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Rich Hill Not Planning To Play In 2026

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Left-hander Rich Hill doesn’t want to use the word but it seems to be leaning towards retirement. Appearing on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast, Hill was asked by host Rob Bradford if he was retiring and said “I don’t have any plans on playing next year.” The situation is somewhat analogous to that of Joe Kelly, who announced on the same podcast last month that he didn’t want to use the word “retire” but wasn’t planning on playing anymore.

“I’m looking for open possibilities to stay in the game of baseball and be a contributory factor,” Hill continued. “I enjoy the work aspect of whatever it might be that’s next. I think that’s one thing that… why athletes get hired in other positions and other… outside of sports is because they are highly-driven people that want to succeed. And that’s something that I’m looking forward to.”

It’s not shocking that Hill is slowly wafting into the next stage of his career. Though he did pitch in the 2025 season, he was easily the oldest player in the league. He was 45 years old when he suited up for the Royals and will turn 46 in March. Though he has continued pitching to an age when most other players have called it quits long ago, he did so with some unconventional approaches. He waited until midseason to sign in 2024 in a deliberate attempt to be more fresh for a stretch run.

If this is indeed the end, it will wrap up one of the more unique arcs of a player in recent history. Hill was drafted by the Cubs way back in 2002 and made his major league debut in 2005. He didn’t find immediate success but had a really good season in 2007, posting a 3.92 earned run average over 32 starts.

But from there, he went into a really challenging period of his career. He struggled with results and health for many years, leading him to be bounced between the majors and minors and between various different organizations. From 2008 to 2014, he tossed a total of 153 innings split between the Cubs, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, the Angels and Yankees. He posted a 5.41 ERA over that stretch.

2015 would turn out to be an incredible comeback season. He started the year on a minor league deal with the Nationals. He opted out of that contract in June and signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League. He made just two starts for that club but struck out 21 opponents in 11 innings. That was enough to get him back into affiliated baseball via a minor league deal with the Red Sox.

Boston called him up in September and he made four starts as the season was winding down. In those, he logged 29 innings with a 1.55 ERA. He had a mammoth 34% strikeout rate, a tiny 4.7% walk rate and a strong 48.4% ground ball rate. That was a tiny sample size but the Athletics made a bet on it, signing Hill to a one-year, $6MM deal for 2016. That wager paid off handsomely, with Hill giving the A’s 14 starts with a 2.25 ERA.

At that year’s deadline, he was traded to the Dodgers alongside Josh Reddick, with the A’s getting Frankie Montas, Grant Holmes, and Jharel Cotton in return. Hill gave the Dodgers six starts with an ERA of 1.83 and then three postseason starts with a 3.46 ERA.

The Dodgers were happy enough with that showing to bring Hill back via a three-year, $48MM contract. That was a pretty staggering deal for a 37-year-old who was not too far removed from being in indy ball but it worked out well. He logged 327 innings over those three seasons with a 3.30 ERA, plus 37 postseason innings with a 2.43 ERA.

After that deal ran its course, Hill went into his 40s and mercenary mode. He signed a series of one-year deal with the Twins, Rays, Red Sox and Pirates. In 2023, he seemed to wear down as the season went along, not surprising for a 43-year-old. His 4.76 ERA with Pittsburgh was still respectable but he collapsed after a deadline deal to the Padres, posting an 8.23 ERA after the swap.

As mentioned, he then tried to think outside the box to continue as an effective big league pitcher. He planned to intentionally sign at midseason in 2024 in order to spend more time with his family and also save his bullets for the second half and postseason. He stayed unsigned until inking a minor league deal with the Red Sox in August. He did get called up but only for four relief appearances before being released. In 2025, he signed a minor league deal with the Royals in May. He got called up in July but was designated for assignment after just two starts.

Given the unusual shape of his career and his willingness to buck conventions, it’s possible he’ll change his mind and find his way back to the mound. But if Hill doesn’t make it back to the majors, he will finish with 1,418 innings tossed over 388 games for 14 different clubs. In that time, he posted a 4.02 ERA but will likely be best remembered for the 2015-2021 run which saw him post a 3.15 ERA in his late 30s and early 40s. Baseball Reference pegs his career earnings over $75MM, most of that coming to Hill in his late-career surge. We at MLB Trade Rumors salute him on a fine career, which may or may not be done, and wish him the best on whatever is next.

Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images

Orioles Sign Hans Crouse To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles announced Tuesday that they’ve signed right-hander Hans Crouse to a minor league contract. Ty Daubert of Phillies Nation first reported the signing and added that Crouse will be a non-roster invitee in Orioles camp this spring. He’s represented by Wasserman.

A second-round pick by the Rangers back in 2022, Crouse ranked among the sport’s top pitching prospects in the 2019-20 offseason. Texas included Crouse alongside Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy in a 2021 trade with the Phillies, netting then-top prospect Spencer Howard and fellow minor leaguers Kevin Gowdy and Josh Gessner. Crouse spent several seasons in the Phillies system and made a brief MLB debut with the ’21 Phillies but has spent the past two seasons in the Angels organization after landing there in ’24 as a minor league free agent.

Crouse has pitched a total of 32 1/3 innings in the majors between Philadelphia and Anaheim. He’s posted a shiny 3.34 ERA in that time, but the rest of his numbers don’t support that small-sample earned run average. Crouse has an impressive 25.9% strikeout rate but has also walked a gruesome 17.3% of the 139 batters he’s faced in the majors (in addition to plunking a pair). He’s navigated that glut of free passes not by erasing them with double plays — Crouse has just a 22.7% grounder rate in the majors — but thanks to good fortune on balls in play (.192 BABIP).

In 69 1/3 career innings at the Triple-A level, Crouse has an ERA close to 6.00, though that number is skewed by a 2022 season in which he served up 18 earned runs in only 12 1/3 innings. That minimal innings total in Triple-A comes despite pitching parts of five seasons there. He’s been hampered by injuries throughout his career. Crouse has undergone surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow, required thoracic outlet surgery in 2023 and also missed most of the 2022 season due to a torn tendon in his right biceps.

Earlier in his career, Crouse showed a power heater that climbed to the upper 90s and helped him miss bats in droves. He’s fanned 33% of his opponents in Triple-A and 28% of his overall opponents in pro ball. More recently, following all those injury troubles, his velocity has been pedestrian. He sat 93.3 mph with his heater in his most recent full season of Triple-A ball in 2024, and sat 95.3 mph in his lone Triple-A frame last season.

There’s little harm in bringing Crouse aboard on a non-guaranteed deal, but his days a starter are surely behind him. At this point he’s a no-risk bullpen flyer with a big track record of missing bats but an even bigger injury history.

Orioles Among Teams With Interest In Justin Verlander

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The Orioles have shown interest in Justin Verlander, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. While the O’s are the first club publicly tied to the future Hall of Famer beyond the incumbent Giants, Rosenthal unsurprisingly writes that Verlander has received interest from multiple teams.

Baltimore has made a pair of rotation additions this offseason. They sent four prospects and a draft pick to the Rays for Shane Baz, whom they control for three years. Baltimore also brought Zach Eflin back on a one-year, $10MM deal after an injury-riddled season. They’re in decent shape from a depth perspective. It still feels a little light at the top end. They’re banking on Kyle Bradish in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Trevor Rogers was fantastic over 18 starts but was in Triple-A as recently as last May. Baz has shown upper mid-rotation talent but very little consistency on a start to start basis.

Framber Valdez, arguably this offseason’s best free agent pitcher, remains unsigned. The Orioles have shown interest throughout the winter. They have enough controllable position player talent to make a move on the trade front if someone like Freddy Peralta or MacKenzie Gore becomes available. Rosenthal suggests that the Orioles could view Verlander more as a fallback option if they don’t come away with a higher-ceiling arm.

At age 43, Verlander no longer has that kind of upside. He showed last season that he still has plenty left in the tank, though. He made 29 starts for the Giants and pitched 152 innings of 3.85 ERA ball. Verlander recorded a 20.7% strikeout rate while walking around 8% of batters faced. His 11% swinging strike rate was his highest since he won his third career Cy Young with the Astros in 2022. Verlander has maintained a 94 MPH average fastball and pitched well after an early-season pec strain cost him a month. He turned in a 3.60 ERA behind a 22% strikeout percentage over his final 19 starts.

Like Valdez, Verlander has ties to Baltimore president of baseball operations Mike Elias. The O’s front office leader was an assistant general manager in Houston during the pitcher’s first season and a half with the Astros. Verlander would also align with Baltimore’s history of free agent spending under Elias. His front office has yet to sign a free agent starter to a multi-year deal, and they’ve frequently targeted older starters (e.g. Kyle Gibson, Tomoyuki Sugano, Charlie Morton) to secure shorter commitments. Verlander figures to sign one-year contracts for the remainder of his career.

Last winter’s rotation moves backfired. None of Morton, Sugano or Gibson met expectations and the rotation’s disastrous performance early in the season dug a hole from which the Orioles couldn’t recover. The O’s made a four-year offer to Corbin Burnes and took on a year and a half of Eflin’s contract via trade in 2024, so they’re not firmly committed to one-year commitments. Still, it’s true that signing Verlander would be more in line with their previous activity than a five- or six-year deal for Valdez would be.

The Orioles have opened the checkbook a few times this offseason, most notably on their $155MM Pete Alonso signing. RosterResource projects their 2026 payroll at $149MM, about $10MM below where they began the ’25 season. Alonso, Tyler O’Neill and Samuel Basallo are their only players signed beyond this season. O’Neill’s deal is up after 2027, while Basallo doesn’t make a salary north of $4MM until 2030 (the final year of Alonso’s contract).

Orioles Claim José Suarez, DFA Marco Luciano

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The Orioles announced they have claimed left-hander José Suarez off waivers from the Braves. It wasn’t previously reported that Atlanta had bumped Suarez from their roster but they apparently tried to quietly sneak him through waivers. The Orioles have swooped in to claim him and have designated outfielder Marco Luciano for assignment as the corresponding move. Atlanta’s 40-man count drops to 39.

Suarez avoided arbitration with Atlanta on a $900K deal in November. The 28-year-old southpaw had seemed a non-tender candidate after spending the majority of the season in Triple-A. Acquired from the Angels in a Spring Training swap for former third overall pick Ian Anderson, Suarez made just seven MLB appearances for the Braves. He pitched 19 1/3 innings and surrendered five runs (four earned), albeit with a middling 16:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Injuries hampered Suarez for much of the season, but he pitched well when healthy at Triple-A Gwinnett. He posted a 3.53 ERA over nine appearances, fanning 28% of opponents against a 5% walk rate. Suarez is out of options, however, meaning the O’s cannot send him to Triple-A without exposing him to waivers.

There’s a decent chance they’ll do that eventually. Baltimore is the most active team in MLB in claiming depth players only to look to run them through waivers themselves. Suarez has a little over four years of MLB service time. That means he could refuse a minor league assignment if he clears, but he’d forfeit his salary to do so. If the O’s keep him on the roster into Spring Training, he’d compete for a long relief role.

Luciano has found himself amidst the aforementioned waiver churn. The one-time top prospect has gone from the Giants to Pittsburgh to Baltimore this offseason. He’ll very likely be waived again within the next five days. Luciano once ranked among the sport’s top 15 minor league talents at Baseball America. He was then a teenage shortstop with massive raw power upside in a 6’1″ frame. His bat has stalled against higher level pitching and he has moved to left field after struggling with errors on the dirt.

San Francisco gave Luciano limited looks in 2023 and ’24. He hit .217/.286/.304 while striking out 45 times in 126 trips to the plate. The Giants kept him in Triple-A for the entire 2025 season. Luciano connected on 23 home runs while walking more than 15% of the time, but he struck out at a near-31% rate. He whiffed on more than 35% of his swings against Triple-A pitching. While Luciano hits the ball hard when he makes contact, the swing-and-miss and limited defensive profile have dropped his stock. He’s also out of minor league options, so he’ll need to stick on an MLB roster or continue bouncing around via DFA limbo.

Orioles, Sam Huff Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles have agreed to a minor league contract with catcher Sam Huff, reports MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. The ALIGND Sports client will presumably be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.

A seventh-rounder by the Rangers back in 2016, the as-of-yesterday 28-year-old Huff has played in parts of five major league seasons. He once rated as one of the top catching prospects in the sport and carries a decent .247/.301/.430 batting line in the majors. That production comes in a sample of only 272 plate appearances and spite of a 36% strikeout rate, however. Huff’s rate stats have been buoyed by a .350 average on balls in play.

Huff has solid framing grades in his limited major league work but has struggled with blocking balls in the dirt and controlling the run game. He has just an 18.5% caught-stealing rate in his career and has been charged with eight passed balls in 507 innings behind the dish.

The minor league numbers for Huff aren’t bad. He’s tallied exactly 1200 plate appearances in Triple-A and carries a lifetime .258/.338/.476 slash at that level, including 56 homers, 60 doubles, a pair of triples and a 10.2% walk rate. Contact has been an issue for him even at the top minor league level, though; he’s fanned in an untenable 29.9% of his trips to the plate in Triple-A.

With the Orioles, Huff figures to be a pure depth option. Top prospect Samuel Basallo and mainstay Adley Rutschman will handle the catching duties in the majors. Twenty-seven-year-old Maverick Handley got some looks as a glove-first option behind the dish when the O’s were dealing with injuries in 2025 as well, though he’s since been removed from the 40-man roster. Huff can join Handley in Triple-A Norfolk and give the organization an option as a righty bat at first base, too (not that they’re lacking in that regard). He’s logged 73 career games (566 innings) at first base between the minors and the big leagues.

Nationals Depart MASN, Turn Broadcasts To MLB

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that they’re stepping away from their local broadcasting deal with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. Major League Baseball will handle in-market distribution via streaming on the league’s MLB.tv platform and through yet to be announced cable/satellite partnerships. Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post and Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com were among those to cover the news.

“Today’s announcement represents a new chapter for Washington Nationals baseball,” owner Mark Lerner said in a press release. “Partnering with MLB offers us several new opportunities that will greatly improve the on-air product, including technological enhancements, the ability to work more closely with our broadcasters, and create added opportunities for our valued corporate partners.”

It officially concludes a fraught relationship with MASN, the network which had been jointly owned by the Nationals and Orioles since the former relocated to D.C. in 2005. Those two decades were marred by disputes over rights fees. The Orioles held a majority stake in the network as a condition of the Nationals relocating into their geographic territory. The sides went to arbitration to resolve calculations over rights fees, and the uncertainty was reportedly a stumbling block in the Lerner family’s efforts to sell the Nationals in 2022. The enmity also kept the teams from making any trades with one another.

David Rubenstein purchased the Orioles from the Angelos family two years later. That allowed for a fresh start in negotiations that resulted in a deal last March resolving all past disputes and settling on fees for the 2025 season. The agreement provided that the Nats could explore other opportunities in ’26.

This comes as the RSN model continues its decline around the league. The Nationals are the seventh team to turn broadcasts over to MLB. The Diamondbacks, Padres, Twins, Guardians, Rockies and Mariners have also done so. Those clubs don’t have the certainty of fixed rights fees because their previous providers were unable to meet their contractual obligations. Most of those organizations had agreements with Main Street Sports, the corporation that operates the FanDuel Sports (formerly Bally Sports) Networks.

Main Street Sports is back in hot water. The company recently missed payments to the Marlins and Cardinals. That led all nine teams that had agreements with Main Street to pull out of their contracts last week. Main Street is seeking a buyer and has otherwise said it plans to shutter operations at the end of the NBA and NHL seasons, which would leave the nine MLB teams in limbo. Evan Drellich of The Athletic writes that Main Street is hoping to renegotiate three-year deals with MLB clubs that would run through the 2028 season. Those could involve a hybrid arrangement that includes some fixed fees and a revenue sharing agreement that responds to the broadcaster’s loss of profits as consumers continue to move away from cable.

Orioles Outright Jhonkensy Noel

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The Orioles announced that outfielder Jhonkensy Noel has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. He will stay in Baltimore’s system but without taking up a spot on the roster.

The O’s are one of the most aggressive clubs when it comes to claiming players from the waiver wire and then putting them back out there shortly thereafter. The desired result is that the player clears, allowing the club to keep the player in a non-roster capacity, which has happened in this case.

From there, the best-case scenario is that the player follows in the footsteps of Ryan O’Hearn. The O’s acquired O’Hearn from the Royals in January of 2023 and then passed him through waivers. He hit his way back onto the roster a few months later. He spent more than two years as a productive member of the club before being traded to the Padres alongside Ramón Laureano for a package of prospects at the 2025 deadline.

Noel, 24, has flashed big power in his career but has been a poor hitter apart from that. In 351 plate appearances with the Guardians over the past two seasons, he launched 19 home runs but his 4.8% walk rate and 32.8% strikeout rate were both significantly worse than league average. He had a .193/.242/.401 batting line and 79 wRC+ in that time. Since he’s not an especially strong defender or baserunner, that offense was untenable.

He exhausted his final option season in 2025, which pushed him off the edges of Cleveland’s roster and onto the waiver wire. The O’s were able to grab him and then pass him through unclaimed today. He’ll return to the Triple-A level, where his offense has been more encouraging. He stepped to the plate 536 times at that level over the past two years with a 7.5% walk rate and 23.7% strikeout rate, still not great numbers but better than his big league work. His combined .285/.349/.538 Triple-A slash line in that time led to a 130 wRC+.

Even if Noel succeeds in Norfolk, he doesn’t have an amazing path back to the majors. Baltimore’s outfield mix currently includes Colton Cowser, Taylor Ward, Dylan Beavers, Tyler O’Neill, Jeremiah Jackson, Leody Taveras, Reed Trimble, Heston Kjerstad and Marco Luciano.

Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images

MLBTR Podcast: The Cubs Land Cabrera And Bregman, Remaining Free Agents, And Skubal’s Arbitration Filing

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images

Orioles Notes: Henderson, Valdez, Astros

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Gunnar Henderson’s third full Major League season was another success, as the infielder hit .274/.349/.438 with 17 home runs over 651 plate appearances.  It was more or less a match for the 2023 season that earned Henderson AL Rookie of the Year honors — Henderson posted a 122 wRC+ and 4.7 fWAR that year, and a 120 wRC+ and 4.8 fWAR in 2025.

Last season’s numbers were, however, a step back from the 154 wRC+ and 7.9 fWAR Henderson delivered in 2024.  Henderson missed most of Spring Training and the first week of regular-season action recovering from an intercostal strain, but the shortstop revealed Thursday that he also spent about “three-quarters of the year” dealing with a heretofore unknown shoulder impingement.

In an interview on WBAL’s Orioles Hot Stove Show (hat tip to MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko), Henderson said “I just wasn’t able to hold the plane and my body was adjusting to it, not feeling great, so that didn’t really set up me in the right spot to leverage the ball like I normally do.”  Despite his solid production, Henderson “could never get to the spot that I wanted to get to with my swing, but no excuse.  Just had to play through it and felt like I still with all those circumstances put up a decent year.  Looking forward to being healthy this year and getting back to my normal self.”

The injury wasn’t serious enough to merit a trip to the injured list, or even any missed time, as Henderson played in 154 of 155 games after being activated from the IL on April 4.  Since the Orioles faded from contention pretty early in the season, the team certainly should’ve shut down Henderson or at least reduced his playing time if there was any real concern over his shoulder.

With Henderson now predicting good health for 2026, the shoulder impingement can probably just be written off as a yet another footnote within an injury-riddled season for the Orioles roster.  Getting the 2024 version of Henderson back would go a long way towards helping the O’s return to playoff contention after their disappointing 75-win campaign.

Having Framber Valdez in the rotation would also be a huge boost, and the possibility of a big rotation add remains alive since the Orioles have been linked to the free agent southpaw’s market.  This isn’t the first time Baltimore has looked to acquire Valdez, however, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon report that the left-hander was part of a four-player trade package the Astros were prepared to send to the O’s for Zack Britton at the 2017 trade deadline.

It was known at the time that a Britton trade fell apart at the last minute between the two sides, with the Orioles reportedly pulling out due to medical concerns over two of the players involved.  Houston’s side of the deal wasn’t known until now, as Rosenthal/Sammon report that the Astros were offering Valdez (then a somewhat unheralded Double-A prospect), J.D. Davis, Jason Martin, and Rogelio Armenteros for Britton, who was in the midst of an injury-shortened season but was arguably baseball’s best closer when healthy.

While initial reports said the Orioles took issue with the medical of both pitchers (Armenteros and Valdez) in the trade offer, Rosenthal/Sammon write that Baltimore’s issue was just with Armenteros.  Former Orioles owner Peter Angelos was somewhat notorious for his caution over pitcher health, leading to several trades or free agent signings that were renegotiated at the eleventh hour, or abandoned altogether.

Armenteros’ MLB career ended up consisting of five appearances for the Astros in 2019 and he missed the entire 2020 season due to surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow.  In this context, it’s hard to say the Orioles were incorrect in their concern, though Arementeros ended up being the least-accomplished of the four players Houston offered.  Beyond just Valdez, Davis became a very productive infielder once the Astros traded him to the Mets during the 2018-19 offseason, and that breakout could’ve very well happened in Baltimore rather than in New York.  Martin’s MLB career consisted of 85 games with the Pirates and Rangers from 2019-21, but Martin was one of the four players the Astros sent to Pittsburgh for Gerrit Cole prior to the 2018 season.

The Astros went onto win the 2017 World Series anyway without Britton, and Valdez ended up being a cornerstone piece of the team’s success over the last decade.  While Houston’s front office (which included current Orioles president of baseball ops Mike Elias at the time) was surely irritated when the Orioles pulled the plug on the Britton trade, the team came out on top in the long run, and it’s another example of how you just never know which prospect might end up as the key figure of a trade package.

In fairness to the O’s, there wasn’t much indication at the time that Valdez would turn into a frontline starter, and it is possible Valdez wouldn’t have developed as well as he did in Baltimore’s organization rather than in Houston.  The 2017 season was the first of five straight losing seasons for the Orioles as they entered a rebuilding period under Elias, and it is interesting to wonder how having Valdez (and Davis) around might’ve changed the trajectory of that rebuild.

Orioles Outright Will Robertson

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The Orioles announced that outfielder Will Robertson has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk. He was designated for assignment December 28th when the O’s signed Zach Eflin. DFA limbo is normally capped at a week but the rules are looser around the holidays, which led to Robertson hanging out there for almost two weeks.

Robertson, 28, has never played for the Orioles. He was claimed off waivers from the Pirates in December. The Orioles love to claim players and them put them back on waivers later, hoping to keep the player in a non-roster capacity. The upside of this scenario was recently demonstrated by Ryan O’Hearn. The O’s acquired him from the Royals in January of 2023. He was designated for assignment two days later and then passed through waivers. He earned his way back onto the roster and spent over two years as a key contributor for Baltimore.

Since this is Robertson’s first career outright and he has less than three years of big league service time, he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency. He’ll stay with the O’s and try to earn his way back onto the roster.

He was drafted by the Blue Jays in 2019 and didn’t have a lot of prospect hype as he climbed the minor league ladder. He showed flashes of a breakout in 2025, however, which got him up to the majors with the Jays. He eventually lost his roster spot and went to the White Sox in July. In the offseason, he went to the Pirates and then the Orioles.

During his brief major league action, he put up a dismal .129/.173/.143 line, but in a tiny sample of 75 plate appearances. His 354 Triple-A plate appearances were much more impressive. His 24.9% strikeout rate was above average but an improvement for him personally, as he was at 31.3% the year previously. His 13.6% walk rate at Triple-A last year was quite strong and he also hit 20 home runs in those 354 trips to the plate. That led to a .289/.387/.571 line and 148 wRC+ at that level.

Since Robertson cleared waivers, it seems major league clubs were a bit skeptical of that production. His .342 batting average on balls in play was a bit on the high side. He was a 27-year-old repeating the Triple-A level, with serious strikeout concerns in previous seasons. He’s also mostly a corner outfield guy, with very limited center field experience.

If his 2025 was a legitimate late-bloomer breakout, the O’s could benefit down the line if he earns his way back onto the roster. He doesn’t have an easy path, as Baltimore’s current outfield mix consists of Colton Cowser, Taylor Ward, Dylan Beavers, Tyler O’Neill, Jeremiah Jackson, Leody Taveras, Reed Trimble, Heston Kjerstad and Marco Luciano, though Luciano and others could eventually follow Robertson to the waiver wire.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

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