The Orioles announced on Thursday that reliever Darwinzon Hernandez has cleared waivers. He’s been sent outright to Triple-A Norfolk and will stick in the organization without occupying a 40-man roster spot. The O’s have extended him a non-roster invitation to big league Spring Training.
Hernandez, 26, changed organizations for the first time last month after being designated for assignment by the Red Sox. The southpaw had spent his entire career with Boston since signing out of Venezuela a decade ago. The O’s swung a minor trade with their division rivals, bringing in Hernandez for cash considerations. His stay on their 40-man lasted just a couple weeks, as Baltimore DFA him a week ago upon acquiring Cole Irvin from Oakland.
The pair of transactions allow the O’s to stash a hard-throwing lefty reliever as a non-roster player in the upper minors. Hernandez has pitched in each of the last four MLB seasons, flashing tantalizing stuff but too often struggling to throw strikes. He posted a 3.38 ERA through 40 innings as recently as 2021 but was lit up for 17 runs in just 6 2/3 frames last season.
Overall, Hernandez now carries a 5.06 ERA across 85 1/3 MLB innings. He has an excellent 32.3% strikeout rate and has gotten swinging strikes on a quality 12.5% of his overall offerings. His combination of a mid-90s fastball and a mid-80s breaking pitch that garnered plus or better grades from prospect evaluators is clearly capable of missing bats at the highest level. Yet no other pitcher with 50+ innings over the past four seasons has walked batters more often than Hernandez, who has dished out free passes at a 17.7% clip.
Assuming he doesn’t reestablish himself on the MLB roster during Spring Training, Hernandez will head to Norfolk to start the year. He owns 5.29 ERA with a 30.8% strikeout percentage but an 18.8% walk rate in parts of three seasons at the top minor league level. He still has one option year remaining, so the O’s could bounce him between Baltimore and Norfolk if he reclaims a 40-man spot at any point. Hernandez would reach minor league free agency at the end of the season if he’s not a part of the 40-man roster.
The Orioles have Keegan Akin and Cionel Pérez as their top left-handed relievers. Nick Vespi is also on the 40-man roster, although his specific timeline is unclear after recent sports hernia surgery. Hard-throwing pitching prospect DL Hall might be best suited for a bullpen role given his own strike-throwing concerns, while Drew Rom and Bruce Zimmermann are candidates for depth roles in either the rotation or long relief.
You released this guy, instead of Ryan Brasier!!!
Oops wrong team. Red Sox fans and their constant outrage about the 38th thru 45th best players. Lol.
I resemble this remark. I hope he figures out how to throw strikes more consistently, wherever he’s pitching.
Come on Rsmith… lighten up on Brais.. he was just awful … DH was Brutal!!!!
‘lighten up on Brais’
Did you even understand my post?
R smith … probably not… I just like rooting for the Stanley’s/ El guopo”s/ leskanic”s and in this case the Brais”s of the world… oh Joe sambito”s and tony fossase”s from the left side…..
No clue what youre saying either. I guess we’re even.
RSmith (s/b in the HOF) was being sarcastic and making fun of the guys who work backwards. They hate Bloom, so they have to hate every move, so they all protested letting Darwinzon go.
So now that Darwinzon hasn’t been used on any of the 1,200 40-man slot selections, well, I think it is kind of funny.
No love for Tim Lollar? Heck, Lollar could DH for the current Sox.
Nice job milt!!! You get it.. darn tooting he was a great hitting pitcher… Steve Crawford???
Fair enough… R … no hating here just a fan of Brais( maybe only one ) but hey he’s better than Gagne in 07 …
Thanks Joe for explaining my logic … however warped it is…
Joe gets it.
I like Braiser too. It was sarcasm, as JoeB explained much better than I could.
Olmtiant – Agreed! Darwinzon has NEVER had control at any level MLB or minor leagues. His WHIP was high and bases on balls % even higher. The only mystery is why Boston advanced him to the MLB way before he proved he was ready…..only because they refused to sign decent bullpen pitchers in 2019, 2020, and 2021…..
He’s tough to hit and tough to watch. Good luck to him. He’s capable of being solid.
Orioles said it was just “natural selection”.
I enjoyed the evolution of this joke thread.
Stuff is maybe slightly above average but he has no consistency and no accuracy.
sounds like he’s playing himself out of existence…
O’s took four guys with either previous poor success throwing strikes or difficulty performing up past AAAA status and made them very solid and effective contributors last year. Perez, Bautista, Voth and Baker all blossomed under the O’s pitching coaches. There’s something good in the water throughout their entire system when it comes to a burgeoning effectiveness in identifying and developing big league pitchers. Let’s Go O’s!
Baked — I’m with you in regards to Orioles pitching coaches. They have profirmee some magic. Bautista and Perez were good examples of guys w/ stuff over control, and the O’s used/trained them well.
Just wish the same thing were true of Orioles pitching coaches and DL Hall…
Hopefully Darwinzon will be the former. He is another intriguing player for the Pitching Mechanic’s shop to work with.
*performed some magic
I could very much live with it if DL evolves into a high leverage lefty reliever. We got great results from Britton shortly after he was moved to the pen. He could be a tantalizing option as an opener, too. He had some electric innings as a reliever late last season and he’ll have plenty of room to grow into whatever his role is gonna be on this team moving forward.
I hope we use DL like Josh Hader in year 1& 2.
Multi-inning relief weapon. I’m fine with giving him another shot in the rotation because it’s really tough to give up on that ceiling but I believe ultimately that his best role is what I described.
Still an extremely valuable role.
baked — yeah, Britton is a good reference point. But DL is a bit different from Zach. Britton always had that obscene Sinker, but not too much else that was effective. DL, according to reports, has a much better assortment of plus pitches.
Maybe he’s a bullpen arm, and that could be fine, but it just seems like he’s hardly been given a chance to be a Starter, and the Orioles need all the upside arms they can grab. DL has a pretty high ceiling as a starter…I’d like to see that pursued with vigor.
He’ll be Great in the pen, no doubt, but as a Starter he could be a #1/#2 type. I dream…
Control is the great separator though.
He’s been in Elias’ organization for a long time and the control hasn’t materialized. Has to be a concern for him sticking as a starter
BStrowman — Of course his control issues are a BIG problem (I think I saw his BB/9 rate in Minors is DOUBLE the highest Qualifying MLB rate!!?!?!).
I get folks thinking of Hader or Britton as a reference point. For me, I see Luzardo; a power lefty, with an array of plus pitches…lacking control. It’s the assortment, to me, that’s the separator. Britton and Hader only had 1 top graded pitch.
It’s way to early to put DL in the pen, he should be given the 2 years in the rotation of figure it out.
The Pen is the floor for DL (and a high floor at that), but his ceiling is Sky high…IF he cuts the BB’s.
One thing is for sure, if DL and Grayson start hovering up towards their ceilings this season and continue developing in seasons to come, look out AL East.
Orioles win, Red Sox lose. Meanwhile, Brasier and Ort still have jobs.
Orioles win,
================
They paid for a guy that no one else wanted. Adding depth is always good, but hardly a win.
Paid minimum value for a guy who has potentially great stuff. Yes there’s control issues but still… paying a minimum is not going to hurt them, especially when they stash him in the Minors.
Honestly, you sound a bit bitter.
Disappointed is all. I thought he was going to become a great closer. It was obviously a small sample size, but he had a 50/21 K/W in only 27.1 IPs.
I’m not sold high on him either, I just question Bloom’s choice for players he DFA’s. There was something here, and I think worse players were DFA’d.
Pre-arb DFA.
He’s good depth but doesn’t belong on a 40 man unless he can develop control. Bloom had to know he’d lose him but what can you do at this point? We’ll see if the O’s can figure it out.
Hernandez is intriguing but he has no past track record of throwing strikes.The guys we improved last year at one or multiple point did throw strikes.
Hernandez has never found that. Probably why he just passed through waivers. Intriguing if you can get it right—but I have a feeling that we’ll be lucky to even get a tanner Scott here.
I feel bad for the kid he’s got talent. He just doesn’t know how to use it. Best of luck to him wherever he goes.
This man walks way too many batters to be a major leaguer. He has potential but needs to learn command. I would wish him luck but he’s still in the division lol so I will refrain from that.