BALTIMORE -- For weeks now, manager Brandon Hyde touted his growing impression of Tyler Wells, hinting at the possibility of using the Rule 5 rookie more often in high-leverage situations. The problem was the long stretches where those situations hardly presented themselves, the result of several distinct losing streaks the Orioles endured. In the meantime, Wells continued to pitch well in blowout wins or in games the Orioles trailed, lowering his ERA nearly three runs in a little more than a month.
It was with that as a backdrop that Hyde turned to Wells on Friday, as the first man out of the bullpen behind emergency starter Thomas Eshelman. Converting four important outs without a hiccup in the middle innings, Wells began a line of four relievers that sealed the Orioles’ first victory in more than a week, which snapped an eight-game skid.
“He’s pitching with a bunch of confidence right now,” Hyde said. “It’s been fun watching him develop.”
It was also the latest example of their growing trust in Wells, who Hyde then brought on again to clean up Paul Fry’s ninth-inning mess in Baltimore's 10-7 loss to Toronto on Saturday. Wells experienced a minor hiccup, losing a nine-pitch battle with Bo Bichette that allowed the game-tying runs to score; still, he’s shaved his ERA from 6.23 to 4.13 over his past 12 appearances, eight of them scoreless.
On Friday, Wells struck out Marcus Semien to escape Eshelman’s two-on, two-out jam in the fifth, then whiffed Randal Grichuk to conclude a 1-2-3 sixth. Tanner Scott, Hunter Harvey and Fry followed with scoreless innings; all three then allowed runs Saturday, with Fry (four runs in two-thirds of an inning) enduring his worst outing of the season. But Hyde’s new pecking order is clear: with a lead, these are the relievers he trusts the most these days. And Wells is included in that mix.
"I’m starting to use [Wells] in different spots now, with the game on the line and mid to late in the game,” Hyde said. “He’s 95-96 mph from a 6-foot-7 arm angle, and the slider has improved. The changeup has improved. The changeup is a weapon to left-handers now. He throws strikes. He comes right after guys, challenges hitters with a really good fastball and offspeed that has really improved since Spring Training.”
The result Friday was Baltimore’s best-pitched game in two full weeks. If you squint, perhaps the foundation of a long-term bullpen is beginning to emerge. The Orioles ‘pen as a whole still ranks among baseball’s bottom 10 in ERA, thanks to a disastrous May it is still, in many ways, clawing itself out of.
But if you focus on collective value stats like Fangraphs' WAR, it ranks among MLB’s 10 most valuable bullpens, due to the swing-and-miss stuff of guys like Fry, Scott, Cole Sulser and Wells, all of whom own strikeout rates north of 30 percent. The Orioles are one of just four American League teams with at least four relievers that have strikeout rates of at least 30 percent this season.
Saturday’s meltdown notwithstanding, Fry and Scott are pitching themselves into trade candidates; both figure to draw significant interest this summer, ahead of their first year of salary arbitration. But Wells and Harvey are both 26-year-old hard throwers with upside and are under team control through at least 2025, exactly the things the Orioles are looking for in their continued search for long-term pieces. Both also come with considerable injury history, with Harvey’s laundry list of prior ailments and Wells undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2019. And both are still green, with 43 1/3 combined games of big league experience between them.
Still, it’s not difficult to envision either -- or both -- growing into larger roles in the near future.
“I am not concerned about Tyler Wells,” Hyde said after Saturday's game. “I think he’s a real confident guy. It just didn’t happen today. He made a good pitch and a ball dropped. It hurts, but I think he’ll be fine.”