After his third straight rough start to begin the season, Orioles left-handed starting pitcher Cole Irvin is being optioned to Triple-A.
The Orioles have sent down Irvin, whom they acquired in a trade with the Oakland Athletics this offseason, to Norfolk after he posted a 10.66 ERA through his first three starts, the team announced Friday afternoon. Irvin allowed six runs in four innings in Thursday’s 8-7 walk-off win over the A’s.
Baltimore is also promoting right-handed pitcher Spenser Watkins from Triple-A. Watkins pitched in 23 games for the Orioles last season, including 20 starts, recording a 4.70 ERA. The 30-year-old is 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA this season for the Tides, striking out eight in 10 innings.
Also on Friday, the Orioles placed left-handed reliever Keegan Akin on the paternity list and recalled right-hander Yennier Canó from Triple-A.
Irvin began the season as the Orioles’ No. 3 starter and the second-most experienced arm in the rotation, behind only Kyle Gibson. Baltimore acquired Irvin, a lefty who averaged just over 179 innings with the Athletics in 2021 and 2022, to help stabilize a rotation filled with mostly inexperienced arms. The Orioles gave up infield prospect Darell Hernaiz — a solid youngster, but not one of their top young infielders — to acquire Irvin, who still has several years of team control remaining.
In Baltimore, the 29-year-old has struggled, failing to reach five innings in any of his three starts. In 30 starts with Oakland last year, Irvin pitched five or more innings in 27 of them.
In 12 2/3 innings, Irvin has surrendered 17 hits, eight walks and 15 runs. The eight walks are uncharacteristic for Irvin, whose success in Oakland was largely a product of his strike-throwing ability. His 4.9% walk rate in 2022 was one of the lowest among MLB starters; this season, that number has ballooned to 12.7%.
On Thursday, Irvin allowed five hits, two walks and six runs in four innings against his former team in a game that was later won by the Orioles, 8-7, thanks to a walk-off home run by Adley Rutschman.
“He’s just scuffling a little bit command wise,” manager Brandon Hyde said after the game.
“I’m just shooting myself in the foot,” Irvin said. “Walks, hit by pitches, bad pitches in bad locations that I know not to go to. Again, it’s just small stuff that I really need to continue to clean up. I’m not happy with how these first three [starts] have gone.”
While Irvin’s short outings are unfamiliar for him, they aren’t for the Orioles (7-6) so far this year. Baltimore’s starters are recording fewer than 14 outs on average through the club’s first 13 games. Outside of Gibson and Tyler Wells, the rest of the team’s healthy starters — Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer and Irvin — have been inefficient.
Rodriguez, Kremer and Irvin pitched the previous three games, and all three failed to record 15 or more outs. That has caused Hyde to go to his bullpen early and wear out his relief corps. For example, reliever Logan Gillaspie pitched in seven of Baltimore’s first 12 games, and he warmed up for the club’s 13th contest Thursday to nearly appear an eighth time.
“It’s gonna turn around,” Irvin said. “I know the bullpen could use a little bit of a break from our end. Someone that prides themselves on getting into ball games, I haven’t been able to do that yet. I’m not very happy with letting some teammates down. I just need to get better.”
Watkins, meanwhile, is back in Baltimore after starting 30 games for the Orioles in 2021 and 2022. He competed for a rotation spot in spring training but started his season in Triple-A. He’s had stretches of success in the majors, but has largely struggled with a career 1.513 WHIP and 5.5 strikeouts per nine innings.
The moves could also have implications for Rodriguez, the club’s top pitching prospect who began the year in Triple-A but was promoted after starting pitcher Kyle Bradish was put on the injured list. Bradish, who will test out his bruised right foot in a minor league rehabilitation assignment Friday, could return as early as Wednesday against the Washington Nationals. If Irvin had remained in the rotation, that would have been his expected game to start.
The Orioles were thought to be heading toward having to decide between Rodriguez and Wells — as they had at the end of spring training — once Bradish returned from the IL, but it’s possible Irvin’s demotion means Rodriguez could remain in the majors.
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