The Orioles announced today that they have selected the contract of righty Matt Wotherspoon. He’ll take the roster spot of fellow righty Pedro Araujo, who was designated for assignment.
Wotherspoon was picked up a few years back in exchange for international bonus pool money. He has been bypassed in the Rule 5 draft but will now get his first crack at the majors at 27 years of age. Last year, he pitched to a 4.60 ERA with 10.1 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 over 94 Triple-A frames.
Araujo, a 2017 Rule 5 pick, only needed to be kept on the MLB roster briefly in 2019 for his rights to be permanently transferred to the O’s. But he’d still have required a 40-man spot that the Baltimore organization obviously wasn’t interested in committing. He’ll now be offered back to the Cubs if he clears waivers.
I had a feeling this was coming. We were literally a week away from being able to keep this guy but I was running down the 40 man pitchers and thinking about who would be DFAād if we wanted to add anyone else and the easy answer was Araujo. Personally, I wouldāve waited another week, gained his rights then DFAād him off the 40 man at that point. I think there was a much better shot heād stay in the organization that way.
Unless they know information already that the cubs will not take him back
Thereās zero reason for the cubs not to take him back. Itād cost them 25K and he doesnāt go on their 40 man. Theyāll 100% take him back and slot him in AA for literally no risk.
Ya thatās definitely weird. What would they lose (besides Wotherspoon for like 7 days) by keeping Araujo up?
Our BP has been taxed early in the season and if we needed a fresh arm we needed to send someone down. We really donāt have any spare positional players who have options and half of our bullpen are also in the mix for starting jobs so I suppose we didnāt have anyone we wanted to send down for 10 days there either. It was either DFA araujo or tough it out with the pitchers on our 25 man roster, I suppose. This FO didnāt pick araujo in the rule 5 either so they may not like him at all. I probably wouldāve waited and tried to sneak him through but it is what it is. He was hard to watch.
On a side note….Hess being pulled a couple days ago was sad. He was cruising.
It wasnt sad. Its day 5 of the season. Ifs april. He hadnt thrown over 45 pitches since september. He was at 78. I wouldnt have sent him back out for that batter on the road. Its a team game. Not a no hitter game.
A team game where the team will lose 100+ for the 2nd year in a row.
Let the fans (and the players) celebrate an individual moment. There won’t be many reasons to celebrate this season.
He had also thrown 48 pitches 4 days before.
You mentioned no-hitter, not me. Hess was cruising, which is what I said. If you like monitoring pitch counts that is fine. Lowering pitch counts still haven’t entirely helped pitchers avoid arm injuries.
The sad part was he did nothing to warrant being pulled. He should have stayed in the game at least batter to batter. At the very least.
I would have let him finish the inning before pulling him from the game.
Let it go man…you still sad that they traded Schoop and Guasman and didn’t re-sign Jones??
MT if you’re talking to me, I’m a Blue Jays fan. I could care less what your team does.
Or, avoid injuries.
In before comments “Araujo will be an improvement over the current bullpen”
If the season ended today, O’s would be in the playoffs……
When was the last time the Cubs got a pitcher worth a damn from the Orioles? š
Ha ha ha
If they designate Wotherspoon, they will be Withouttheirspoon.
Fantastic.
I wonder if Wotherspoon got his last name because somewhere in the past someone named Witherspoon had a typo and everyone just decided to go with it.
Definitely possible.
Then would you stick a fork in him?
Wotherspoon sent back on the game’s conclusion.
Would any Orioles fans want to trade something of mild value to keep Araujo? $500 K in international signing room? An early third-day 2018 Draft Pick with a mild degree of upside?
Just checking.
Nope. Araujo isn’t even worth the 40-man spot, period.
$750 K it is.
Off of the roster.
Both of these guys turned down much more $$$ than any regular Joe could imagine …. enjoy the wait fellas
April 3, and O’s still qualify for the Wild Card, if the season ended today…..