Jair Jurrjens Designated For Assignment

The Orioles have tweeted they have designated Jair Jurrjens for assignment off the 25-man roster to clear a spot for Brian Roberts. Roberts, who had been on the 60-day disabled list recovering from a right hamstring strain, is in the lineup tonight against the Yankees as the DH batting ninth.

Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports Jurrjens will go on option waivers, but is expected to clear and be optioned to Triple-A Norfolk (Twitter links). Dan Connolly, Encina's colleague at the Sun, tweets Jurrjens, once officially optioned, will have 72 hours to decide whether he will report to Norfolk and writes the right-hander will take that time, but will go. MASNsports.com's Roch Kubatko adds Jurrjens could not be optioned because he was on the active roster for only one day and that the Orioles used the same procedural move with reliever Alex Burnett earlier this year (Twitter links). The Orioles, however, lost Burnett to a waiver claim by the Cubs.

Jurrjens has made two appearances for the Orioles this year including 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief in the Orioles' 11-3 win over the Yankees last night. Jurrjens' other appearance was a start against the Rays on May 18 where he allowed four earned runs and struck out five in five innings. The 27-year-old right-hander, signed by the Orioles to a minor league deal in February, has posted a 4.06 ERA, 5.3 K/9, and 2.2 BB/9 in 14 starts (84 1/3 innings) at Triple-A Norfolk.