The Orioles announced over the weekend that right-hander Matt Wotherspoon has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk, thus freeing a spot on the 40-man roster. Baltimore had only recently selected Wotherspoon’s contract, but the 27-year-old’s first exposure to the Majors and to a 40-man roster both proved brief.
A 34th-round draft pick of the Yankees back in 2014, Wotherspoon appeared in just one game with the Orioles, pitching two innings and yielding three runs on four hits and a walk. He’s spent parts of four seasons at the Triple-A level, where he owns a combined 3.55 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and 1.0 HR/9 159 2/3 innings of work. Baltimore originally acquired the righty under former general manager Dan Duquette, when they traded a portion of their international bonus pool to the Yankees in exchange for Wotherspoon.
With the move, the Orioles’ 40-man roster is now at 39 players.
I thought this guy’s name was a typo.
good thing they gave him teh roster spot to begin with and DFA’ed Jackson.
Nothing special about Jackson. I would’ve given him a longer leash but we had too many position players on our roster with the state of our rotation and bullpen. We need that roster spot to shuttle guys back and forth.
This guy took Araujo’s spot on the roster. I’m pretty sure Straily took Jackson’s.
That’s correct. Not real important either way. We could’ve simply optioned Wotherspoon but we elected to take him off the 40 man completely. I suspect that was the plan all along. He was just another arm to eat some innings while the BP was taxed. I’m curious to see if Elias has a guy he wants to claim or acquire with the freed up 40 man slot.
Yeah I still don’t get the point of that sequence. They could have kept Araujo for a few more days, saved the bonus pool money they traded for his rights, and kept Wotherspoon in the minors until now.
It’s a little bit head scratching. I suppose if they didn’t want to keep araujo on the 40 man it makes some sense. He would’ve had to be on the 40 man had we waited and this way he’s completely off. That is only a benefit for this season though because he’ll be rule 5 eligible this offseason if we choose not to add him.
They are officially Withouttheirspoon. 🙁
I loved his stuff when he was with Devo.
Orioles are sure not giving a lot of playing time to pitchers who could prove useful for a team with the worst pitching staff in baseball.
The new administration has no emotional ties to anyone, and if you cannot show what in their eyes looks like talent with potential for development, then they will find a way to get along without you. Now, in this case, I doubt that anyone will claim Wotherspoon on waivers and put him on their 40-man roster, so he’ll pass through and stay in the organization.
I’ve said it to anyone who will listen… the Orioles are not going to be pretty to watch for the next two years. However, this is what we (O’s fans) agreed to when we jumped on board the total rebuild train. 2018 is not about winning at all. They aren’t trying to tank, and the players are all trying to do well, but they just do not have the talent to compete regularly. We must trust that Elias, Megdal, Hyde, and the rest have a better eye for judging and developing young talent than the previous several regimes did.
I’m pleased with how things are going. If you’re upset about us DFAing wotherspoon im not sure why. He cleared waivers. No one even wanted him on their 40 man even with the plethora of options he has left. We have a ton of young pitchers at the big league level right now. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a pitcher who deserves a call up in our minor league system right now. There’s plenty of opportunities for guys even as we add guys like Straily to eat innings. We cannot go through a season using 5 relievers a night, we will need to have guys who can give us innings. At present our minor league system doesn’t give us much of that. Any deserving minor league pitcher will have plenty of opportunities in Baltimore. I expect Mike Wright will find himself DFA’d in short order if he keeps this up and inevitably we will have guys hit the IL.
The O’s might not at times be pretty to watch but they’re already more fun to watch and they’re executing in a way that last year’s team did not.
Fortunately the organization has some pitching talent at several levels in the minors. It won’t be rushed, but I’m looking forward to seeing the new regime use its radically different methods (relative to the previous regime) to develop that talent.