The Orioles have expressed interest in a number of elite relievers.
General manager of Baltimore Mike Elias said reporters earlier this month at the GM Meetings that the organization was looking for a late-game reliever. They’re thinking about using free agency to fill that void.
The O’s have communicated with Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman, Josh Hader, and Jordan Hicks, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Even though they are obviously in various free agency tiers, all four of these pitchers meet the overall description of late-inning arms.
Arguably the finest bullpen arm in the Majors, Hader is the best reliever in the class. In his platform season, he worked to a 1.28 ERA over 56 1/3 innings. 36.8% of hitters faced were struck out by the lanky southpaw. Even though Hader’s strikeout % was his lowest since his rookie season, he was still ranked fifth in the major leagues among relievers with at least 50 innings pitched. With regard to earned run average, only Chris Martin and Brusdar Graterol were lower.
Over the past couple of years, Hader has indicated that he would prefer a traditional one-inning job, despite having worked multiple innings on numerous occasions earlier in his career. He was used as a closer by the Padres. In 38 tries, he secured 33 saves.
After an uncharacteristically poor 5.22 ERA in 2022, the year was a decisive comeback for him. Over his seven MLB seasons, Hader has five ERAs under 3.00 and has an ERA under 1.30 in two of the previous three years. Even though Hader was a year older than Edwin Díaz was the previous offseason, he is expected to try to surpass Diaz’s $102 million guarantee with the Mets, which stands as the biggest bullpen contract in MLB history.
Signing a nine-figure contract would be a much more audacious move than the Elias front staff has ever done regarding free agents. Amazingly, in his five years as general manager, the O’s have failed to sign even one multi-year free agent contract. Naturally, a large portion of it occurred during a rebuild, but even after starting to improve last winter, the O’s continued to exercise caution. Three veterans, Kyle Gibson, Adam Frazier, and Mychal Givens, were signed by Baltimore for a total of $23 million with one-year guarantees.
