Orioles Land Helsley to Enhance Bullpen
Baltimore Lands Heat - Now they need Results
The Baltimore Orioles made a significant bet on bullpen firepower, signing former NL Reliever of the Year Ryan Helsley to a two-year, $28 million contract. At his best, Helsley has been one of baseball’s most overpowering late-inning arms—his 2022–2024 performance included elite strikeout rates (peaking at 39.3% K% in 2022) and consistently strong run prevention, supported by a career 2.82 ERA and 1.15 WHIP across 271 innings from 2021-2025.
But 2025 was a different story. Helsley’s command disappeared, his strikeout rate dipped to 25.0%, and his home run rate spiked to 1.3 HR/9, leading to a 4.82 ERA—his worst full-season mark to date. His fScores tell the same story: elite raw stuff (114 fStuff) and durability (136 fDurability) remain intact, but his fControl (101) and fERA (106) signal a pitcher who must tighten up execution rather than overhaul his arsenal.
Helsley himself has acknowledged the issue. After the season, he admitted the identified pitch-tipping patterns and sequences that had become too predictable in leverage counts. Opponents appeared to pick up those cues, reflected in sharper contact quality and diminished swing-and-miss results compared to his dominant 2022–23 peak.
For Baltimore, this is a classic upside play—and a calculated one. They’re betting that cleaning up those pitch-tipping tells and rebalancing his pitch mix can quickly restore the elite version of Helsley: the one who once posted a 31% K-BB%, the one who could simply overwhelm hitters late in games, and the one whose stuff still grades at the top of the scale.
If the Orioles get the 2022–2024 version, they’ve added a postseason-caliber weapon. If they get the 2025 version, they’ve taken on risk—albeit the kind of risk that contenders like Baltimore must be willing to take to fortify the back end of their bullpen—especially given the uncertainty about Felix Bautista’s health.
Bautista underwent surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and labrum in his right arm at the end of August 2025. This surgery is anticipated to require a 12-month recovery period, possibly longer. Given that Bautista has undergone Tommy John surgery as well, they will take their time with his rehab. This means Helsley will be earning all the saves for the O’s for the foreseeable future.
Either way, this signing signals one thing clearly: the Orioles expect to win, and they’re investing in the highest-octane relief upside available on the market.