New O's players mostly off to good starts

Of the six Orioles that joined the team during the deals leading up to the trade deadline, we can pretty much say that four of them are doing well thus far. One is trending up and one is trying to stay out of O’s fans' doghouse.

The struggling new Oriole is obviously lefty reliever Gregory Soto. In his first four O’s appearances, he gave up nine hits, eight runs, one homer and three walks in just 2 1/3 innings. He allowed nine hits in 15 at-bats with an ERA of 30.86.

But the Orioles are obviously not going to bail on him after four outings. Soto was an All-Star in both 2021 and 2022 with Detroit and had a 48 percent whiff rate on his slider when they acquired him. The O’s need to get that pitch going to complement his high-90s fastball.

The O’s acquired Eloy Jiménez from the White Sox and some fans wondered why with his injury history and .642 OPS this year. But he came as a player that had produced a .790 career OPS and a Silver Slugger Award in 2020.

Then Jiménez went 11-for-21 through Friday night, batting .524 with an OPS of 1.143. He did not play in Saturday's win, so he maintains those lofty stats heading into today as an Oriole.

During the Toronto series, manager Brandon Hyde agreed with an assessment that the O’s hope Jiménez proves to be a player that needed a change of scenery to become more productive. Pitcher Jake Arrieta found it when the O’s sent him to the Cubs. Maybe Jiménez, coming from Chicago, rediscovers his batting stroke in Baltimore.

“He’d been with that (White Sox) organization for quite a while,” said Hyde. “They had a couple of really good years when he was hitting in the middle of the order around a veteran type of lineup. The last couple of years haven’t gone as well there.

“He is a special hitter. I think this is a breath of fresh air for him. Sometimes it’s a good thing to get around new teammates, new voice. He has added a spark so far for us, hopefully he can keep it going.”

Jiménez has a stunning groundball rate of 86.7 percent as an Oriole, hitting 13 ground balls and zero fly balls. I guess it’s not 100 percent grounders due to popups.

But Jiménez had a 60.1 groundball rate with the Sox, which is very high. In fact, among batters with 250 plate appearances in the bigs this year, no player has a grounder rate as high as Jiménez at 60.6 percent.

Is this just who he is now, more of a singles hitter? And when those grounders find fewer holes, what will the stats look like? The O’s seem to want their power bats to lift the ball into the air. Will there be a transition for Jiménez with this club or just leave well enough alone? For now, he is getting the job done and making loud contact, even if they are grounders. Right now it's working.

When reporters interviewed lefty Trevor Rogers in Toronto, he talked about being excited to work with the O’s pitching coaches to make some changes – both short- and long-term.

“Yeah, for sure (I'm open to that)," Rogers said. "The information is a lot more than I am used to in a good way. Just their ability to break things down and show me what I was doing right when I was going really well and where I am at now. And how I can get back to the guy I know I can be. I was really pumped about that. Their tools and the knowledge they have for me just leading up to the next two months and two years I am here, really excited about that.”

Rogers was encouraged and felt he took a nice step forward in his second O’s start. That was Wednesday at Rogers Centre when he gave up two earned runs over five innings.

Hyde feels the O’s could help Rogers make some tweaks and adjustments this year, but any major changes or a bigger overhaul would take longer.

“I think it’s going to be challenging," Hyde said. "It’s a sprint right now, we have less than 50 games to go. I think you can change how you go about attacking hitters or your pitch mix, that kind of stuff. But to have a drastic change in your pitch shapes, that is going to be really, really tough.

“But I do know they are working hard with him. I know they dove into a lot of things with him and hopefully it is helpful for the rest of the season.”

Nothing to tweak right now with right-hander Zach Eflin, who is 3-0 with a 2.33 ERA in three O’s games. He has delivered three quality starts, leading to three wins with a .247 average and .616 OPS against in those games with just two walks and a WHIP of 1.09.

Outfielder Austin Slater, who was batting .185 in 51 games this year when the O’s added him, started 3-for-5 with the O’s through Friday with a double, RBI and two walks for a .714 on-base percentage. But he went 0-for-4 last night.

Righty reliever Seranthony Domínguez picked up his second save of the season last night when he pitched the ninth for the Orioles. His only previous save came against the Orioles for the Phillies on June 14.

Now in eight O's games, he has a 1.13 ERA and 0.75 WHIP, allowing four hits and one run in eight innings with two walks and nine strikeouts. A very solid start with the club for him.

The Orioles beat the Rays 7-5 on Saturday night to become the first team in the majors to reach 70 wins. At 70-48, they lead the Yankees by one game atop the American League East. 

And the Orioles now have the best record in the majors:

Orioles – 70-48 (.593)
Phillies – 69-48 (.590)
Yankees – 69-49 (.585)
Dodgers and Guardians – 68-49 (.581)