Mailbag: Do Orioles’ need a true No. 1 starter?

Question: I understand the desire and need for a starter — a No. 1 — equivalent to Corbin Burnes. But suppose the Orioles have three No. 2 starters, and a four and five.  Isn’t that just as good?

If the No. 2 starters average 13-to-15 wins and the other starters 10 wins each, wouldn’t that be about the same number of wins as the Orioles had in 2024 by starters? From: Robert Stier

Answer: In theory, it’s just as good, but it’s hard to put it into practice. The 2014 Orioles did that when Wei-Yin Chen won 16 games, Bud Norris won 15 and Chris Tillman won 13 while Miguel González won 10. Kevin Gausman and Ubaldo Jiménez combined for 13.

Those Orioles did that with a marvelous bullpen with Zack Britton, Darren O’Day, Brad Brach and, for the last two months of the season, Andrew Miller.

One of the reasons Burnes is a huge loss is because there aren’t many true No. 1s. Grayson Rodriguez or someone else could become a true ace, or they might trade for one, but Burnes’ dependability is going to be hard to replace.

Question: If there are no further pitching acquisitions before Opening Day, what is the rotation for the first 2-to-3 weeks of the regular season? From: John Hall

Answer: John chimes in with another rotation-related question. That is a good one. I think the Orioles will acquire another starter, whether by trade or free agency, but for now, I would put Zach Eflin as the Opening Day starter followed by  Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, Tomoyuki Sugano and Cade Povich.

I think Eflin’s experience makes him a good choice to start on Opening Day.

Since the Orioles’ first four games are at Toronto, that would leave Povich as the starter for the home opener and we can hear if he’ll still use Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” as his walkup song.

Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.