Jake Arrieta has yet to figure it out at the Major League level and now he’s left the Orioles with some decisions to make. Arrieta has yet to have a full season or an ERA under 4.66 for Baltimore and his biggest woes of his career forced the Birds to send him back to AAA Norfolk.
The 27-year-old righty was dreadful to start the season, tossing 19 innings over four starts and surrendering: 14 runs, 16 walks and a 6.63 ERA. His final stat line on Sunday excluded anything beyond 4+ innings but allowed for four walks and a hit batter in his first loss of the season.
For the Orioles, the rotation has not met expectations. No starter through Monday’s game had thrown seven complete innings. The bullpen, perhaps the biggest reason Baltimore made a playoff run in 2012, is overworked already, just three weeks into the season.
Currently, the Orioles are looking at either Freddy Garcia or Chris Britton, at the very least to provide a spot-start.
The Baltimore rotation was supposed to be young and promising in 2013, but it has run into growing pains. Arrieta exemplifies some of those struggles with his young campaign. It took 91 pitches to get through 12 outs against the Dodgers and reliever Alex Burnett had to be called up to provide further bullpen insurance.
Baltimore has not ruled out using a position player like Chris Davis (who pitched for the Orioles last season in a game) in the event of extra innings (which may put their 17 game winning streak in extras in jeopardy) but have decided against using any current starter on short rest.
The O’s began a three game set with the Blue Jays on Monday.
