The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander John Means from Triple-A Norfolk. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Baltimore recalled outfielder Austin Hays and placed him on the Major League 60-day disabled list. Hays underwent ankle surgery earlier this month.
Means, 25, split the 2018 season between Double-A (46 innings) and Triple-A (111 1/3 innings), working to a combined 3.72 ERA with with 7.4 K/9 against just 1.8 BB/9. He’s not considered to be among the organization’s top prospects, but he’d have been Rule 5 eligible this offseason after a solid season in the upper minors. Given the thin state of the team’s pitching depth, the Orioles likely would’ve added him to the 40-man roster this winter anyhow.
[Related: Baltimore Orioles depth chart]
Means has worked almost exclusively as a starter throughout his career since being selected in the 11th round of the 2014 draft, and he’ll quite likely be in the mix for a spot on the big league roster next spring. At present, Dylan Bundy, Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner are the three locks for rotation spots in 2018, health permitting, with Means, Josh Rogers, Luis Ortiz, David Hess, Jimmy Yacabonis and Yefry Ramirez among the names who’ll vie for additional opportunities. It’s also possible that Means could eventually be looked at as a potential bullpen piece; he held left-handed opponents to an awful .209/.246/.312 line in 2018 but yielded a .295/.331/.423 slash to opposing righties.
I personally see Luis Ortiz as the best of the bunch. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a few of those guys jettisoned when trying to make room throughout the offseason. As it stands, there are currently 46 guys including dl guys on the 40-man roster after taking Jones and Rasmus into account as leaving.. While I wouldn’t consider any of those guys to be like certain Roster Casualties, Yacabonis, Ramirez and Hess wouldn’t necessarily shock me.
I’d think it doubtful the orioles dfa young guys when better candidates remain present. Ynoa, Andreoli, Corban Joseph, Caleb Joseph (non-tender), Beckham (non-tender), Peterson and Gilmartin make much more sense. Orioles certainly aren’t short on dfa candidates.
Agree with you. Gilmartin isn’t a bad guy to sign cheap though.
Hess can be a decent back end option because of his speed variation between pitches and ability to dot the corners. Yacabonis can’t throw strikes unless it’s hanging sliders or middle middle heat so yeah he’s gone. Ramirez could be a decent reliever strictly based on his changeup.
Nunez, Andreoli, and Rickard need to go.
Why Nunez? We have no better internal 3B candidate until Mountcastle is ready. If he can stick at 3rd. I’d rather have Nunez keep the seat warm versus some major league scrub. Give him a full season and see what he can do. In all likelihood Mountcastle will be ready by the end of next summer if he’s going to be a 3B. I think you’re way wrong on Hess. He doesn’t have the stuff to be a major league pitcher. Gives up way too many HRS because he’s an extreme fly ball pitcher and he doesn’t miss any bats. Yefry I believe will carve out a career out of the pen He can’t get thru the order a 3rd time. Hess is a starter or nothing IMO. Nothing more than a mop up arm/DFA candidate in the future if he can’t dink and dunk in the rotation. But like I said w his pitching profile I seriously doubt it.
Hess can stick as a back end guy, just not in Baltimore with Camden Yards. I’m speaking more of the fact that he can make an MLB team. He may excel in Oakland with the giant park.I guess you can roll with Nunez until Mountcastle is ready but Nunez kinda sucks. At the plate he’s a worse Avisail Garcia, and that’s saying something this year despite Garcia’s inexplicable tanked walk rate.
Agreed on everything else
Nunez’s defense at 3rd isn’t half bad. I wouldn’t be opposed to bringing in a guy like jung ho kang to see if he could bounce back. Or Moustakas for that matter. Moose just because it’d give us one player that might be fun to watch swing a baseball bat. And if he was hitting 40 Hrs at Camden yards we might be able to flip him for something actually worth something. Highly doubt that will happen. If it’s not one of those 2 I’d rather have Nunez than some minor league signing like a Luis Valbuena or something. I don’t think Nunez is a star in the making or anything like that but I’d rather see a guy with some kind of youth get a chance to hold it down.
No chance Ramirez or Hess go. Mike Wright is out of options and terrible. Joseph and Jace Peterson will likely be non tendered. We have multiple utility men either Valera or Vielma can be DFA’d. Gilmartin can be DFA’d we have 3 lefties already a lock for the BP. Beckham likely will be non tendered but we’ll need that slot for a replacement in all likelihood. Andreoli and Corban Joseph will go. YNOA will be gone. That’s 8 slots cleared before we get down to Susac, Donnie hart, rickard, Araujo. There’s spots that are easily cleared before you even consider those guys.
I agree with you in that they shouldn’t, but I really don’t have a ton of faith in the judgement of the Orioles front office.
I made a whole list organizing the team in a few different categories
I just rate it 1-5 in likelihood of being cut loose in some way shape or form
Here’s some of what I have:
5’s
Joey Rickard
Caleb Joseph
Andrew Susac
Corban Joseph
Jace Peterson
John Andreoli
Mike Wright Jr.
Pedro Araujo
Donnie Hart
Evan Phillips
4’s
Gabriel Ynoa
Sean Gilmartin
Engelb Vielma
Austin Wynns
Jimmy Yacabonis
Steve Wilkerson
Ryan Meisinger
I have Beckham, Ramirez and Hess as 3’s in that I wouldn’t be completely shocked if they were cut, but I wouldn’t deem it inherently likely. I created this category based on some cuts from last year like Randy Rosario, Daniel Palka, Kevin Siegrist etc. Guys who I wouldn’t have expected to be cut, but who were anyway.
I’m currently going through every team with it.
Ynoa is a virtual lock. Gilmartin or hart is a virtual lock because we have 3 guaranteed lefties in our bullpen. Beckham will be non tendered because we aren’t looking to pay north of 5 mil for an unproductive SS. Wynns has no chance of being DFA’d. And honestly all of your 4’s won’t be DFA’d aside from Gilmartin and ynoa who are extremely likely to be DFA’d. Vielma too. Extremely unlikely we give up on Evan Phillips after one season. It’s been rough but I’d be shocked if you see him DFA’d he certainly wouldn’t be a 5. Wynns shouldn’t be on any list here. Not going to happen
I can certainly understand where you’re coming from.
The way I decided 4’s and 5’s was, I looked at guys who I figured would clear waivers, or who would be without a place. That’s why I put Wynns on the list, however, I totally agree with the idea that Susac, Joseph and Wynns aren’t all goners.
Wilkerson is simply based on age and lack of ceiling and Yacabonis and Meisinger were both borderline 3’s
The reason I put Beckham as a three is that I would be willing to wager that the strong-headed ownership probably won’t give up on the Beckham trade yet, seeing as how he was great in 2017 and hurt for a lot of 2018. I would imagine that they pay him in ’19 and try to flip him. Really not a ton to lose in throwing one more dart at the wall.
As for Phillips, I simply just went off of the idea that he’s been brutal, would probably clear waivers and could be controlled as a non-roster player for a few more years if sent outright. That way he could further development or whatever he needed to do. I considered the idea that they wouldn’t give up on him yet, but there just isn’t much of a ceiling there.
Nevertheless, everything you said made complete sense and I get where you are coming from. It’s always refreshing to debate with someone who knows there stuff and isn’t trolling, lol!
I doubt wynns or Phillips would clear. Both are young with plenty of options seasons left. Susac is much more likely to clear than him out of the two at this point because I believe he’s out of options. I think wynns will be a fine backup catcher, im just not sure sisco is going to be a starter. As for Beckham, the org will do whatever it can to save a few bucks. I can’t see them giving him 5+ mil. I never liked the trade because he was a terrible fit in our lineup. He was another low OBP strikeout king. I don’t disagree with you on guys like Wilkerson or Meisinger probably not being much as ML ball players but they haven’t gotten a fair shake yet. Particularly meisinger, I don’t see anything there that suggests he’ll be a big leaguer but I do believe we need to trim the fat of retreads who never perform ala mike wright, Sean Gilmartin, Donnie hart etc. before him though it wouldn’t upset me if we let him go. The organization seems to like Yacabonis a lot and converted him into a starter this year so I’m not sure they want to risk pulling the plug on that expirememt just yet, but again I’d Be more than fine DFA’ing him as well.
You can’t cut Wynns and Jospeh. We need a catcher. IMO Wynns starts the year with the job.
You can cut wynns and Joseph but you have to replace them. I don’t think we’ll be looking to pay Joseph ~2 million or something in arbitration. It’s a small number but we can get the same production out of wynns/susac/ sisco for the league minimum. Not to mention it’s very rare to see a team give up on a young catcher after half a season. He has plenty of option years remaining and our minor league depth behind him and sisco is questionable. Cervenka will likely be added to the 40 man roster as well. I think it’s a possibility we cut two catchers because of that but if we’re doing that I believe it’d be the out of options susac and Joseph.
Just release everybody and start from scratch.