Who’d have thought—sometimes baseball fans are geniuses. Ever since the Orioles acquired the tantalizingly gifted but inconsistent Jorge López back in August 2020, fans have been screaming for the team to pull the plug on the starter experiment and to try him out of the bullpen.
It made obvious sense: in two seasons as a starter with Baltimore López has struggled to a 6.31 ERA. His ERA in 2021 (6.30) is almost exactly what it was in 2020 (6.34). Give him props for consistency, but you figure he’s not hiding anything at this point, either. López’s woes in the fifth inning hardly need mentioning at this point, and they’re not new.