Questions and answers with Orioles pitching prospect Patrick Reilly

The Orioles acquired right-handed pitcher Patrick Reilly from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for utility player Billy Cook on July 30^th, 2024.

Reilly impressed the Orioles in early looks, but after three starts at Double-A Chesapeake in 2025, he needed Tommy John surgery.

He returned to action in June, and after pitching for the Florida Complex League Orioles and High-A Frederick, returned to the Baysox in July.

In eight starts, Reilly was 0-3 with a 3.63 ERA, striking out 55 and walking 11 in 39 2/3 innings.

To help make up for time lost, the Orioles sent him to the Arizona Fall League, where he won the league’s Pitcher of the Week last week. In two starts for Peoria, Reilly has allowed one run on four hits in seven innings, striking out 13 and walking two.

His next start is scheduled for Thursday. With 20 ore more pitchers on each staff, Reilly’s starts will likely be three or four innings

Reilly talked about the AFL, his surgery and his goals in this interview, which was edited for brevity and clarity.

Question: What’s pitching in the AFL like? What does it compare to?

Patrick Reilly: “You have a lot of more polished guys as you would see in Double or Triple-A, but then you have your fair mix of very talented younger guys, your [Yankee shortstop prospect] Dax Kilby’s of the world, your 17-, 18-, 19-year-olds, who are absolutely possessed [with] the skills and talent to play this game for a long time but might not be as polished as some of the guys who have a couple hundred at-bats in Double-A or Triple-A.”

Q: After coming back from Tommy John surgery, you’ve had great success in the AFL. What’s the story behind it?

Reilly: “I did not come out of the gate as I would have liked after Tommy John, but I’m grateful to the Orioles to allow me to have the leash and go out there and compete and find my way, find my footing and get more comfortable on the mound.

“It took me a good month to six weeks of starts in the FCL and High-A and back in Bowie to really feel more comfortable and  get out of the protection side of pitching, and like I’m still trying to feel how my elbow is versus the actual compete. Once we got to the actual compete side of things, we did some really good scouting pregame and really focus on getting through lineups using all five pitches.

“That’s allowed me to have this freedom of just enjoying myself and allowing my talent to be used to the best of its ability.”

Q: Your strikeout/walk ratio in your first two starts in the AFL has been excellent. Why do you think that’s the case?

Reilly: “I struggled with it early on with TJ in the rehab process. It had nothing to do with how the body was moving. It was more of an alignment issue and how I was using my pitches. I got stuck a little bit on the third base side of the rubber and it was causing me to pull off and yank some pitches pretty consistently.

“After my second Frederick start, we talked about some mound positioning to allow me hips to clear a little bit better and stay in line. It wasn’t anything more complicated than that.”

Q: What are your go-to pitches?

Reilly: “In the Fall League, it’s been pretty fastball heavy. The main three have been the fastball and sweeper to the right-handed and then fastball and my gryo-slider to the left-handed hitters, which plays more of a curveball from my arm slot.

“One of the things we’ve been trying to work on has been the changeup. It’s been a little bit of hit-and-miss. We want to build some consistency and some quality arm-side movement on that pitch. It’s been those three, and the cutter helped me a lot through the affiliate season, but we’re not using it a whole bunch because of the whiff that we’re getting on the two bigger sliders.”

Q: It must have been devastating at 23 to find you needed Tommy John surgery. How did you deal with it?

Reilly: “The devastation hits for about 24 hours, but we’re at such a good part in this game with medicine and our orthopedic surgeons where you know what’s going to happen. We have had so many Tommy John surgeries throughout the last two decades.

“It’s really become a pretty high-quality science of how we’re going to solve it. I remember when I talked to our doctors and they told me there was a tear, I remember feeling heartbroken. At first, I didn’t think it tore. I had felt okay. All of the physical maneuvers we were doing with our athletic trainers just to see where you’re at.

“They didn’t feel very bad. I didn’t jump at anything. I was like, ‘Okay, maybe it’s a minor flareup in the forearm,’ but when the doctor told me … I was distraught. I had no idea what to do and then you go to sleep, you wake up, you make peace with it. Unfortunately, it’s a part of this game, and you start focusing on how you can get better and what you can do to become a better human being and ultimately a better pitcher.”

Q: Were you happy with how that recovery went?

Reilly: “Yes, I am. There were some ups-and-downs, but you learn to trust yourself. You learn to trust the quality of work that you’re doing. The process, as stereotypical as it sounds, and as cliché as it sounds, the process is very important. You need to trust what you’re doing. You need to trust how your body’s going to recover.

“There is some time for trial and error, and what you like to do. Ultimately I still take a lot of that stuff that I started early on in the Tommy John throwing process to what I’m doing right now.”

Q: In the next few weeks, the Orioles have to make an important decision about you — whether to put you on the 40-man roster. How exciting would that be if they put you on the 40-man?

Reilly: “It would be a dream come true, but that’s not my focus and I don’t think it ever can be as a player. Your goal is to get better every day in a small way, in whatever way you can, and go out and compete and continue to have fun. That’s where my head’s at right now, that it is an important time in my career with how all of this is going.

“With the impending lockout and all that stuff, my goal is to continue doing what I’m doing, continue to recover in between outings and put my best foot forward when it is my time to step on the mound.”

Q: How close do you feel to the major leagues?

Reilly: “I would trust my ability to pitch in the show tomorrow. Those decisions aren’t up to me. In this game when there’s a lot of self-doubt, you have to trust yourself, and you have to trust your stuff and your capabilities. I would love that opportunity at some point to go out there and pitch on a big league mound. I think I could do it right now. I could do it tomorrow, but that’s not my focus right now. My focus is on being the best version of myself.”

Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com