But there are much larger, deeper issues for this starting rotation going forward. I'm not just speaking of the final six weeks of the season, either. Four of the nine players who have made at least one start for the Orioles this season are set to be free agents at the end of the year. Only Bundy and Gausman are among those who have made more than ten starts that are definitely set to stick around. It leaves Jiménez, Hellickson, Wade Miley and Chris Tillman drifting in the wind. No one knows what may come of their futures, and for someone like Tillman who has battled injury all season, even he likely doesn't know what is next.

The Orioles have never been known to go out and spend big dollars on free agent pitching. Jiménez was one of the first big splashes they made in the market, and frankly spending $50 million over four years isn't that large of a splash. There will be plenty of names on the market this year and the O's will likely need to spend on at least two of them. If the Orioles thought $50 million was a lot to give to one player, the sticker shock they are likely to see on the market this offseason could be daunting. That's the way it is in baseball these days. Pitching costs a lot of money. Even bad pitching costs a lot of money.The other route the Orioles simply need to improve upon is with arms that come through their own system. There is a laundry list of pitchers now throwing in other organizations that were either traded or given away by the O's. We saw one of them first hand last week in Anaheim with Parker Bridwell tossing seven innings of one-run ball against Baltimore. Zach Davies, Ariel Miranda and Steven Brault are other names who have impressed at one point or another since leaving the Orioles.

This has a been an issue for the Orioles over the past few seasons. A thin farm system proves it. According to MLBPipeline.com, the top pitcher in the O's system right now is DL Hall, who was just drafted in June. That's not a good sign. Another 2017 pick, third-rounder Michael Baumann, is the fifth-ranked pitcher in the system already. There is a sprinkling of other names in the system that the Orioles hope to hear from in the near future, but that future may not be 2018. Tanner Scott, Keegan Akin, Hunter Harvey and Cody Sedlock will need to rise up to the majors and perform if the O's want to have hope of competing over the next few years.

There are many ways the Orioles can go about fixing what's broken, but perhaps the most underlying issue is a belief that they'll do it. It's possible to go out and spend big and hope for a quick fix going forward while also learning how to develop arms for the future. The next step is to see results. Those results just haven't been there this season.

Andrew Stetka blogs about the Orioles for Eutaw Street Report. Follow him on Twitter: @AStetka. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. 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.