The Orioles announced Friday that they’ve added lefty Brian Gonzalez and infielder Gunnar Henderson to their 60-man player pool. Both have been assigned to the club’s alternate training site in Bowie. Baltimore’s pool is up to 59 players.
Gonzalez, 24, doesn’t rank among Baltimore’s best prospects but has had success up through the Double-A level, so he could emerge as an eventual bullpen option in 2020. The 2014 third-rounder struggled as a starter in Class-A Advanced and Double-A, but he was moved to a full-time relief role in 2019 and enjoyed his best year since 2016. Gonzalez tallied 53 1/3 innings last season, pitching to a 3.38 ERA with 8.9 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and an admittedly bloated 1.5 HR/9 mark. The O’s recently traded southpaw Richard Bleier to the Marlins, so Gonzalez replenishes some of that depth.
Henderson, meanwhile, won’t see any MLB time in 2020. The 19-year-old was Baltimore’s second-round pick in the 2019 draft and hasn’t even reached A-ball yet, so there’s no way the club will put him on the 40-man roster and bring him to the big leagues. That said, he’s widely regarded as one of the rebuilding club’s ten best prospects, so he’ll head to Bowie to get some work with the coaching staff there and see some simulated reps along with the club’s other top minor leaguers. As The Athletic’s Dan Connolly points out on Twitter, the O’s now have all of their Top 11 prospects (per Baseball America’s rankings) either on their MLB roster or at their Bowie site.
No Mountcastle, of course. Maybe he’ll get the call before age 25.
Mountcastle is already part of the 60 player pool. He’s just waiting for the call to Baltimore, which most likely happens soon.
I think it’s because by waiting till next year he’s under control for an additional season, when the future O’s have a better team.
So you think they are going to wait until next June to game service time? The team can hold rights to a right-handed DH until he’s 31.? Any other thoughts you want to share?
Richard, I think Elias isn’t done shipping more relievers for PTBNL guys. The rules are more in favor for Elias when he receives a PTBNL because of 2020 rules. Pop will be ready for the start of 2021. He’s a potential closer. Maybe trade a Givens or Castro. PTBNL is fine but I’d prefer a competitive balance pick. Get a 4th top 100 pick in 2021. I say PTBNL is fine because of Elias ability to find talent with waiver players though I prefer that 4th pick.
I don’t believe that there is anyone on the Orioles roster that would net a CB pick in return.
Also, the PTBNL could be anyone not on a team’s 60-man list due ti the rules for this year.
The list of PTBNLs has already been agreed upon. It can’t be “anybody” on the 60-man. Elias says it will be a prospect. That doesn’t tell us much. But it does suggest the team is receiving a player with calculable upside.
@coachdit: I agree that Givens will be traded in a couple weeks, likely PTBNL. Maybe somebody wants Sulser for a PTBNL. Hard to predict that a team would want to trade for Armstrong. Castro is still only 25 and the team has two more years of control; if they do trade him, they would need a pretty high prospect in return, maybe in a team’s top 10. Scott is going nowhere. The rest of the pen is of questionable value, e.g. Fry, Phillips, Lakins et al.
There are possibilities among the starters, specifically Cobb, LeBlanc and Milone. No team is going to give up high value for Milone or LeBlanc. But there is a chance that a team could be convinced to go for Cobb. Here is the one hope for a competitive balance pick: the Orioles trade Cobb and pay at least half of his remaining salary. Probably worth it for salary relief alone.
They won’t wait until next June to call up Mountcastle, regardless.
I’m not sold on Pop ever becoming a closer/high-leverage reliever.
I mistyped: the PTBNL can’t be “‘anybody’ not on the 60-man.”
The teams have agreed to the players that the Orioles can choose from. Probably three or four players are on the list.
I question the depth next season adding Mountcastle and Mancini to the O’s. I think Elias isn’t done trading this season or offseason to free up games for them.
Left field is a black hole being occupied by Dwight Smith. 1B is a similarly large black hole that gets occupied by Chris Davis.
Either spot would work just fine for Mountcastle. Elias is probably waiting for the expected super two cutoff to make the call.
…which passed a week ago. Now what is the excuse for not calling up Mountcastle?
His cutoff for super two arb 4 is next May. That’s when we’ll see him is my guess. This season is for loses to get one of those top picks.
Zero excuse for not getting Mountcastle some at bats. Now is the perfect time to get some reps defensively at the MLB level also.
I can’t argue this, historically, you play that many games at AAA with that success, the next season you’re in the bigs if you’re prospect status like Mountcastle.
Waiting until next June to promote Mountcastle stunts his progress. Another year of team control of a RH DH with middling power at 31 years of age is not that valuable.
There are rumors that Mountcastle has been held down for reasons other than manipulating service time.