The Baltimore Orioles have been playing much better baseball in the month of June.
With that being said, this has not eased many of the fan’s frusturations, as the offense is still wildly inconsistent, the starting pitching remains a disaster and the runners in scoring position woes don’t seem to be getting any better.
If there is anything that has gone the O’s way this season, though, it’s been the bullpen. Yes, the 8-0 collapse in Tampa was tough, but that doesn’t diminish what has been a strong unit all season.
The vast majority of this pen has been good, but perhaps the biggest unsung hero is a guy many O’s fans, myself included, thought could be an early season DFA candidate.
That guy would be Seranthony Domínguez, whom the O’s acquired at the 2024 trade deadline to try and fill the gaping hole left at the closer position. While Domínguez’s 3.97 ERA wasn’t awful, he had struggles with the long ball and was ultimately far too unreliable to close games for a contending team.
Things would get far worse before they would get better for Domínguez. Already on thin ice with the fan base, Domínguez would post a 19.50 ERA and 3.33 WHIP in his first spring training with the O’s. It was starting to make sense why Philadelphia, also a contending team, was willing to trade away a reliever, something you do not often see.
With all the criticism that GM Mike Elias gets, he deserves praise when he’s right, and it’s safe to say sticking with the righty after the tough start was absolutely the correct decision.
Domínguez owns a 3.41 ERA, 3.45 FIP, and 113 ERA+ in 31.2 innings pitched this season. The savant data suggests this success is sustainable to:
- 3.06 xERA (80th Percentile)
- .202 xBA (92nd Percentile)
- 30.8 Chase% (77th Percentile)
- 32.3 K% (94th Percentile)
- 86.4 Average Exit Velocity (94th Percentile)
When you overlay these numbers to his 2024 Savant data, the biggest difference is the chase percentage, which was 26.1% last year in just the 20th percentile.
Why are batters suddenly chasing Domínguez? There could be a multitude of reasons, but the addition of a splitter to his arsenal is what my money is on.
Domínguez has done away with his changeup and added a splitter, which he’s gone to 13% of the time in 2025. On the 78 splitters he has thrown this year, batters are hitting .083 with a .083 slugging percentage. It’s also being whiffed at a whooping 56.8% of the time.
Seranthony’s splitter has legitimately become one of the better pitches in baseball, and it wasn’t even until recently that he started throwing it. It’s become a huge weapon against lefties, whom historically he’s had struggles against.
It’s definitely been a tough year for Baltimore, but the trio of Bryan Baker, Seranthony Domínguez and Félix Bautista has quickly established itself as one of the best 7-8-9 in the league.
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