The Orioles are nearing a deal with reliever Luis Ayala, Max Wildstein of OutsidePitchMLB.com tweets. FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal mentioned last night (also on Twitter) that Ayala had offers from the Orioles and another team, and that he could make a decision today.
The Nationals released Ayala yesterday after he struggled in spring training. Last season, he posted a 3.27 ERA with 6.0 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 33 innings. Two of those innings came with the Orioles, who traded him to the Braves about a week after the season started. Ayala was also a regular in the Orioles' bullpen in their 2012 playoff season.
I hope it is a minor league deal, because at the moment the team doesn’t have any room in the major league bullpen for him.
I doubt he would except a minor league deal.
accept?
Expect?
Excerpt?
according to roch kubatko it will be a split contract and he’ll start in the minors
That’s acceptable. I think that’s the same kind of deal Aceves and JSantana signed.
It has to be a minor league deal. Players who get cut this far into spring training don’t just land ML deals
Can’t recall who exactly it was, but I believe that a few years back someone in the former closer mold got cut loose and signed a guaranteed deal late in the spring for something like a million and a quarter.
But you are right, of course, that it is quite rare.
If he doesn’t land a job with the O’s, he can at least catch home runs hit into the bullpen with his cap.
Why
its apparently gonna be a split contract, so hes going to start in the minors. im completely cool with that. he was ok last year when healthy and he pitched fine when he came back from the anxiety treatment so he was i guess able to overcome it to some extent. no problem with adding depth that isnt going to bump anyone else off for the time being.