The Orioles announced four roster moves prior to today’s game with the Diamondbacks. Newly-claimed reliever Jorge Lopez has been officially activated, and right-hander Austin Voth was designated for assignment to create room for Lopez on the 40-man roster. Baltimore also optioned Colton Cowser to Triple-A, as outfielder Aaron Hicks was activated from the 10-day injured list.
Voth has a 5.19 ERA over 34 2/3 relief innings this season, with a middling 21.3% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. His season was interrupted by a stint on the 60-day injured list, as elbow discomfort sidelined Voth from the middle of June to less than two weeks ago. In two appearances since his activation, Voth tossed two scoreless innings against the Rockies on August 27 but was then tagged for three runs over 1 2/3 frames against the White Sox on August 30.
Between the injury and the inflated ERA, it has been a tough season overall for Voth, who seemed to have turned a corner after the Orioles picked him up from the Nationals on a waiver claim in June 2022. Voth had been inconsistent at best over five seasons as a starter and reliever in Washington, but then delivered a 3.04 ERA over 83 innings for the O’s last season, starting 17 of 22 games.
It is possible a pitching-needy team might put in a claim on Voth, as experienced arms are harder to come by at this point in the season, even if Voth’s 2023 numbers haven’t been up to par. If he clears waivers, he could reject an outright assignment and elect free agency since he has over three years of service time. But since he has less than five years of service, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary in order to exercise that right. The O’s signed Voth to an arbitration-avoiding $1.85MM salary for 2023 and the deal contains a $2.45MM club option for 2024 that looks likely to be declined. If Voth isn’t in the Orioles’ plans for 2024 anyway, Baltimore might choose to release him if he clears waivers, though keeping Voth as extra depth at Triple-A is also a logical move for a team in pennant contention.
Hicks return after missing a little more than two weeks due to a lower back strain. Speaking of career revivals in Baltimore, Hicks has hit .261/.355/.440 in 155 plate appearances since signing with the O’s in late May — a big improvement over the underwhelming numbers Hicks posted in his final three seasons with the Yankees. Unfortunately, the injury bug has followed Hicks to his new team, as he has played in just one game since July 24 due to both his back problem and an earlier hamstring injury that also necessitated an IL trip.
Hicks will step back into the Orioles’ outfield/DH mix, and Cowser will head back to Triple-A to await his next taste of the majors. One of the Orioles’ top prospects and the fifth overall pick of the 2021 draft, Cowser has been crushing minor league pitching but has only a .433 OPS over his first 77 PA at the MLB level.
I doubt Jorge Lopez sticks around very long either. He had one very good half season last year and about 5 years playing clubhouse tag with his 6 plus ERA.
He is 23 years old, too early to call him a bust.
Let’s take turns judging Little Stevie as a 23 year old.
Orioles fans, wait until you see Hicks strikeout or roll his wrists and ground out with RISP during the postseason. You’ll understand why the Yankees cut him.
BC
Name me a player who hasn’t K’d or grounded put with RISP in the post season
Such garbage taeks.
Sounds like a Yankee fan looking for vindication over another bad move by the club lol
Yeah, because Hicks has been MVP-caliber with Baltimore
BC is such a knowledgeable baseball fan that they think useful players never strike out 0r ground out in the playoffs and only MVP caliber players are worth rostering
Very knowledgeable opinions
/s
The issue with Hicks is he does is repeatedly. I’ll come back to this comment section after the playoffs and see who was right. I might be wrong, but if I am, it will be because Hicks is on the DL, which he often is.
BC
Hicks regular season K% 21.6
Hicks playoff J% 21.9
Danm. You’re right. He’s been atrocious in the playoffs.
He never needed to be MVP-caliber, he just needed to be a decent ballplayer, which he absolutely has been in Baltimore. Do you think all non-MVP type players suck?
Also, the fact that you’re waiting to make a statement about a small sample size in the playoffs and think that’s the prime indicator of how his season has gone is hilarious.
ma2:
“Do you think all non-MVP type players suck?”
That is the logical conclusion based on a literal reading 9f BC’s comments.
Another logical conclusion is that BC is the victim of brain rot caused by sports taek culture.
Typical ridiculous stat. Hicks is a .216 career postseason hitter. He sucks even worse in the playoffs than the regular season. He singlehandedly cost the Yankees the American League pennant in 2017 because of his atrocious performance in the ALCS. Look it up.
That was exactly my point, that he’s going to stink in the playoffs. Sorry you’re not capable of understanding simple statements.
My MVP-caliber statement was a direct response to someone who implied that Hicks turned into Aaron Judge once he left the Yankees. I never said anything about non-MVP players sucking, you made that up thinking it was clever.
BC:
K% over a small sample of a few dozen PA is a much more telling statistic than batting average. :Facepalm:
No player ever singlehandedly wins or loses a single game let alone an entire series
What a ridiculously ignorant thought.
BC:
Who implied that?
It was a very dumb thing you think
And it seems you were the only one to think it.
There’s no reason to think that he’ll stink in the playoffs. There’s all the reason in the world to think he’ll perform in the playoffs similarly to his regular season performance.
No one implied he was MVP-level in these comments. That’s just your own silly interpretation, likely creating the need to rip Hicks as as a defense mechanism since the Yankees are so awful this season. Btw, Yankees had like 8 dudes with atrocious performances in the 2017 ALCS, smart guy.
Who cares if he strikeouts and rolls his wrists a lot from here on out, Orioles more than got their monies worth from Aaron when he up showed huge during Mullins first stint on the DL.
Dodgers claim Austin Voth challenge
@Stevie
Overreaction or sarcasm?
That line of thinking would have led us to trade both Adley and Gunnar too when they were adjusting to major league pitching.
MacG:
Come on! Cowser has almost 100 PAs in the majors. Total bust!
@filihok
So irritating when fans clamor to bring up rookies because “they have nothing left to prove in AAA, let them work it out in the Bigs” and what they demand is that the pie eyed player come up and instantly be an All Star.
De La Cruz and Corbin Carroll are exceptions to the rule, not the norm. Just like boo hoo’ing when the O’s lose a single game and don’t finish with 162 wins. Unreasonable.
Let’s just win series and have a steady stream of major league players from a productive game system. Let the kids play and make adjustments. If the coaching staff senses that they’ve reached the ceiling for a player,I think maybe they are better equipped with facts to figure out when to make a trade. But 77 ABs likely isn’t the best sample size.
Julio Rodriguez 1st 60 AB — .200/.273/.267
Mike Trout 1st 61 AB — .230/.284/.426
Aaron Judge 1st 62 AB — .177/.257/.355
I think these guys turned out okay and their first 60+ ABs were pretty flat. Declaring any player a bust after 61 MLB ABs is just stupid. Step away from your keyboard, please.
@misterb71
Shhhh… don’t help him. He’s going to claim that none of those 3 below replacement players have a championship ring.
lol
If you think Cowser is a bust, I have some ocean front property in Nebraska I would like to sell you
I think it will be oceanfront property on the Rocky Islands by the time we stop climate change.
Help, I’m melting. Aaaaaaaaah.
Not a bust, although he does whiff a bit more than one’s comfort zone would allow.
Air Jordan Hicks postseason BA is .216
Error in Judgement postseason BA is .211
I’m guessing BaseballClassic1985 won’t acknowledge this stat comparison.
The O’S getting some solid players back, don’t forget, Hicks was hitting pretty well before the injury.
LOL … he’s 23 years old and has only played a handful of games. Gotta give players a chance, not everybody is going to explode the their 1st 20 games