The Baltimore Orioles have plenty of holes to fill in their rotation, and how they address those needs will say a lot about their 2025 plans.
Trading away Grayson Rodriguez seemed counterintuitive at first glance. You don’t move a young starter with multiple years of control unless you’ve got something bigger in mind.
That’s where the front office’s strategy becomes clearer. They wouldn’t have dealt Rodriguez if they weren’t planning to spend on pitching upgrades.
Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter recently projected starting rotations across MLB and has Baltimore targeting Lucas Giolito, who spent 2024 with the Boston Red Sox.
“The Orioles have 329.2 innings to replace between Tomoyuki Sugano, Charlie Morton and Zach Eflin, and they also flipped Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels for slugger Taylor Ward earlier this week.”
The math is pretty straightforward here. Baltimore needs innings, and they need quality innings.
“Full seasons from Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish will go a long way after they made a combined 24 starts, so one quality veteran arm to slot somewhere in the No. 2/3 range in their rotation might be all they need. Lucas Giolito reestablished himself as that caliber of starter after a strong campaign in Boston.”
Giolito’s 2024 numbers back up that assessment. The former first-round pick posted a 3.41 ERA across 145.0 innings for Boston.
That’s exactly the type of production Baltimore needs in the middle of their rotation. Giolito brings nine years of MLB experience and showed he’s still got the stuff that made him effective earlier in his career.
If he can replicate that Boston performance in an Orioles uniform, it’d give them the veteran presence they’re looking for while Rogers and Bradish work their way back to full health.
