A right elbow strain kept Hunter Harvey from being on the Orioles Opening Day roster, but he should be back soon. What can we expect from him?
- Born: December 9, 1994
- B/T: Right/Right
- 6’3″, 210-lbs
- Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft from Bandys HS (Catawba, NC)
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
A career starter until 2019 when he was asked to move to the bullpen, and he was in the bullpen for the Orioles later that same year for seven games. Besides a team need, you can sorta see why the team wanted to try him in the pen. His numbers were going backward as he climbed levels as a starter.
Here’s another factor that played into the team’s mind: He does quite well against righties, but lefties hit him hard at both AA and at AAA.
We can see he is a three pitch pitcher, with a fastball, a changeup and a curve.
He does have two plus pitches, but it’s not enough for him to excel as a starter since his third pitch, the changeup, is fringy. He uses it against lefties, and as we see above, it didn’t produce great results.
Ah, but as a bullpen arm, that plus fastball with good extension and late riding action can play. Add his 12-to-6 curve with solid break, and you’ve got a good bullpen arm.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: Not on their Top 400.
- BaseballHQ: Not on their Top 100.
- Fangraphs: Not on their Top 120.
- Fantasy Six Pack: Not on their dynasty list.
- Prospects365: Not on Ray Butler’s Top 200.
- Imaginary Brick Wall: Not on the Top 487.
- Fantrax: Not on the Top 250.
Warnings
The scouts have given up. Between the injuries and his fading effectiveness as a starter, they have moved on to other names.
Conclusion
That’s OK, as a bullpen piece, Harvey can be quite effective. Look at it this way: He faced 26 batters in Baltimore in 2019. He struck out 11 of them while walking four, with a 1.105 WHIP. That can play!