The Orioles are a week removed from announcing starting pitcher Kyle Bradish will start the season on the IL with a partial UCL tear in his right elbow. Baltimore will miss Bradish's sub-3.00 ERA and almost a strikeout per inning, but MLB is a next-man-up league and the team has to decide how to replace Bradish while he works to return to action.
Before the Orioles can determine how they'll replace Bradish they must determine how long the pitcher will be missing from action, and that's not an easy answer. Reports from Sarasota had Bradish playing catch from 90 feet on Tuesday, but that doesn't give Reeta Hubbard a ton of confidence that Bradish is close.
"I'm proactively looking for other options," Hubbard told Inside Access with Jason LaCanfora, Ken Weinman, and Tim Barbalace. "You (the Orioles) have to treat this as if it is a Tommy John situation as opposed to a UCL situation."
So what should Baltimore do?
Exploring the free-agent market, Hubbard said the Orioles "know what's out there" but may be holding off on acquiring guys like Jesús Luzardo, Blake Snell, or Jordan Montgomery maybe because of sticker shock. If Baltimore doesn't move now to trade or sign a free agent, what's in-house that could work?
"They have guys that we know and started before," said Hubbard. "Tyler Wells is an option and he played really well prior to the All-Star break last year. Maybe that's potentially an option."
Wells made 20 starts last season and finished with a 3.64 ERA. His 3.18 first-half ERA was a bit marred after he gave up 11 earned runs on 14 innings of work post All-Star break.