Veteran left-hander Wandy Rodriguez has opted out of his minor league contract with the Orioles, as MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko writes. The 37-year-old had been building up strength at the team’s Spring Training facility in Sarasota, Fla., but MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli tweets that the team simply didn’t feel it had a spot for him at the Major League level in the near future.
Rodriguez spent half the season with the Rangers in 2015, pitching quite well from April through June after winning the fifth spot in Texas’ injury-depleted rotation. The longtime Astros/Pirates hurler turned in a 3.20 ERA with a 50-to-23 K/BB ratio through his first 11 starts in the Texas rotation before melting down and surrendering 24 runs over his next 21 2/3 innings. Now that he’s built up some stamina with the Orioles in extended Spring Training, he could be ready to step directly into a minor league rotation or bullpen in the hopes of quickly working his way back to the Majors. In parts of 11 big league seasons, Rodriguez has pitched to a 4.10 ERA with 7.4 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 in 1557 innings.
Come on back to Braves organization.
He was never in the Braves organization.
He spent Spring Training 2015 with the Braves and was their final cut late in camp. Atlanta went with Eric Stults for their fifth starter over Wandy, who latched on with the Rangers (and vastly outperformed Stults until the meltdown I referenced above).
I remember how well that worked out last season. At this point the rotation could use a little veteran presence.
Eppler will be calling very soon if he hasn’t already.
Could he start 10 days from now? I think the Sox could probably squeeze him in. Can’t be any worse than Buchholz.
Another signing by the Angels? Lolzzzz
How bad does he look if the Orioles have no room for him?