Orioles to promote Kevin Gausman to MLB

It’s time for the Gasman.

After Tuesday night’s exciting walk-off win against the New York Yankees – that ended the Birds’ six-game losing streak – Jon Morosi of Fox Sports and Steve Melewski of MASN both tweeted that the O’s are set to bring up top (healthy) prospect Kevin Gausman on Thursday.

Prior to the game, the team optioned Jair Jurrjens to AAA Norfolk to make room for Miguel Gonzalez, who made the start against New York. With Jurrjens out of the rotation, many expected Thursday’s start in Toronto to fall to one of the current bullpen arms – either T.J. McFarland or Jake Arrieta.

Instead, news of the Gausman promotion has Birdland abuzz this morning.

I admit it – I’ve never seen Gausman pitch live. I wanted to go down to Bowie and watch him this spring, but never got around to it. I did at least watch him for a few innings in the College World Series last year, but tomorrow will be my first real look at the kid.

I know that I do like his numbers from AA this season: Zero or one ER in four of his last five starts, 49 K and 5 BB in 46.1 IP.

The 22-year-old will be thrown into the fire against a Blue Jays squad that boasts some pretty intimidating power hitters, include Jose Bautista (9 HR), Edwin Encarnacion (12), and J.P. Arencibia (10). With his high-90’s fastball, devastating change-up, and pinpoint control though, the O’s feel Gausman is major league-ready.

Gausman is not currently on the 40-man roster, so keep an eye out for the corresponding move to make room for him.

While it would have been nice to see him make his debut at home, if “The Gasman” performs well enough Thursday to stick around, his next scheduled start would be Tuesday in Washington against the Nationals – it’s not home, but it’s as close to home as away can be.

Let’s hope this most recent Wonderkid prospect call-up turns out as well for the O’s as the Manny Machado version did last summer (and much better than some other recent pitching prospects have).