The Orioles have signed right-handers Sam Deduno and Nathan Adcock to minor league contracts, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy.
Deduno, 32, has the lengthier Major League track record of the pair, though a significant hip injury shortened his 2015 season to just 21 innings with the Astros. Deduno opened the 2015 season in long relief with the Astros and eventually made a pair of starts, one of which went well (four innings, three hits, one run, two walks, four strikeouts) and the other of which was disastrous (4 2/3 innings, 11 hits, 10 runs, three walks four strikeouts). Deduno’s ERA never got the chance to recover from that brutal outing, as he made just two more relief appearances before landing on the disabled list and ultimately undergoing season-ending hip surgery.
Prior to last season’s 6.86 ERA, Deduno enjoyed a solid, albeit erratic three-year stretch with the Twins and Astros, pitching a combined 287 2/3 innings between the two clubs from 2012-14. In that time, the Dominican righty logged a 4.22 ERA with 6.5 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 and a very strong 57.2 percent ground-ball rate. Control has long been an issue for Deduno, but he managed to miss just enough bats and induce enough grounders to get around that flaw and serve as a useful swingman for three seasons before his hip woes kicked in, and the O’s will hope for a return to form. He can serve as rotation and bullpen depth, though Baltimore doesn’t have a rotation spot for him at present and has multiple long relief options on the 40-man roster, so perhaps Deduno is Triple-A bound to open the season.
Adcock, 28, tossed 18 innings out of the Reds bullpen last season and struggled to a 6.00 ERA. He posted solid numbers out of the Kansas City bullpen in 2011-12 but hasn’t seen much big league time since his Royals days. Overall, Adcock has a 4.17 ERA with 5.9 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 52.1 percent ground-ball rate in 123 Major League innings. He has a vastly higher 5.57 ERA in Triple-A, though most of those struggles came out of the rotation. He’s posted a 2.95 ERA over the past two seasons in Triple-A, albeit in a small sample of 45 2/3 innings.
Makes no sense. As picky as the Orioles are with their physicals,they sign a picture with a significant hip injury!
Oops, Supposed to say pitcher!
Its just a minor league depth guy. The Orioles tried to bring back Johan Santana last year and he got hurt right before they were gonna call him up and he was coming off of a serious injury. They will give guys a chance but when you talkings millions on free agents id be a little more cautious too
The O’s will sign people med problems to the minors all day long .but if it a muti year bigs contract you need to be in shape
Exactly
Minor league deal. Its like playing the slot machine or buying a lottery ticket, for a piece of change you have a slim chance of a nice pay off. They are only picky when the guaranteed money is large
Watching Deduno pitch, if he ever gets the call, should be an interesting experience. Remember Alfredo Simon when he was with the Birds? He had that one season (2010) where he was crazy wild.
Deduno is going to make Simon look like Greg Maddux. But he does have movement on his pitches. Maybe they can fix something in his delivery. They have nothing to lose, in any event.
I have not seen him pitch. Is he able to be effectively wild or is he doomed unless he can fix the control issues?