The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve signed right-handed reliever Reed Garrett to a minor league contract. He’ll likely vie for a roster spot in big league camp this spring.
Garrett, 30, was with the Nationals organization in 2022, pitching 9 1/3 innings at the big league level and another 47 1/3 frames of Triple-A ball. He yielded an unsightly seven runs on 13 hits and eight walks during that brief Major League cup of coffee, but Garrett was quite good with the Nats’ Triple-A club, notching a 3.04 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 47.4% ground-ball rate.
Back in 2018, Garrett was the fifth pick in the Rule 5 Draft, going from the Rangers organization to the Tigers, where he’d make his MLB debut the following season. He tossed 15 1/3 frames with Detroit but struggled with his command and the long ball in that time, yielding 14 runs before being designated for assignment and returned to Texas.
Those brief looks in 2019 and 2022 are Garrett’s only big league experience to date, and they’ve resulted in a combined 7.66 ERA with more walks (21) than strikeouts (16) over the life of 24 2/3 innings. Obviously, those results don’t generate much cause for optimism, but Garrett has had success both in Triple-A (3.87 ERA in parts of three seasons) and during a two-year run with the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (3.46 ERA in 106 2/3 frames). Between that success and Garrett’s intriguing fastball (96 mph average with above-average spin), the O’s saw enough to give the righty a chance to pitch his way into their bullpen plans during the upcoming 2023 season.
Yawn. I guess this is all we have to look forward to until pitchers and catchers report (about 4 weeks)! That and Andrew Chafin signing.
No love for Wacha??
Really? at this.point, I was looking forward to Chris Illich selling the team……
I guess that’s the O’s weekly signing!
How is this guy going to pitch his way into the O’s bullpen? That thing is stacked with Bautista, Tate, Givens, Perez, Akin, probably Hall, and some combination of Voth, Baker, Watkins, etc. The Orioles had one of the top 5 bullpens in baseball last year and already added Givens to one of the sport’s stronger units. This guy has about as much chance of cracking the O’s pen as I do.
Somebody will fall off the wagon
He won’t. But you need minor league depth. Also look at how the O’s have turned some of these relievers around.
Not a bad place to go to try to save a career.
It’s a minor league contract, so we should not expect him to come north with the team. The encouraging part is his results in Japan. Maybe he adds a pitch or tweaks one and transforms into a reliable MLB reliever. That’s what the minors are all about for a 30 year old pitcher.
Knowing how the Orioles go, Reed Garrett will be the next Brian Baker. High spin-rates are all the rage in Camben Yards these days. Love it.
Is he the son of Leif Garrett?
Plus the rule 5 kid from Boston