00:00It's a slow progression. We'll kind of see where it goes. You know, as we look forward to opening
00:04a day, possibly a low probability of opening day. For saying that, we just want to make sure that
00:11he's not rushing this. We want to make sure that he gets this information knocked out
00:15and gets back to being Andrew Kittredge. So we don't want to put any timeline or anything in
00:20front of him and kind of just make sure that, similar to Felix, that he's attacking each day
00:25to kind of get that information settled. Oh, that's ominous. Like Felix, Felix meaning
00:31Felix Batista, who threw today. That's Craig Albernaz this morning announcing that it's
00:36unlikely that Andrew Kittredge will be ready for opening day. So what's old is new again.
00:40His last year was a knee, but Andrew Kittredge was not ready for opening day. And here we
00:45are this year. They trade for him from the Cubs after trading him to the Cubs. They get
00:49him back. So his second year with the Orioles and his second year missing opening day and
00:55a bullpen that we already thought was thin, just got a whole lot thinner.
01:00Yeah. And this definitely is a serious problem, Ken. And we were talking about Ryan Helsley
01:07yesterday as we continue to kind of preview a lot of the guys that we think will be on
01:11the 26 band roster. Obviously, Helsley is going to be their closer, but you brought up the point
01:17that because of the concern of this bullpen, Helsley has to bounce back. He can't afford
01:25to, you know, get off to a poor start and pick up where he left off with the Mets last
01:30year, whereas ERA was over seven. And now it's even more pressure on Helsley and Kittredge
01:37was going to be that set up guy and high leverage, high leverage guy. And his season got off to
01:43the late start in mid May last year with the knee surgery. But then he was able to round
01:48it to form in Baltimore. They were able to trade him to the Cubs and he pitched well for the
01:53Cubs.
01:54And you ended up bringing him back for cash considerations. And you were expecting him
01:58to be that set up guy. But the biggest concern when it came to Kittredge is, hey, he's about
02:04to turn 36 later this month and injuries starting to pile up for him. And who knows when we see
02:12Andrew Kittredge at this point? Craig Albert, as he did confirm, even though it's no surprise,
02:18Tyler Wells is going to be in the bullpen. And he's going to play a significant role at this
02:24point. Ken, like, is he your setup guy? Is he your, your serious leverage guy? Because
02:30who else would it be? Well, they, they, uh, have used him as a leverage guy in the past. It's
02:38been
02:39a minute, but yeah, uh, I guess you're near Cano. Uh, come on down. Yeah. Like this, we thought this
02:46bullpen and granted full disclosure when they reacquired Kittredge, I liked it. It was, they,
02:52they made an aggressive early move in the off season. Got a guy who pitched well for a team
02:57that made through the playoffs. If the Orioles traded him to the Cubs, he pitched well for the
03:01Cubs. Alas, you didn't do a whole lot else to the bullpen, even though we've been sort of begging
03:07them to do some more to the bullpen. And now one of your two major bullpen acquisitions is not going
03:13to be ready for the start of the season. I think something that we've really hammered home over the
03:19past couple of years is Mike Elias at times when he's gotten himself in trouble, he's operating on
03:27best case scenario. And that was a big reason why we liked the Chris Bassett move. Is he the frontline
03:34starter? No, but you know that you can poke holes in the other starting five. You bring in Bassett
03:40because Kyle Braddish, is there going to be an innings restriction? He mentioned that there probably
03:45will be like, there's so many concerns there where Bassett, he's more of a safety net guy, that guy
03:52that raises the floor. They didn't do that at all with the bullpen. You brought in Helsley and operating
03:59best case scenario, he's going to be more of that guy that he was 2022 through 2024, which we think
04:05will
04:05be the case. And then Kittredge, he's older and he was hurt last year. They didn't do anything else
04:12to fortify it. And they traded away so many guys at the trade deadline last year out of their bullpen
04:19and they didn't make enough moves. They were relying on the internal options. And yeah,
04:26Tyler Wells, you felt really good about, you feel really good about, but you're going to need these
04:31Wolframs to step up. You're going to need Yanir Cano to recapture the magic of a couple of years ago,
04:38or else this bullpen is going to be a serious issue. You're going to have to count on a bunch
04:42of guys we've never heard of to make leaps that don't happen all the time. By the way,
04:47Cal Halsley, for what it's worth, just had a one, two, three inning spring training baseball against
04:50the Astros struck out to look pretty darn good. And it also gets back to a question that Ben and
04:57Cordell asked Mike Elias a couple of weeks ago. Like there's still a couple of options on the free agent
05:05market, but are you surprised Danny Coulomb still sitting out there? I am surprised. And
05:13maybe that does make you wonder if, how did the medicals look for him? And that obviously we think
05:19was a huge reason why the Orioles didn't pick up his team option, but they went with Sino Perez.
05:23Yeah, which that worked really well, but they need to make a move, Ken. Like you need to bring in
05:30a
05:30known commodity into this bullpen. Here's the part that sucks for them though. I don't know,
05:37unless you're picking up a Coulomb, somebody on the street or a, who's the White Sox guy that went
05:44to the Dodgers, Michael Copeck. Unless you sign, yes, unless you sign a Copeck or a Coulomb,
05:51teams aren't trading you bullpen arms that are of value as we sit three weeks from opening day.
05:56You're just not, that's not happening. So your only choice is to scour the wire,
06:02which is not really full yet. Cause teams don't have to make cuts. So that's not an option
06:07or sign a guy out on the street or overpay for somebody cause you're desperate. So the,
06:13or you, you, you, you go with what you got and you, you cross your fingers that it works.
06:18I, I've been hammering how concerned I've been about this bullpen all off season. And I'm,
06:25I was very surprised that Mike Elias did not do more with it. Now the Kittredge is amazing. Like,
06:31dude, I'm, I'm concerned. I am very concerned about this bullpen. I think they have to do one
06:38of those options that you're saying, you have to bring in somewhat of a known commodity.
06:43It's gotta be, uh, it's gotta be Coulomb or, uh, Kopeck that those are,
06:49is there another tree, but wait, man, am I missing anybody? Is there anybody still out there
06:53other than those two dudes? Not really that as much as it would make sense. And I think they need
06:59to, I don't think they're going to like, well, I don't think they're going to either. I'm just
07:04saying, I think they need to know. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, but they're clearly scared. And again,
07:08for Coulomb and Kopeck, other teams are telling you what J with what they think as well. Um, but now
07:14we're going to see the Wolfram who's had a really good sprint and there's talk that if anybody else got
07:20their hands on him, they'd be very excited. It'll be, I mean, if he gives you a good April
07:25and looks really good early on, it, it could be a benefit. You know, what Kittredge is going to give
07:29you when he gets, gets back. I'm not too worried about any of that. Um, but just having another
07:33reliable left yard, Wolfram is going to get some run. It's probably going to be some leverage spots
07:38for him. If you can figure that out, maybe you feel a little bit better as the, I'm just worried
07:44about Kittredge's availability. Like, I don't think this is going to be okay. He's going to
07:49start the year on the 10 day IL and he's going to come back. Like, I think would it surprise
07:54me if
07:54this is may, like that's what it was last year. And last year he came back sooner than we thought
07:59after the knee surgery. But I, I don't know how quick of a stay on the IL it's going to
08:04be.
08:05And to that, when he was in Tampa, it was a lot of this concern question marks. Then he goes
08:09to St.
08:10Louis and was perfectly fine. And they were like, all right, well maybe that's not the case. And
08:13now he's back to dealing with some injuries. Yep. Two years in Baltimore, two injuries to start
08:17the season for the Orioles does not get, he does not appear in an opening day, at least unlikely to
08:22appear in an opening day. By the way, speaking of likely, can I just get this out there? So Isaiah
08:26likely is doing like a carwash interview tour. He was on the, your, your, uh, your friend Kay Adams
08:31show this morning. I wish we were friends. He's not coming back. Yeah. Like once they sign Mark
08:38Andrews, he like did this whole, like, has he spoken to the code? He's going to get paid
08:44and go somewhere else. They tried to sign them a year ago. They couldn't get it done. They
08:47pivoted to Andrews, whether you like it or not, they're not paying too tight ends, 10
08:52plus million dollars. No. And I saw some people on, on Twitter, you mentioned the lunatic
08:57fringe, uh, like, well, why didn't you use the franchise tag on? Cause again, you're not
09:02paying too tight ends, 10 plus million dollars. When Andrews re-signed in December and we
09:07all were very surprised when that happened, like that, that was it for Isaiah
09:11likely. And I, I fully expect Isaiah likely to do really well elsewhere and, and
09:18really realize his potential that quite frankly, he never did here.
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