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| Evan Meek, making his O's debut (photo: Keith Allison) |
In two-thirds of an inning in the O's 2-1 win, Meek wasn't good. He walked the leadoff batter, then made a nifty little play at first base after a sharply hit ball ricocheted off of Chris Davis's glove. Meek struck out the third batter he faced but walked the fourth. He then exited the game and in came Brian Matusz, who got the third out.
Regardless, it's an impressive comeback story for Meek. Rich Dubroff of CSN Baltimore noted why:
This is Evan Meek's first major league appearance [since] July 24, 2012. #Orioles
— Rich Dubroff (@RichDubroffCSN) March 31, 2014
I'll admit that I didn't pay that much attention when the Orioles signed Meek to a minor league deal in February. Dan Duquette loves his minor league signings and keeps them coming. Apparently Meek contacted Orioles bench coach (and former Pirates manager) John Russell earlier in the offseason, looking for any kind of opportunity to pitch in the majors. Russell managed the Pirates from 2008-2010, so he was obviously familiar with Meek. He impressed the O's enough to sign him. Buck Showalter was pretty happy to bring Meek on board:"Evan's got a chance to make our bullpen," Showalter said. "That was an exciting late add for me, because I think he's got a chance, especially if he's back physically all the way. [In 2010], he was about as good as there was in the National League. I'm looking forward to seeing him pitch and see where he is."Meek did indeed put together an effective (but partly BABIP-fueled) 2010 season: 80 IP, 7.88 K/9, 3.49 BB/9, 0.56 HR/9, 2.14 ERA. Showalter's comments are a bit hyperbolic, but Meek did have a solid season and could realistically be useful again. However, he only pitched in 32.2 combined innings in 2011 and 2012 while battling shoulder injuries.
Now that Meek is healthy, it will be interesting to see if Showalter was correct in his excitement. Meek, who turns 31 in May, not only had not (until Monday) pitched in the majors for a while, but he wasn't that spectacular before, either. He's only thrown a combined 173.1 innings over parts of five major league seasons. Other than 2010, Meek also hasn't pitched in more than 47 innings in any major league season. He pitched for the Rangers' Triple-A affiliate in 2013, and that's it. And it wasn't like he was dominant; in 108 innings, he had a K/9 of 6.67 and a BB/9 of 3.83 (and a 4.50 ERA). It's worth noting that he did start 15 games while filling a rotation spot. He has zero career major league starts.
| Year | Age | Tm | IP | H | R | ER | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 25 | PIT | 6.92 | 13.0 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 62 | 7.6 | 2.1 | 8.3 | 4.8 |
| 2009 | 26 | PIT | 3.45 | 47.0 | 34 | 18 | 18 | 122 | 6.5 | 0.4 | 5.6 | 8.0 |
| 2010 | 27 | PIT | 2.14 | 80.0 | 53 | 25 | 19 | 189 | 6.0 | 0.6 | 3.5 | 7.9 |
| 2011 | 28 | PIT | 3.48 | 20.2 | 27 | 11 | 8 | 108 | 11.8 | 0.4 | 5.2 | 7.4 |
| 2012 | 29 | PIT | 6.75 | 12.0 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 57 | 10.5 | 0.8 | 4.5 | 6.0 |
| 2014 | 31 | BAL | 0.00 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 27.0 | 13.5 | |
| 6 Yrs | 3.32 | 173.1 | 139 | 74 | 64 | 122 | 7.2 | 0.6 | 4.8 | 7.5 | ||
Meek was originally drafted by the Twins in 2002. He was released in 2005, signed by the Padres, traded to the Rays in 2006, and then selected by the Pirates in the 2007 Rule 5 draft. In May of 2008, when the Pirates removed Meek from their active roster, he was offered back to the Rays. Instead, the Pirates simply purchased Meek from the Rays, and he remained with Pittsburgh until he was released at the end of the 2012 season.
According to Brooks Baseball, Meek currently throws three pitches: a four-seam fastball, curveball, and change-up. Until recently, he mostly just threw fastballs and curveballs. He uses his fastball about three-quarters of the time, but now he can sprinkle in the change-up as well (which he seemingly picked up in 2013, perhaps because he needed a third pitch as a starter). Over the years, he has also been relying less on his curveball. On Monday, per Brooks Baseball, of Meek's 19 pitches, 18 were fastballs. He also threw one change-up. Only nine of his pitches found the strikezone.
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Obviously Meek hasn't pitched a whole lot in the majors -- both overall and recently -- so it will be interesting to see what happens next. Maybe Showalter's plan is to see what Meek can do against major league hitters before Troy Patton returns from his 25-game suspension. That's one possible reason why he was summoned to pitch ahead of O'Day and Webb. If Meek is effective, maybe he'll stay on the roster. But Zach Britton (who pitched much better than Meek on Monday) has no options left. Neither does Josh Stinson. And barring injury, none of the other relievers are going anywhere. The Orioles are in win-now mode, so they probably aren't in a position to simply let Meek hang around for a few months just to see if he has anything left. If Meek is going to stick around, he's going to have to pitch well fairly soon.
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