Do Akin and Kremer have firm hold on rotation spots?

If we are to presume that two slots in the 2021 Orioles rotation are pretty much set and two others are somewhat set, that still leaves at least one spot open in the starting five for next season.

The Orioles have some decisions to make before opening day next season, whenever that turns out to be. Do Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer return to the rotation where they ended last summer and join mainstays John Means and Alex Cobb? Where does this leave Jorge López? Can one or both of the Rule 5 pitchers, Max Sceroler and Tyler Wells, win jobs? There are at leave five other starter candidates on the 40-man roster if we consider right-hander Ashton Goudeau a starter, as he was in 2019. They also include Zac Lowther, Alexander Wells, Michael Baumann and Bruce Zimmermann.

Of the 12 names listed here so far, eight can be optioned. The four that cannot are Cobb, López and the Rule 5 picks.

During a Zoom interview with local and national reporters on Monday, O's manager Brandon Hyde was asked how firm he sees Akin and Kremer in the rotation right now. Does he pretty much have four spots spoken for?

"I thought they put themselves in position the way they threw the ball, their last four or five starts in the big leagues," he said. "They threw the ball outstanding against playoff clubs. To go in against the lineups they faced on a nightly basis was really, really impressive how they handled that. They gave themselves every opportunity to win a starting job next year."

You need five to pitch in your rotation, but more than that when spring training begins and to provide depth.

"I think it's the same answer almost every year - the more starters, the better in spring training," Hyde said. "We've been pretty fortunate from an injury standpoint here the last couple of years. But you just never know what's going to happen. So eight, nine starters would be fantastic and we'll get it rolling from there."

Over the 60-game season, the O's 2020 rotation produced an ERA of 5.09, which ranked 11th in the American League. That number was 5.57 in 2019, which was 14th in the league. A ranking of 11th was actually a bit better than 13th, where the O's ranked the last time they made the playoffs, at 4.72 in 2016.

Means ended last summer on a roll with 21 strikeouts to one walk in his last two games. And he was 2-1 with a 1.52 ERA over his last four starts with 30 strikeouts to three walks over 23 2/3 innings. Cobb allowed three earned runs in his last two starts and gave up two earned runs or less seven times in his 10 outings. Akin was 1-2 with a 4.03 in his six starts, fanning 34 over 22 1/3. Kremer pitched to an ERA of 1.69 in his first three starts before he gave up seven runs his last outing.

The end of the year produced a mix of impressive pitching with a few blowups mixed in over those games, like that last Kremer start. But 12 times over the last 23 games, O's starters allowed one earned run or less.

"That will hook you up," as former O's right-hander Pat Rapp once said.

As the 2021 season approaches, there has to be some real hope for the future of the Baltimore rotation. The young guns like Lowther, Wells and Baumann could make their major league debuts. And the potential biggest guns of DL Hall and Grayson Rodriguez are getting closer and closer. Some pitchers further down the farm pipeline were quite solid in 2019 and the first year of games on the farm under Mike Elias and Chris Holt produced some impressive results and strikeout rates.

The Orioles, like most clubs in the majors, were lacking in starter innings in 2020. They got six innings from their starting pitchers in just 11 of 60 games. Will this trend continue? An improved bullpen was one reason Hyde turned to his relievers a lot last summer.

Meanwhile, the Orioles went 54-108 (.333) in Hyde's first year as skipper in 2019 and last season went 25-35 (.417).

"I thought we made a lot of progress last year, even though it was a shortened season," said Hyde. "I did feel like we made big strides as an organization, big strides as a major league club in a lot of areas. We got to send some of our young players to the big leagues. Especially that last half of the 60-game season.

"You start seeing some guys coming through our system - that's exciting to get some youth that we like a lot with the (Ryan) Mountcastles, Dean Kremer, Akins, etc. As well as we saw guys really continue to improve from the year before. Tony Santander and a lot of guys in our bullpen. So I think that we just have to continue to keep getting better. This next year is more of that. Giving more guys opportunity, continue to get our young players better and really creating a core group of players to compete in the American League East going forward."

Is the O's rotation in better shape now and did the team overall make big strides during the 2020 season?