Any young pitcher is going to have ebbs and flows during the season. The O’s struggles have put an unfair magnifying glass on their young lefty.

Cade Povich was always going to pitch in 2025, but he was never supposed to be an absolutely vital part of the Baltimore Orioles’ rotation.

Coming into the season, the O’s seemingly had their five-man rotation. It included three holdovers in Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, and Dean Kremer, as well as two newcomers in Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton. Povich, despite a strong September a season ago, was presumably on the outside looking in.

Once Rodriguez went down with an injury, there was a battle for the final spot in the rotation between Povich and Albert Suarez.

The competition was limited to those two pitchers due to injuries to Trevor Rogers and Chayce McDermott. The two-man race quickly became one-man, though, as Suarez also went down with an injury early on.

So, in the blink of an eye, Povich went from being a seventh option in a deep group of arms to the big league starting rotation with limited options behind him.

Povich was worthy of having a shot to be a big league contributor. In his final five starts of 2024, the lefty posted a 2.60 ERA with 32 strikeouts and just eight walks. It was a bright sign of potential outings to come, but inconsistencies are to be expected with any young pitcher.

Orioles leaning on Cade Povich more than they anticipated

In his 10 starts to begin 2025, Povich has allowed three runs or fewer in seven of them.

In those starts, he struck out 36 batters and walked just 12, on par with his excellent September last year. But in his other three outings, Povich allowed a total of 17 earned runs on five long balls, 20 hits, and eight walks.

If the Orioles were meeting expectations in the standings, you could live with Povich having an up-and-down sophomore campaign.

Those peaks and valleys are to be expected from a starting pitcher with fewer than a season’s worth of starts under his belt. And if there was healthy depth providing options in the rotation, Povich’s role wouldn’t feel so essential.

The rest of the rotation’s struggles with results and health have only amplified Povich’s inconsistencies. Despite the rocky terrain, Povich has been asked to take the ball every fifth day, and actually has the third-best ERA among the five O’s starters with at least five outings.

If Baltimore were winning more ballgames, you could certainly live with a young pitcher giving you a lot of good starts with a few blowups.

But the O’s, without much margin for error, can’t afford to be out of too many games early on.