Orioles left-handed pitching prospect DL Hall is working in relief with Triple-A Norfolk to prepare to help the Orioles out of the bullpen during the stretch run … and according to MLB Pipeline senior writer Jim Callis, that’s where Hall likely fits best in the future.
Hall has made 18 starts and two relief appearances for the Tides this year, posting a 4.62 ERA in 74.0 innings along with 122 strikeouts and 47 walks. He made his first major league start at Tampa Bay Aug. 13, allowing five runs on five hits and three walks. He was optioned back to Norfolk afterwards to begin the transition to relief.
Hall, 23, figures to be back in the rotation mix next spring, but Callis thinks the bullpen is where he has the best chance for success.
“I think he’s got some of the best left-handed stuff in the minors. I am extremely skeptical he’s a starter,” Callis said on Glenn Clark Radio Aug. 18. “You look at his career in the minors, he’s average [5.1] walks per nine innings. Is he making progress? No. He’s at [5.3] this year. He’s never really thrown a lot of strikes at all. I think his best walk rate is 4.0 per nine innings, and that was back in 2018. What’s his track record of staying healthy for a full minor league season? Not really good. There’s always a nick or something. He’s never pitched more than 94 innings in a season, and that was back in 2018 again.”
Callis said he wouldn’t give up on Hall as a starter quite yet, though. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound left-hander has flashed brilliance at times in the rotation. During a four-start stretch in July for Norfolk, Hall allowed a total of two runs and eight hits while striking out 40 and walking eight across 20.2 innings.
It’s no surprise that Hall is capable of such stretches. An athletic left-hander with an ultra-fast arm, Hall has high-end fastball velocity and a curveball, slider and changeup that can all generate whiffs. But consistency — particularly in terms of health and strike-throwing — simply hasn’t been there throughout a minor league career that dates back to 2017.
Hall will enter next spring with two minor league options remaining, so the Orioles could opt to send him down to continue to develop as a starter. Still, Callis noted it’ll be tougher to give a young starter who requires significant refinement an extended audition in the big league rotation than it would’ve been in years past.
“Look, you have to see if he can start, and I would. It’s getting a little dicier now because the team’s good, all of a sudden,” Callis said. “You can’t just say, ‘DL, here’s 16 starts, show us what you can do,’ because you’re trying to win now. In my mind, you have to try him as a starter, and they will, but I feel like I’ve been the low man. … I think it’s an extremely talented arm, but I haven’t seen any consistency of starting.”
Hall has been groomed as a starter since he was drafted in the first round of the 2017 MLB Draft. Callis says Hall has never had an extended stretch of strike-throwing that led him to believe the left-hander would stick in a major league rotation.
That said, Hall’s stuff is so good that he might be able to become a weapon like San Diego Padres lefty reliever Josh Hader (548 strikeouts in 320.2 big league innings).
“If you’re asking me today, I think he’s a reliever. He missed a ton of at-bats and he might be a Hader-like closer,” Callis said. “… The way he can miss bats, if he can get a little bit more precise, the stuff would theoretically play up in shorter stints. Maybe he is that closer of the future in Baltimore.”
For more from Callis, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Scott Sears