Orioles prospect Carter Baumler, after two years off the mound, now crams his development into one start each week
The most prominent pitcher the Orioles have drafted under Mike Elias is making the most of a deliberate ramp up from Tommy John surgery in Delmarva.
SALISBURY — After essentially two full years off a mound, starting once a week is better than nothing.
That’s the life Carter Baumler is enjoying now at Delmarva, where the most highly-touted pitcher the Orioles have drafted in the last three seasons is easing his way into affiliated baseball as the Shorebirds’ Wednesday starter on his deliberate return from Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery.
The pandemic wiped out his senior season at Dowling Catholic in Iowa, then Baumler was dazzling Orioles staff at the fall instructional camp in 2020 when he injured his elbow, requiring surgery. Now that he’s healthy, Baumler is on a limited schedule meant to keep him that way while still enhancing the special arm that warranted a $1.5 million signing bonus two summers ago.
“I like the whole week’s schedule for me right now just because it puts me in a really good position to stay healthy,” Baumler told me Tuesday at Perdue Stadium. “That’s my goal this year, I kind of think of it as a teeter-totter, there’s performance and there’s health. Now, I’m kind of doing everything to shift the weight into staying healthy this year. That’s my main focus, just staying healthy right now. That’s just my main goal.”