By Austin Meidna
The Orioles entered Spring Training with a glaring need for starting pitching. With pitchers such as Dylan Bundy and Andrew Cashner no longer in Baltimore, All-Star John Means is the only known dependable starter in the rotation.
Baltimore invited another left-handed pitcher to Spring Training Thursday.
Today in Orioles rotation news, they added Tommy Milone on a minor league invite deal and Alex Cobb’s first bullpen proper of camp was impressive. https://t.co/wbghONQBVa
— Jon Meoli (@JonMeoli)
February 13, 2020 Milone, 32, has pitched for six different fracnhises since entering the league in 2011.
With a career 50-47 record, Milone production took leaps of improvement last season. Although he compiled a 4.76 ERA, Milone logged 111.2 innings along with a 1.32 WHIP which were both his best numbers since 2015.
Milone's had been slipping from his 2015 campaign, bouncing around the National League. He spent all of 2019 back in the American League with the Mariners.
Orioles GM Mike Elias spoke earlier this week about the team potentially adding a few arms to the rotation and Milone provides competition to a big camp.
Milone's arsenal includes late-80s fastball along with a mid-80s cutter and a devastating changeup.
Fun fact about Tommy Milone, who signed wit hthe #Orioles yesterday, his changeup was the third most-chased pitch in all of baseball last year.Here's how it looked last year:- 52.4% chase rate- 17.6% SwStr rate- 24.6% CSW- .232 wOBA against- .121 ISO against pic.twitter.com/DOgtoUKGFP
— Ben Palmer (@benjpalmer)
February 14, 2020 His control has been well-regarded, with a 1.85 BB/9 in 2019. Milone's inability to avoid the homerun ball has hampered his recent production but a good camp may be enough to land him on the Orioles roster.
