The Orioles announced a series of roster moves today, selecting the contracts of Fernando Abad and Konner Wade, designating Adam Plutko for assignment, optioning Dusten Knight to Triple-A and transferring Bruce Zimmermann to the 60-day IL.
For Abad, this will be his first time on a big league roster since 2019. The journeyman lefty signed a minor league deal with the Nationals before the 2020 season, eventually getting released and signing another minors deal with the Yankees. The O’s then added him on a minor league deal in December. In 25 1/3 Triple-A innings this year, he has an ERA of 4.26. In 330 2/3 MLB innings over his career, he has an ERA of 4.42.
This will be Wade’s second stint with Baltimore this season. The first time around, he only got into a single game, throwing 1 2/3 innings and allowing six earned runs. The 29-year-old was designated for assignment and outrighted in early July, but has earned his way back with a solid Triple-A performance. In 62 1/3 innings at that level this year, he has an ERA of 3.03.
Plutko was acquired just before the season began in a trade with Cleveland but hasn’t performed well enough to hold onto his roster spot. Through 56 1/3 innings this year, he has an ERA of 6.71 with a strikeout rate of 17.3% and walk rate of 10.6%, both of which are worse than league average. Plutko has more than three years’ service time and could refuse an outright assignment and elect free agency if he clears waivers.
For Zimmermann, this is an unfortunate setback as he was almost ready to return from a biceps issue but sprained his ankle in a training room accident, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. It’s unclear how long that ankle issue will keep him sidelined, but he will be eligible to come off the IL this week, since the 60 days are counted from his initial IL placement on June 18th. The lefty has an ERA of 4.83 for the O’s this year over 59 2/3 innings.
Allow me to be the first to say it…
This seems like Abad idea.
Also, Plutko seemingly just isn’t very good.
Fernando’s 4.42 ERA sounds like Abad number, but I wish him and his team the best when the O’s visit The Bronx.
When they gone bring up Matt Riley?
Better question, when will Rutschmam get called up? Prolly smart not to do so. Why start service time with a bad team?
2022. They don’t need him right now w/ Severino experiment still going on.
I figure that Plutko will land back with the Indians.. they need a guy to eat up some innings. It won’t be pretty but he can do that
lol, was coming to the comments to say Plutko is going to be grabbed up by my struggling “Guardians”. it’s been frequently mentioned this season every time we lose a SP (every week) how we shouldn’t have let Plutko go. Can’t wait…
Indians or Tribe, not that “G” word. Not yet, at least.
They will always be the Indians in my book.
Mandatory “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic” comment.
OTOH, in the race for the #1 draft pick, O’s are only 1 back of the D-Backs. Hope springs eternal.
Overall Abad has been a pretty decent pitcher. He has had some pretty good seasons but like a lot of lefty specialists he’s been up and down.
His career ERA is actually 3.67 not 4.42 and he has a 111 ERA+.
Why not?
Let’s get rid of some bad pitchers and bring in more bad pitchers. Yeah that’s the ticket. That Mike Elias. What a rebuilding genius.
Abad just got tagged for three earned runs in one third of an inning. Mike Elias’ genius for spotting pitching talent on display yet again. At some point in time someone has to be held accountable for failing job performance and I’m talking about the front office. Truly pathetic.
I get the frustration, but the guys they’re going for are basically lottery tickets. It would be one thing if they were spending a ton of money on bad pitchers or not hitting on prospects in bigger trades, but that’s not the case here. That said, they really do need develop a lot of pitchers. Other than Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall, it’s a stretch to find any pitchers that should be legit impact arms once they make the show.
Well, let me add that they got pretty much Dillon Tate for machado and Britton. Can’t even remember if that was Elias
It was not Elias. You can thank Duquette for that bountiful return of talent
Zimmerman has had a bad rookie season but I think he’ll take that step forward next year and really prove himself.