THE FUTURE IS NOW
After long periods of nurturing, Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman loom large in O’s crucial second half
TST. PETERSBURG, FLA. heir time as minor league teammates was short, but Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy talked about reaching this moment, starting together in the Orioles rotation, four years ago, when they were pitching for Double-A Bowie in the Eastern League playoffs.
Bundy was finishing a strong first season as a professional that would end with a September call-up to the majors. Gausman, just a few months removed from finishing his college career at LSU, was promoted to Double-A to get a feel for pitching in the postseason.
Gausman and Bundy always knew they’d be paired together as the franchise’s two most promising arms, the organization’s homegrown hopes resting on their talented right arms, since the Orioles made them the fourth overall draft picks in consecutive years.
Their careers took markedly different turns from there. Bundy made two major league relief appearances for the Orioles that September, but the next season was wiped out by Tommy John elbow ligament reconstruction, the start of an injurymarred three years that limited him to 17 minor league appearances.
Gausman also was fast-tracked through the minor leagues, only to be handled with extreme care in the majors. He pitched in the bullpen and rode the shuttle between the majors and Triple-A
Norfolk before finally finding his footing in the major league rotation with no restrictions this season.
And now, after pitching the first half of the season in relief, Bundy, 23, will join Gausman, 25, in the starting rotation, making his first major league start this afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field — a hallelujah moment for fans who have been waiting for the team’s top young pitchers to reach their potential.
Down the stretch, the Orioles will lean on their most prized youngsters to help them get to the postseason.
“Yeah, this is pretty cool,” Gausman said. “This is something that me and Bundy talked about when we were playing together in Bowie, that hopefully one day we’d be pitching together in the rotation, hopefully for years to come. … I think we both saw this coming sooner than later, but [Bundy’s] been through a lot. … But I know they’ve done really good by him.”
The Orioles accelerated their timetable for Bundy, who had to open the season out of the bullpen because he was out of minor league options and had pitched just 631⁄3 innings over the past three seasons because of injury. It had seemed possible that Bundy might build his innings count high enough to be a starting option late in the season, but it was once more likely that the Orioles wanted to put him in a position to compete for a starting role next spring.
This season, Bundy has not had an outing of more than three innings or 57 pitches. He has sparkled in relief of late, especially over the past month as the team has kept him on a starter’s schedule, pitching him every fifth or sixth day. And with the first-place Orioles needing to upgrade a rotation with a 5.15 ERA, the team believes now is the time to see whether Bundy can help in a starting role.
With the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline looming — and with the startingpitching market more expensive than it is deep — promoting Bundy might be the best option to improve the rotation.
“We’ll find out,” manager Buck Showalter said. “Like I said, Tampa will tell us.”
Both pitchers cut their teeth in the bullpen. Gausman worked mostly in relief in 2013, his first major league season. After starting 20 games the following year, Gausman began the 2015 season in the bullpen before joining the rotation for good.
“We’ve gone through every possible thing with them,” Showalter said. “You think about it, the ups and downs, managing their innings, getting them right. They’re both ready. It’s time. We’ve done everything right. … I know one thing: [Bundy’s] not thinking about [his elbow] anymore. That’s what I was waiting to see, whether he wouldn’t cross his mind about his arm.”
Bundy’s situation was unique. Because he signed a major league deal when he was drafted out of high school in 2011, he had exhausted all of his minor league options, so he had to make the major league club out of camp. Showalter treated him almost like a Rule 5 draft pick, letting him pitch in a long-relief role. And while he remained a multiple-inning reliever, Bundy became a valuable stopgap in pressure situations.
“I think they were different situations,” said setup man Darren O’Day, who mentored both pitchers as relievers. “Kevin learned quite a bit in the bullpen, just how to kind of be a reliever, and he learned what the major leagues is all about. I think that helped Kevin in some tight situations later in the game where he’s been able to turn it up a notch. I think Kevin is still getting better.
“Dylan is a guy [where] we knew his time in the bullpen was short. He’s got starter written all over him. He’s just got the uncanny ability to control the baseball. It was just a matter of getting enough innings where he could get back in the rotation. I think he had to learn what it was like to be in the big leagues and also learn what it was like to feel good [physically].”
The Orioles have seen Bundy (2-1, 3.08 ERA) take significant steps forward pitching in relief. Over his first seven appearances, he had just two strikeouts over nine innings, and opponents were hitting .314 off him. His strikeout numbers went up, but so did his ERA as the Orioles tried to figure out the best way to use him.
Then the team committed to giving Bundy four or five days’ rest between outings, and that seemed to get him into a comfort zone. His fastball velocity went up 2 mph, and he flourished by mixing in his changeup and curveball. In six appearances since June 9, Bundy hasn’t allowed an earned run (one unearned run) in 141⁄3 innings and has held opposing hitters to a .212 average. He has 19 strikeouts in that span, including strikeouts on all seven outs in a scoreless 21⁄3-inning outing July 6 at Dodger Stadium.
That appearance in the Orioles’ 14-inning win was an eye-opener. Pitching in a tie game, Bundy stranded four base runners, including a bases-loaded situation in the seventh. Even though he had to work himself out of his own jams, he seemingly teased a talented Dodgers lineup, recording his first two strikeouts on changeups before overpowering hitters with his fastball, which reached 98 mph.
“That would be awesome to see that every fifth day,” O’Day said of that outing. “So let’s see him go out there and be the pitcher he can be. Having two young talented starters like that, it’s every team’s dream. At some point, you’ve got to give a guy a shot, so now’s as good a time as any.”
And now he joins Gausman, whose 59 career major league starts make him the graybeard of the two. Gausman (1-6, 4.15 ERA) opened this season on the disabled list with shoulder tendinitis and was winless in his first 12 starts, but he still has been the team’s second-most dependable starter behind ace Chris Tillman. He’s entering the second half of the season seeking more consistency, especially early in his starts. Gausman’s ERA in his first three innings of starts is 4.60, including nine runs (and five homers) in the first inning.
The Orioles’ second-half fate could end up hinging on their top two former prospects’ coming through to bolster the team’s rotation. Showalter always says that second-half upgrades have to first come from within. And above all, by making Bundy a starter, the Orioles have decided that the future is now.