Andrew Stetka: Moving Bundy to rotation a bit premature

You can call me a skeptic, a pessimist or someone who just generally doesn't enjoy fun, but I don't like the idea of Dylan Bundy as a starter for the Orioles right now. I thought this even before the 23-year-old former fourth-overall pick made his first major league start yesterday. This isn't a "hot take" or an overreaction to yesterday's outing, which was obviously less than stellar. I was mildly surprised by the move to start Bundy. At the start of the season, I never thought it was possible for Bundy to start a game in 2016. I viewed him as a Rule 5 type of player who had to be on the major league roster but would be hidden as much as possible in the bullpen. And frankly, I think that's how the team viewed him as well. Things have changed, quickly.

Even a few months into this season, when it was obvious that the O's had starting pitching issues beyond anyone's imagination, I didn't see Bundy starting at this point. The idea slowly creeped into my mind that, perhaps, Bundy would get the ball in September. Once the rosters expanded and manager Buck Showalter had the ability to further protect Bundy with a long reliever, that would be the time where he could make a few starts. But now, the time is upon us. Bundy is a starter and the Orioles have no one to blame but themselves.

This all circles back to perhaps the biggest issue with the way this team was composed, a lack of starting pitching acquisitions in the offseason. Orioles Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations Dan Duquette went out and made some moves in the offseason, but he didn't really address the biggest need. Waiting until late February to sign Yovani Gallardo simply doesn't cut it. Now the struggles of the rotation, Chris Tillman not included, are forcing an unproven arm into duty. I question why the O's would be willing to take that risk with a club that has the potential to make the playoffs. The short answer is that they don't have any other choices. If you were able to give Duquette and Showalter truth-serum and ask when they really wanted Bundy to make his first MLB start, my guess would be that they'd both say April of 2017. A lack of options has forced this hand for the Orioles, and that continues to be frustrating.

The Birds are now in this position, so it's time to start thinking about how they deal with it. My biggest question, aside from how they deal with the roster and bullpen if Bundy is a starter, is how they deal with the trade deadline. I never really thought the O's would have what it takes to go out on a very weak market and acquire a starter, but moving Bundy into the rotation could all but eliminate that possibility. That's not to say Bundy will be able to step in and save the rotation. One man couldn't do that, no matter how great a pitcher. Having Bundy pushed into the rotation could give the Orioles the ability to say it's like "acquiring" a starter without actually acquiring a player. It'd be the same logic they'll likely use when Darren O'Day returns from injury, basically using it as a fresh arm being acquired near the deadline.

It's also important to realize that Bundy was filling a pretty important role in that bullpen. The way the roster is constructed going forward with Bundy in the rotation will be interesting to watch. Perhaps Vance Worley, or dare I say Ubaldo Jimenez, can step in and do what Bundy was doing. But none of that is guaranteed. Even before moving Bundy into the rotation, I thought the Orioles would need to go get more arms for the bullpen. That couldn't be more important now. O'Day may be ready to return soon, but the Orioles are still going to need more ways to shorten the game down the stretch.

It's been a weird trip to this point for Bundy. He's gone through injury issues since being drafted in 2011, which is another reason this move to push him into the rotation has been looked at with such skepticism and surprise. An innings limit hangs over his head and questions about how ready his arm really will be going forward. In the end, this is where the Orioles want Bundy to be, it's just sooner than they or any of us realized.

Andrew Stetka blogs about the Orioles for Eutaw Street Report. Follow him on Twitter: @AStetka. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.