The Orioles bullpen will be a happy place if Keegan Akin repeats his 2024 performance
Last year, the lefty was basically the rock in a bullpen that went through a lot of shocks. Can he do it again?
Man, it was only 2017, but it feels like a lifetime ago that Keegan Akin was a top O’s prospect (No. 6)—as a starting pitcher. Steer our time-traveling craft back to those days, and you’ll find MLB Pipeline touting the Western Michigan alum as “one of the hardest-throwing lefty starters in his class,” equipped with a 91-94 mph fastball, an above-average slider, and an average changeup. He profiled, they thought, as “a No. 3 or 4 starter at maturity.”
Considering that list also included Chance Sisco, Cody Sedlock, Chris Lee, and Jomar Reyes, the return on investment could have been worse! Akin did not become an MLB starter, nor has he been an All-Star. But last year, arguably, he was the rock of the Orioles bullpen, and he got his deserved kudos, at least from us here at Camden Chat.
Akin was extremely solid in 2024, posting a 3.32 ERA/2.99 FIP and 113 ERA+ in 66 games. Impressively, he hit a career high in strikeouts as a relief pitcher, with 97 K’s in 78.2 innings, good for an 11.1 rate. He kept his walk rate to a manageable 2.2 per nine innings, too. He also topped the 99th percentile, according to BaseballSavant, in expected ERA and expected batting average—the swings and quality of contact against him were bad, in other words. And Akin himself was very good.
Akin did this while performing a difficult Swiss Army knife role as the Orioles fumbled around looking for help at closer. Recall, the Orioles were missing Félix Bautista for all of last year, Yennier Cano went through bouts of ineffectiveness, and Craig Kimbrel generally turned into a pumpkin in the back half of the season. Akin led the bullpen in innings pitched (78.2), while making 25 appearances in the seventh inning, 24 in the eighth, and fully 14 in the closer spot.
Zooming out to the career level, over five seasons, Akin been good in really two of them: last year and 2022, when he put up a 3.20 ERA/3.59 FIP and 122 ERA+ in 45 games. He was flawed in 2021 as a starter, finishing 2-10 with a 6.63 ERA (ouch) and also in 2023, when he was hurt, posting a 6.85 ERA in 24 games.
