Dillon Atkinson: Diving into some bullpen options as trade deadline nears

In an act of possible desperation, manager Buck Showalter has opted to use Dylan Bundy and Vance Worley in starter's roles this past week. These two - behind the trio of Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman and Yovani Gallardo - could stick in the rotation for a little while, despite possible pitch limits, since both are making the move from the bullpen. However, it's not a secret that the Orioles could use help in the starting rotation from outside the organization. And it would be hard to imagine that the club isn't currently on the search for such help.

Could they be on the search for more than just rotation help, though? According to MASNsports.com's very own Roch Kubatko, the club is interested in adding a left-handed reliever. The Birds haven't been able to find a solid southpaw to fill Brian Matusz's shoes to this point, but they may be able to by next week. While Kubatko listed names such as Eric O'Flaherty and Joe Beimel as possibilities, I'd like to turn my focus toward Rockies reliever Boone Logan and Brewers reliever Will Smith.

Logan - who is in the final year of his three-year, $16.5 million deal with the Rockies - has posted a 2.84 ERA and 11 K/9 over 25.1 innings pitched this season. In the same span, he has held opposing left-handed batters to a .161 batting average, while also holding righties to a .181 clip; although righties are getting on-base 33.3 percent of the time, as Logan's walk-rate is much higher against opposite-handed batters. It'll be interesting to see what the Rockies' price-tag is on the veteran left-hander, being in a contract year.

Smith, 27, is under team control with the Brewers through the 2019 season. Since the beginning of 2015, the young left-hander has recorded a 2.58 ERA and 11.9 K/9 over 80.1 innings. Since Smith is younger, under team control for three more years after 2016, and is very talented, he likely won't come cheap. If the Orioles were to call the Brewers about Smith, they may hear that Gausman is wanted in return. Obviously, that's not going to happen, but teams seem to ask for Gausman every year in trade talks. If the O's want to go in for Smith, though, they may have to part ways with top catching prospect Chance Sisco, who the Orioles seem to put a lot of value into, plus more.

Other than relievers, could the O's add a hitter to the club? I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I'm suggesting this just because of the team's hitting slump since returning from the All-Star break. That's far from the case. With the starting pitcher trade market so thin, the Orioles may not be able to acquire anyone on their top-five target list, simply because starting pitching is a need for multiple contenders. And of those contenders, there's a pretty good chance that most, or all, of them have a deeper farm system to deal from than the O's do. So, in regard to that, could the club add more to a strength of the team?

This would have to be a situation that Hyun Soo Kim - or another potentially hurt player - is out longer than expected, or maybe the club is done with the inflexibility in having to keep Pedro Alvarez in the designated hitter's role. Alvarez hasn't done a bad job in his role, but if you can upgrade by moving Mark Trumbo to designated hitter and putting a more competent outfielder in right field at a reasonable price, why not do it? If the Orioles could pull a deal for a right fielder like Josh Reddick or Carlos Gonzalez, it would upgrade the club both offensively and defensively. However, acquiring either of these players would likely come at a steep price, with names like Sisco, Mychal Givens, Bundy, Trey Mancini and others possibly being brought into the conversation.

By adding a reliever like Logan or Smith, the Orioles could turn a great back-end of a bullpen into a dominant all-around 'pen. It would help shorten the games for starting pitchers, with offenses having trouble putting runs up against one of Logan or Smith, along with Brad Brach, Darren O'Day and Zach Britton. If the O's choose to take the route of adding a bat - which may seem very unlikely - they'd be committing to putting more damage against other team's pitching staffs to try to outweigh the O's rotation weaknesses even more than they already have.

Dillon Atkinson blogs about the Orioles for Orioles Uncensored. Follow him on Twitter: @DAtkinsonOU. 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.