Brandon Young struggled to locate pitches in his first two games, and Kyle Gibson looked dreadful in his season debut last night.
The Orioles rotation has reached some truly low points this season. Charlie Morton has led the charge with an 0-6 record and a 10.36 ERA, but he’s hardly been the only starter to struggle this season. Dean Kremer has surrendered a team-high seven home runs, and Cade Povich holds an ERA above five through his first five starts.
Tomoyuki Sugano has made for a fun story this month, but injuries to Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez left the starting rotation to flounder. Additional injuries to Albert Suárez, Trevor Rogers and Chayce McDermott chiseled away at the team’s depth, and Brandon Hyde struggled to make do with the available options.
Each Morton outing caused a legitimate craving for fresh meat. Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells remain sidelined until the middle of summer, but the Orioles organization needed to try someone else. Unfortunately, Baltimore quickly discovered that “different” doesn’t always lead to “better.”
Baltimore’s refusal to prioritize pitching in the draft has been well documented. With the lack of health and talent stretching into Triple-A, the Orioles selected the contract of Brandon Young on April 19. Young became the first pitcher solely developed under Mike Elias and the current administration to reach the majors with the O’s.
Young had pitched well at Norfolk dating back to last season. Unfortunately, he pitched like a 26-year-old rookie in his first two MLB appearances. Young allowed three earned runs over four innings in his major league debut and managed 4.2 innings of three-run ball his last time out against Detroit. He struggled to miss bats but often missed the strike zone. He issued three free passes in his first start before walking five batters against the Tigers.
MLB Pipeline ranks Young as Baltimore’s 19th best prospect. He could turn out to be a quality major league pitcher, but the Orioles do not exactly have the bandwidth to allow multiple guys to figure it out right now. Unfortunately, they don’t have many other options.
One of those options made his season debut last night, and things could not have gone worse. Kyle Gibson walked out to a major league mound for the first time this season and proceeded to give up a home run. And then another. And then another.
Gibson allowed three straight long balls to start the game. He retired Paul Goldschmidt on a ground ball before surrendering his fourth homer of the inning to Cody Bellinger. An injured Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with an extra-base hit, and his pinch runner came around to score on a double by Anthony Volpe.
The first homer generated a “well, that’s how it goes” type of reaction. The second long ball incited panic. The third one shifted the narrative. Gibson was never there to save the Orioles rotation, but now he may not even improve it.
Gibson coughed up five homers over 3.2 innings—one for each stage of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, a.k.a., the story of the 2025 Baltimore Orioles.
Gibson and the Birds had the opportunity to establish some positive momentum after Sugano delivered on Monday. Instead, Gibson cast a significant doubt over his ability to still contribute at age 37.
Gibson posted a 98 ERA+ last season with St. Louis. He tossed 169.2 innings and allowed 1.2 home runs per nine innings. That mark was only 0.1 above his career average of 1.1 HR/9 over 12 big league seasons.
Of course it was only one game. Gibson could still settle down and become an average backend starter for however long the O’s need him, but last night was brutal. Gibson appeared to be his same smiling self prior to the first pitch. He did not experience a normal spring training, but did he really have the nerves to justify this type of letdown?
The MASN booth briefly speculated that the righty could have been tipping his pitches, but Ben McDonald reiterated that Gibson was repeatedly putting the ball in harm’s way.
Morton eventually entered the game and pitched multiple innings of relief. It must be difficult to lose your spot in the rotation, but losing it to a guy with a 22.09 ERA probably stings a bit more.
Gibson and the Birds took their lumps last night, but there’s a larger point here. Kyle Gibson may not pitch any better than fellow aging veteran Morton. The best thing that Gibson, Young and Rogers have/had going for them is that they hadn’t struggled in an Orioles uniform yet this season.
Rogers, in case you were wondering, failed to complete two innings while allowing four runs at Triple-A last night.
Eflin, Rodriguez, Bradish and Wells. That’s the list of established big leaguers that can help the Orioles this season. The first round of reinforcements, while different, has yet to prove they can make a difference.