Orioles left-hander Cade Povich underwent surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow on Wednesday, Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun reports. He is expected to be ready for Spring Training.

Povich, who divided the season between Baltimore and Triple-A Norfolk, went on the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation on May 8 and did not return until June 27. While that was Povich’s lone IL stint of 2026, he dealt with “significant pain down the stretch,” according to Weyrich. That helps explain Povich’s September woes in Baltimore and Norfolk, where he combined for three starts in the final month and yielded 14 earned runs on 16 hits (four HRs) and eight walks in 14 2/3 innings.

Povich ended the season with an ugly 6.28 ERA in 61 2/3 Triple-A frames, but he had more success preventing runs in the majors. Over eight appearances (seven starts) and 37 innings, the soft-tossing 26-year-old pitched to a 4.38 ERA with a solidly below-average 17.5% strikeout rate and a slightly below-average 9.4% walk rate. Metrics such as xERA (4.69), SIERA (4.80), xFIP (4.88) and FIP (4.99) all indicate Povich was fortunate to log an ERA closer to 4.00 than 5.o0, and he benefited from a 79.8% strand rate that was 7.5% higher than the mean. 

The Orioles acquired Povich (and reliever Yennier Cano) from the Twins in 2022 in a trade for former closer Jorge López. Povich was a notable prospect when he debuted in the majors two years later, though the results have been underwhelming so far. Across 46 appearances (43 stars) and 229 innings, Povich has put up a 5.07 ERA with below-average peripherals. But with the Orioles at risk of losing Trevor Rogers and Chris Bassitt to free agency in the coming months, Povich could compete for a starting job during the spring. Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz and Brandon Young look like the only locks for Baltimore’s 2027 rotation right now, making it an area president of baseball operations Mike Elias will surely address in the offseason.

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