A pair of players recently designated for assignment have cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A.
- The Orioles announced this afternoon they’ve outrighted corner outfielder DJ Stewart to their top affiliate in Norfolk. Stewart has a bit shy of the three years of MLB service required for a player to refuse the first outright assignment of their career. He’ll remain with the Tides — where he’d been on optional assignment before he was DFA last week — and try to play his way back onto the 40-man roster. A former first-round pick, the 28-year-old Stewart has appeared in 195 MLB games over the past five seasons. He owns a .213/.327/.400 line in 622 plate appearances, almost exactly league average offensive production by measure of wRC+. Coupled with below-average defensive metrics in both left and right field, that fine but unexciting output at the dish wasn’t enough for the lefty-hitting Stewart to hold his roster spot. He’s a .255/.353/.442 hitter over 773 Triple-A plate appearances.
- Athletics right-hander Miguel Romero was outrighted to their highest affiliate in Las Vegas over the weekend, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Like Stewart, he has never been outrighted before and doesn’t have three-plus service years, so he’ll stick in the organization as a non-roster player. Romero, also 28, has yet to make his MLB debut. Oakland selected him to the 40-man roster over the 2020-21 offseason, but he spent all of last season on optional assignment in Las Vegas. Romero was tagged for a 6.27 ERA with just a 15.7% strikeout rate in that extremely hitter-friendly environment last year. He’ll look for better results with the Aviators in an effort to get back onto the 40-man roster.
DJ great on getting on base but unfortunately it’s his only skill. I had high hopes for him but the Os are way to deep with outfielders to put up with his low average and poor defense
Agreed
Good point
.327 OBA is not `great.` It is not even `good.` And he is a terrible athlete, badly uncoordinated. One of the worst players I have ever witnessed. Worst defensive outfielder since Jeff Stone.
Last season .327 would have been a better number than any regular Orioles position player aside from the breakout season from Cedric Mullins. The collective team OBP was .304. So by those standards, Stewart was the discount, bargain bin O’s version of Kevin Youkilis.
Mancini, Urias, Kgutierrez and Mateo (in addition to Mullins) ALL had higher OBAs than DJ – whose OBA was .324, not .327.
Youkilis is a ridiculous comp; he had value. Stewart can`t run a straight line without injuring himself
Ra, you keep appearing in these conversations and demonstrating a severe lack of understanding of….just about everything.
1) Stewart’s CAREER OBP IS .327, which is what the article references.
2) In the year I stated, 2021, that was higher than any full time player on the Orioles roster other than Mullins. Just so you understand, a guy with about 100 at bats on the season is NOT a full time player. That’s why Kelvin and Jorge do not count. A guy that plays only half the season is NOT a full time player. That’s why Urias doesn’t count.
3) Mancini (who was a full time player) does count. But, last time I checked math, .327 > .326
4) Ridiculous was the point because I was using hyperbole to explain the dire straits of the Orioles approach to hitting. The team OBP was .304. I think we would all agree that .327 is vastly greater to .304. Do you better understand the analogy now?
Decent OBP, decent HR power, terrible at everything else which cancels out any value he has.
It is not good OBA. It`s some walks and a poor batting average – makes for league average OBA, whicg is unacceptable for an outfielder, especially a defensive liability.
But he was still better at OBA than just about anyone else on the team. That should speak volumes to you.
Stewart still blows. OBP is not the singular defining factor of value as you are arguing
I am not arguing that point. Leave it to you once again to not understand something. But, getting on base is pretty important if you want to score runs. The Orioles have been pretty abysmal at that in case you haven’t been paying attention.
I have seen Sherman Obando play baseball.
They are certain deep with a lot of suspect outfielders for sure. The O’s approach to the OF is akin to tossing a bunch of donkey doo doo up against a wall and seeing which parts stick.
Untrue: OF is the Orioles strength. Austin hays is plus defensively and can barrel fastballs. Santander has legit power and was a gold glove candidate in 2020. And Mullins had a fantastic year in 2021 – we will see if he can come close to repeating. Ridiculous to say any of those 3 is `doo doo.`
Austin Hays is a roided up injury waiting to happen. He WAS good defensively until he put on too much muscle and derailed his speed game in favor of power. I don’t care if he can barrell a fastball if he can never hit a breaking ball.
Santander has power. Weeee….so do a lot of hitters. What does he bring aside that? Below average defense, below average speed, and no OBP skills. “But, Gold Glove…” you say. Here’s all you need to know about the gold glove. In the season that Cal Ripken Jr. set the then record for highest FPCT for a SS in a season and fewest errors in a season for a SS, the gold glove went to……Ozzie Guillen. Here is how they stacked up:
GUILLEN: INN: 1359.1 TC: 743 PO: 252 AST: 474 DP: 100 ERR: 17 FPCT: .977
RIPKEN: INN: 1406.1 TC: 680 PO: 242 AST: 435 DP: 96 ERR: 3 FPCT: .996
Oh, and if you are a fan of DWAR:
GUILLEN: 2.3
RIPKEN: 3.4
Santander has significant injury issues as well.
I agree. Mullins has had one very good season. And? You want to just hang a gold star on him for the rest of his career? We’ve seen plenty of one year wonders in this franchise to know better than that….well…at least some of us have.
All 3 would be starting on most MLB teams this year.
You don`t know Orioles. You should stick with teams you know about.
Maybe Mullins based on the season he had, but remember, Mullins couldn’t even crack the roster ON THIS TEAM before.
You don’t know anything, maybe you should stick with something you do know about, like how to be a single cell organism.
Only reason I know/remember DJ Stewart, is because of me trying to rebuild the Orioles back in MLB The Show 19. And I remember DJ Stewart being a all-star player year after year.
Never played this. Looks interesting. I’m thinking a brave endeavor on your part trying to rebuild the O’s. Yes?
If DJ was an all-star, the game is suspect.
MLB the Show favors batters that have high OBP skills. Plate Vision and Discipline leads to higher batting averages, regardless of contact skill ratings.