As the hot stove heats up, we’re going position by position to preview the 2025-26 class of free agents. So far, we’ve looked at catchers, outfielders and infielders. Each player’s age during the 2026 season is listed next to his name.

There can be no half measures this winter, especially when it comes to starting pitching. Mike Elias seems to know it.

“Hopefully we can find somebody who can provide innings and front-half-of-the-rotation stuff,” the president of baseball operations said in November.

Of course, the Orioles made an effort to sign that type of player last offseason, but when Corbin Burnes opted for Arizona, they settled for back-end starters Charlie Morton, Tomoyuki Sugano and Kyle Gibson. We all know how that went.

The demand for pitching always outweighs the supply. This year’s crop of free agents is flooded with mid-level starters, but contains only a handful of top-end hurlers. The Orioles need both, but they should be shopping for a Bentley before they look at the Toyotas.

Here are nine free agent righties who could slide into the O’s rotation.

Chris Bassitt, 37

Bassitt was the odd man out of the Blue Jays’ rotation in the team’s World Series run, but that didn’t mean he didn’t make an impact. He came out of the bullpen seven times in the postseason and didn’t allow a run until Game 7 of the Fall Classic. Now that Toronto has Dylan Cease in the mix, Bassitt’s spot in Toronto’s rotation may be gone for good.

The Orioles maybe should have signed Bassitt three years ago, when he inked a $63 million deal with their American League East rival. He pitched well up north, posting a 3.89 ERA, just not against the O’s, who scored 27 runs off him in seven starts. Bassitt is no ace, but Baltimore could do worse with him as their No. 3 or No. 4 starter.

Michael King, 31

The Padres had a plan for King when they acquired him in the Juan Soto trade, and they executed it to perfection. The former Yankee’s transition from the bullpen to the rotation went smoothly, as he registered a 2.95 ERA in 31 appearances (30 starts) in 2024. Then, injuries hit in 2025. King missed significant time with a long thoracic nerve issue and a knee injury, limiting him to just 15 starts. Still, he showed enough to earn the $22.025 million qualifying offer, which he turned down.

The Orioles, who revised their offer to reliever Jeff Hoffman last winter due to a concern with his physical, would have to be confident King can stay healthy before committing to him. But the talent is obvious.

Zack Littell, 30

Littell is another converted reliever who pitched for the Giants from 2021-22 when Orioles manager Craig Albernaz served as the team’s bullpen coach. The Rays, as they so often do, saw something in him no one else did, plucking him off waivers in 2023 and turning him into a solid starter. Littell put up a 3.73 ERA in 61 starts between the Rays and Reds the last two seasons.

A strikeout machine he is not: His 19.7 career strikeout percentage is below league average. But his walk rate has been among the best in baseball for three years running. Plus, he just turned 30, and because he wasn’t eligible for the qualifying offer, has no draft pick compensation attached.

Zac Gallen, 30

A year ago, Gallen looked like a safe bet to get top dollar in free agency. From 2022-24, he made 93 starts, posting a 3.20 ERA for Arizona and finishing in the top three for the NL Cy Young Award twice. A 4.83 ERA in a messy 2025 season certainly deflated his price tag, but not enough to dissuade the Diamondbacks from extending him the qualifying offer in November.

Is Gallen still a top-end starter? Likely not. Last season, his strikeout rate dipped below league average for the first time in his career. Opposing hitters are honing in on his less-than-stellar fastball, but his knuckle curve still plays well. What his market looks like this winter is anyone’s guess.

Tatsuya Imai, 28

Baltimore is hoping they unlocked a new talent pipeline by making Sugano the third Japanese player ever to put on an Orioles uniform last offseason. Signing Imai, who was posted on Nov. 19, would represent another massive step forward in the team’s international program.

Imai doesn’t have prototypical size for a starting pitcher, standing at 5-foot-11, but he has a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and a deep arsenal. His age and impressive stats for the Seibu Lions in 2025 — a 1.92 ERA with almost 10 strikeouts per nine innings — will put him near the top of the pitching market. It doesn’t seem like he’s all that interested in joining former NPB stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki on the Dodgers, either. Could this be the Orioles’ chance to land a top international player?

Merrill Kelly, 37

The Orioles saw enough from a high school Kelly to take him in the 37th round of the 2007 draft, but he chose to attend Yavapai College instead. He was drafted twice more, and finally signed with the Rays in 2010 out of Arizona State. But he failed to reach the big leagues with Tampa Bay and went overseas to pitch in the KBO League. His hometown Diamondbacks brought him stateside before the 2019 season, and he’s flourished ever since, recording a 3.77 ERA in 172 starts.

Kelly’s fastball doesn’t blow anyone away, sitting in the low-90s, but he doesn’t need it to. The changeup became his top offering in 2025, generating an impressive 33.4% whiff rate. The Chris Elliott lookalike won’t get a massive deal this offseason, but he should get a look from the Orioles.

Lucas Giolito, 31

Few big leaguers have experienced the kinds of highs and lows that Giolito has. He’s been a top prospect, a trade piece, an All-Star, a waiver claim and a Tommy John patient all in the span of a decade. In 2025, he was just a good, normal starter for the Red Sox, but there was a pretty sizable gap between his 3.41 ERA and his 5.00 expected ERA, according to Statcast.

Giolito declined his end of a $19 million mutual option for 2026, but the Red Sox did not extend him the qualifying offer, making his value difficult to pinpoint. He can’t be counted on at the top of a rotation anymore.

Nick Martinez, 35

Martinez’s first big league run was less than impressive: The 2011 18th-round pick posted a 4.77 ERA in four seasons with the Rangers. But a successful stint in Japan earned him a return trip to the states and a new role as a “Swiss Army knife” for the Padres and Reds. Martinez has appeared in 192 games over the last four years, starting 61 of them. He’s been better out of the bullpen, but having someone who can do both would be an asset for the Orioles, who non-tendered the versatile Albert Suárez in November.

Martinez reached a career high in innings in 2025 – 165 2/3 – but didn’t miss many bats, carding a 4.45 ERA. He doesn’t have great strikeout stuff, but his six-pitch mix induces enough soft contact to get the job done most of the time.

Tyler Mahle, 31

If Grayson Rodriguez’s injury history was enough to scare you — and clearly, it terrified the Orioles — look away. Mahle made just 47 starts from 2022-25, missing time with numerous arm and shoulder ailments, including Tommy John surgery in 2023. When he pitched in 2025, however, he dazzled with a 2.18 ERA in 16 starts. A one-year flier will probably be all Mahle can generate in free agency.