Dylan Bundy, Baltimore Orioles
The Orioles are another team in the middle of a significant rebuild. Pretty much anything is on the table to improve the organization from the ground up, but there are always a handful of young players seen as future building blocks.
Dylan Bundy could qualify as that — the former top prospect is still just 26 years old, is under team control through 2022, and will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this upcoming winter. He may not be a hot trade target for many squads, but there’s a good bit of value that can be had if some adjustments are made.
The right-hander’s 0.9 fWAR and 4.65 ERA in 91 innings are already (or primed to be) significant improvements over what he did in 171.2 innings last season (0.9 and 5.45, respectively). This has been helped by a noticeable decrease in hard-hit rate allowed since the start of 2017 (36.5% to 34.6% to 27.8%). He’s also just about doubled his changeup usage from 2018, which has also come with a 10-percentage-point rise in strikeout rate and a huge drop in opponent wRC+ (220 to 93) when using that specific pitch.
The one issue that’s still around from last year? Allowing an incredible number of home runs. After leading the league with a 2.15 mark per nine innings, he’s allowing 1.98 dingers per nine innings this year. If a team can figure out a solution for that and find a way to buy low on him, he’d be an interesting player to snag prior to the trade deadline.
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