The Orioles have released outfielder Eric Young Jr. from his minor league contract, Young himself revealed to reporters Friday (Twitter link via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko). He’d been viewed as a legitimate candidate to break camp with the club but will now head back to the open market in search of another opportunity.
Young, now 33 years old, enjoyed a strong spring with the O’s, hitting .323/.462/.452 with a homer, a double and a pair of stolen bases. With Young no longer in the mix, the O’s will go with Trey Mancini in left field, Cedric Mullins in center and a combination of Joey Rickard and Dwight Smith Jr. in the outfield.
Young spent the 2017-18 seasons with the Angels but, after a solid run in 2017, saw his offensive output crater in 2018. Overall, he hit a combined .233/.293/.361 with five homers, nine doubles, a pair of triples and 17 steals through 242 plate appearances with the Halos. Young paced the National League with 46 stolen bases back in 2013 as a member of the Rockies, and he doesn’t look to have lost much of a step, as his sprint speed of 29.0 feet per second (via Statcast) still ranked in the 91st percentile of big leaguers last season.
That’s the wrong Young.
Clears the path for Austin hays when Rickard inevitability fails.
You have that right..
If you can’t make the Orioles roster; you need to find another line of work.
That’s pretty harsh, I’d say.
Harsh but true.
Harsh AND Untrue. Maybe Orioles tanking:
“33 years old, enjoyed a strong spring with the O’s, hitting .323/.462/.452 with a homer, a double and a pair of stolen bases.”
What more could a guy do to make the team?
Lol. Be 23. Not 33.
Hello, troll. Eric Young is 33 years old. If there is one place where the Orioles have organizational depth, it’s in the outfield. When the team signed Young to a minor league deal, they didn’t anticipate that Smith would be available for virtual money, nor did they anticipate that Rule 5 guy Drew Jackson would be able to serve as a 5th outfielder. They still have Hays, Santander, and DIaz at AAA, with a few good prospects behind them at AA. This year isn’t about winning games anyway, as the Astros proved when they lost 100+ for three straight years.
Enjoy kicking the O’s while they are down. It’s going to suck for a few years, but in four years they will be wild card contenders, and in a few years after that they will be division contenders. People laughed at the Rays, Astros, and Cubs when they were down and look at them now.
Amen
oOoOo theyll become WC contenders?!?! omg wow! What happens after that? They blow the WC game by not putting in their best pitcher?
Anyway, just because a team will probably eventually become good again doesnt excuse them from being a laughing stock. Everyone has their turn to laugh as everyone has their turn to be laughed at. At this point, the Orioles deserved to be laughed at.
*10-12 years
It’s going to take the Orioles seven years to be division contenders?