The Orioles announced today that they have outrighted righty Hector Velazquez. He has already cleared waivers.
This move removes a player from the Baltimore 60-man player pool, leaving five openings to work with. The O’s clearly did not believe that Velazquez would be an option in the majors this year.
The 31-year-old hurler had been a useful swingman for the division-rival Red Sox, though he scuffled in 2019. Given the Orioles’ pitching needs, it seemed he had a good shot at carving out a role. Instead, he’ll be stashed on the Baltimore minor-league roster without a chance to play this season.
Sox really didn’t want him back with how bad their rotation is?
I’d take him back. It was a horrible cut and he’s better than Brian Johnson.
That should tell you something!
Not really. Teams get rid of guys all the time who wind up finding success elsewhere or things finally click. Guys also move on and never put things together.
Orioles getting rid of someone , especially a pitcher, doesn’t mean much as they haven’t exactly developed pitching whether it’s home grown or free agents.
As ineffective as he was at times last year for the Red Sox… they could probably use him right now. He was at least consistent in his ability to throw strikes and from 2017-18 he was actually surprisingly effective. He never really had all that impressive stuff (low 90s FB) but seemed to be able to get the most out of it. Kind of surprised to see him dropped from the O’s 60-man pool given how thin they are on pitching as well. But like I said before… he was really quite ineffective last season, so I guess in the end it’s not all that surprising.
I knew he played in Mexico before coming stateside but never realized he was such a workhorse in the Mexican league. Routinely throwing more than 150IPs a year and once even reaching 225+ IPs
Short season hurt Velasquez. That’s the kind of guy the orioles probably would’ve kept around had it been a 162 game season w/ a minor league schedule. But given the short season, Baltimore really has no need for him. At some point they’ll want to give guys like Kremer, Akin, Baumann etc. a shot to pitch in games. Makes having a guy like Velasquez really not a necessity.
Guy has a rubber arm, just not a very good one. Still,surprised that he couldn’t crack two (frankly) bereft 15 man staffs. Watch, Dodgers will pick him up and he’ll pitch in 40 games with a 3.50.
Hopefully he’ll ask to be released to go pitch in the NPB, KBO or even the CPBL.
What was the point of getting rid of their Rule 5 draft picks for this guy?
Coulda used him tonight….