The Orioles have claimed right-hander Tayler Scott off waivers from the Mariners and designated left-hander Sean Gilmartin for assignment in order to open a 40-man roster spot, per a club announcement. Scott has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.
The South African-born Scott, 27, made his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2019, pitching 7 2/3 innings but yielding eight earned runs on 11 hits and six walks with seven strikeouts. Scott’s bottom-line numbers in Triple-A aren’t much more appealing — 6.43 ERA in 35 innings — but he’s posted a 57 percent grounder rate across his past two Triple-A campaigns and averages roughly 95 mph on his sinker. That, it seems, piqued the interest of the new-look Orioles front office. Because Scott only just had his contract selected for the first time in 2019, he has all three minor league option years remaining (2019 included).
Gilmartin, 29, yielded five runs on seven hits and two walks with one strikeout across 2 1/3 innings in his lone start for the O’s. The former first-round pick was once a fairly well-regarded pitching prospect but hasn’t found much MLB success outside a solid 2015 rookie season with the Mets when he was a Rule 5 pick out of the Twins organization. In 107 2/3 innings in the big leagues, Gilmartin has a 4.18 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 (5.90 ERA in 50 1/3 frames from 2016-19). He’s struggled throughout much of his time in Triple-A as well, though he did give the Orioles’ top affiliate 36 1/3 sharp innings this year prior to his selection to the MLB roster. The O’s will have a week to trade Gilmartin or run him through outright waivers.
I think someone will grab Gilmartin and stash him at AAA. There are definitely plenty of pitchers now in MLB that don’t belong there after all. Funny how people want expansion teams when the talent is watered down enough as it is. When I pay to watch a team I want to see the best competition possible.
ive seen enough people complain about MLB teams lacking talent. in my mind, ML talent is directly indicative of what talent is in the majors at that time. sure, there will always be fringe 25 and 40 man guys, but saying there is a lack of “ML talent” is so subject to what someone believes to be “ML talent.”
They had the opportunity to stash Gilmartin this offseason when the O’s outrighted him. They passed then. Don’t think this will be any different. But he’s not much of a loss if it happens.
And yet … there’s about seven billion people on the planet. It seems unlikely there are no more than 400 who can pitch.
Coming in with the dagger. I like it. And great point.
mets2020
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