Rogers Should Be Out Of Orioles Rotation After Latest Setback To Tigers

Trevor Rogers took seven seconds – as uncomfortably pregnant (with quintuplets?) a pause you will ever encounter - when asked after his last start if he agreed with his manager’s assessment that the pitcher was close to turning his season around.

Rodgers didn’t buy it. Anyone who knows anything about baseball who has watched him labor didn’t buy it. His entire profile looks exactly like it did after being lauded by baseball czar Mike Elias as a potential savior at the 2024 trade deadline only to spend more time in Norfolk than Baltimore.

And the soft-hitting Detroit Tigers didn’t buy it.

The Tigers, who has lost seven in a row and 16 of 18 entering this game, jumped on Rogers former signature pitch – his change-up – the first time he threw it (leadoff single), Dillon Dingler took Rogers out over the huge left field wall a few pitches later and Rogers couldn’t get through the fifth against the worst lineup in MLB the last three weeks, with the Orioles (23-30) suffering a 4-1 defeat after taking the first game in this doubleheader in walkoff fashion.

Here’s the reality after a sixth straight failure by Rogers: The Orioles Opening Day starter belongs in AAA and top pitching prospect Trey Gibson needs to be given a long runway in the rotation of a team that isn’t bult to contend. Elias must find out more about its future. Rogers is putting additional toll on an already-taxed bullpen, posting just 23 2/3 IP over his last six starts, and it’s neither quality or quantity he can provide.

As for Rogers's skipper, he was somehow effusive in his praise of this starter, but then again he was downright delusional in talking about his outing in Tampa. "It was a very encouraging outing," rookie skipper Craig Albernaz actually said, which makes one wonder if he would have performed cartwheels had Rogers actually completed five innings.

It was obvious was trying to pitch around his changeup after the leadoff hit by Matt Vierling and when he brough it back en masse in the fifth inning (9 of his 15 changeups came in that inning), Detroit smashed it around again, with rookie Kevin McGinigle taking a 3-2 change up the middle with the bases loaded for a 4-1 lead and chasing Rodgers.

"I thought he was close to getting out of that jam," Albernaz said, who may at this point just be clearly confused about what the word "close" means. "He threw the ball well. Very encouraging for us."

The change-up merchant entered this game in the bottom 1 percent of all MLB pitchers in offspeed run value and bottom 5% in overall run value. That's not going to play.

Rodgers now has a 6.96 ERA on the season, he can’t generate any swing and miss, and the league entered the game batting .333 and slugging .471 off the change (.202 and .272 a year ago). He’s allowed 52 hits in 42 2/3 innings for the season and over his last six starts Rogers has an 11.06 ERA and 2.08 WHIP, while also allowing six homers.

"I like where I'm headed," Rogers said, who clearly got the memo about more closelt echoing his skipper after this latest dud.

Can’t Hit Starting Pitching

As for the Orioles bats, they generally slumber through the first six innings no matter who is on the mound and that was the case here again. Troy Melton just returned from the 60-day Injured List with major elbow issues with the Tigers staff riddled by injuries and he was clearly going to be on a pitch limit in his season debut. Rather than make him work the O’s went quietly and rapidly.

Melton cruised through six innings as Framber Valdez did in the opening game, giving up just one run on Sam Basallo’s sac fly. He needed 79 pitches for 5 2/3 of work, and though he walked three the Orioles didn’t make him pay for it. The O's had two hits for most of the first game Sunday and they managed just three in the second.

"We hit a lot of balls hard tonight," Albernaz said in defense of his batters, intimitaing, you know, they were probably really close to collecting a lot more than three actual hits.

The lineup is what it is. Not nearly good enough or what it was billed to be, but with mostly major leaguers. Despite Albernaz's pablum and obfuscating, the rotation must be shuffled. The Tigers have scored four runs three times in the last 13 games; twice was in this series and they scored four times in just half a game against Rodgers.

The rookie skip doth protest too much.

The Orioles face another doubleheader Thursday after having to navigate a series against the Rays, the best team in baseball who whipped them in Tampa last week. Gibson presented himself well in his first start, then got yanked around, forced to pitch in relief and then heading back to Norfolk.

There are some other promising arms down there making a case soon enough (Nestor German,, for one), and this horrible front office needs to recognize the importance of seeing a legit sample of these arms to start assessing who might stick. Carrying Rogers and Chris Bassitt (who is also cooked but makes $18.5M and isn’t going anywhere) in a five-man rotation would be a blight for players and fans alike.

The trade for Rogers was a failure as was just about everything Mike Elias has done at the MLB level running this team for eight years. Admit defeat on Rogers (and buy-out Tyler O’Neill while you are at it) and try to put a less bush-league product on the field night after night.

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