Does Brian Matusz go back to an Orioles starter next season? He was outstanding as a left-handed bullpen option during the latter stages this year. As a reliever, Matusz held batters to a .114 average and .170 on-base percentage, as MASN’s Roch Kubatko points out.

Do those numbers make Matusz too valuable as a reliever to let him try starting again? Manager Buck Showalter apparently doesn’t think so.

"Compared to the options we had and the trade market and some other things, we thought Brian could do as well, if not better, than some of the other things coming in,” Showalter said of the relief role, as reported by Kubatko. “Brian will more than likely go in the spring as a starter and then he can always ... we think he can go back and do this, but he needs to get his innings. It was also a carrot for him to come back to the big leagues, so there was a lot of want-to there.”

And if Matusz wants to have a defined role with the Orioles, it well may be he continues in relief. There will be lots of arms competing for the rotation in spring training. His 18 appearances out of the bullpen this year aren’t a huge sample, but he was left-handed money when the situation demanded it — just the sort of thing a contending team likes to count on.