Matt Kremnitzer: Is it time to dump Norris from the rotation?

The Orioles both receive and deserve credit for constantly working and reworking the fringes of the roster. They are again seeing the benefits of minor league signings like Chaz Roe, Chris Parmelee and Nolan Reimold, with the main goal being to eliminate the presence of bad players on the 25-man roster. Doing so can certainly be useful. If the O's are going to continue in that direction, then they may need to resolve the current issue that is Bud Norris.

Heading into the season, the Orioles knew they had six perfectly adequate starting rotation options for five spots. Those six were - and still are - Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, Miguel Gonzalez, Norris, Ubaldo Jimenez and Kevin Gausman. Predictably, the O's went with the first five to open the season in the rotation. Less predictably, they decided to use Gausman out of the bullpen. Things did not go at all as planned. Gausman was not very effective in relief, and then he got hurt. Jimenez, surprisingly, has been very good; Chen and Gonzalez have been good, as well. Tillman, despite his recent excellent outing, has been bad. But Norris has been worse. And through all that, the O's are still 41-35.

Norris has had a rough 2015, to say the least. He missed about a month's worth of starts in May and early June while recovering from bronchitis. During that span, he lost 14 pounds. He was already pitching poorly, and things have not improved. After allowing five runs (and four home runs) in six innings last night, Norris's ERA still managed to increase to 6.79 - the highest among all major league starters who have thrown more than 50 innings this season.

Norris isn't this bad. He's been a bit unfortunate when it comes to batting average on balls in play and strand rate. But his numbers are hardly encouraging; his strikeout rate is down, his walk rate is up and left-handed batters are teeing off on him even more than usual. Norris was far from great last year, but he was serviceable. That isn't the case this season.

Despite Tillman's struggles, it's not hard to understand why the O's are committed to him. Not only is he out of options, but he also has two arbitration-eligible years remaining and won't become a free agent until 2018. Similarly, Norris can't be sent to the minors. But unlike Tillman, Norris is scheduled to become a free agent after this season.

That brings us back to Gausman, who is scheduled to pitch for the Orioles on Thursday. He's needed for a spot start after the O's completed a doubleheader sweep of the Indians on Sunday. The plan for Gausman is to be optioned back to the minors afterward and continue starting games.

After starting 20 games for the Orioles last year, Thursday's start will be Gausman's second of 2015. Throughout Gausman's young career, the O's handling of him has been questionable. They've been very concerned with making sure he's not overworked innings-wise, but he's also been a mainstay on the Norfolk shuttle despite being one of the team's five best starting pitching options. They don't want to work him too much, but they don't want to work him too little, either. They've created a very fine line.

Gausman has been summoned occasionally when a starter is needed, including pitching on short rest for some reason in 2014 after battling pneumonia. He's also been forced into relief roles at various times, which seems much more reasonable in the playoffs than at the beginning of a season.

Much of the problem is that the Orioles did not address the starting pitching issue before the season. In the past year-plus, they've considered dealing Gonzalez, Chen and Norris. But another concern is that the Orioles won't stop tinkering with Gausman. There's no guarantee he'll develop into an excellent starting pitcher no matter what they do, but it's a bit odd to use him as some sort of Swiss Army knife instead of letting him start games consistently.

The Orioles may end up not needing a whole lot from Gausman this season, but they definitely will in 2016 and beyond. Considering that Dylan Bundy may have thrown his last pitch of 2015, it's looking less likely that he'll be able to start games for the Orioles next year (when he has to be on the major league roster), or possibly be able to pitch at all for an extended period of time. But Gausman is healthy and able to pitch effective innings in the majors right now. It's something he showcased last season, and that sure seems like a better alternative than trotting Norris out every fifth day.

Matt Kremnitzer blogs about the Orioles at Camden Depot. Follow him on Twitter: @mattkremnitzer. 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.