11:48am: The Orioles have officially announced the return of both Eflin and Mayo, and have placed Urias on the 10-day IL with a right ankle sprain. Additionally, the club selected the contract of catcher David Banuelos from Triple-A and designated outfielder Forrest Wall for assignment to make room for him on the 40-man roster. Banuelos has spent most of the season at Triple-A after being outrighted to the minors back in April, while Wall was claimed off waivers from the Marlins just a few days ago but will now return to the waiver wire.
7:38am: Rosters expand from 26 to 28 today, meaning every team in baseball will get to call up an additional pitcher and an additional hitter as they begin play today. There’s little mystery about who those players will be for the Orioles, as manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Brandon Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun) that right-hander Zach Eflin will be activated from the 15-day Injured List to start today’s game against the Rockies this afternoon. Earlier in the day, Weyrich reported that top infield prospect Coby Mayo was poised to join the club as their additional hitter when rosters expanded today.
It will be the second taste of big league action for Mayo, 22. The youngster got his feet wet in the majors earlier this month with a brief cup of coffee that lasted only seven games and 20 at-bats, and he hit just .059 without an extra-base hit in that brief stint at the big league level before being optioned back to the minors. His sensational .293/.369/.574 slash line at the Triple-A level this season has left him with nothing more to prove in the minor leagues, however, so Mayo now figures to get a more extended opportunity to prove himself in the big leagues as fellow rookie Jackson Holliday has. Holliday struggled badly in his first ten games in the majors back in April but has looked better since returning to the majors the day after the trade deadline with a .218/.275/.426 slash line that’s good for a roughly league average 98 wRC+.
As for Eflin, the veteran right-hander came over to Baltimore in a trade with the Rays prior to the deadline. After posting strong enough numbers last year to finish sixth in the AL Cy Young award race, the right-hander took a step back with Tampa last year, posting a pedestrian 4.09 ERA in 19 starts despite a solid 3.68 FIP. Things changed when Eflin got to Baltimore, however, and in four starts after the swap the righty looked nothing short of excellent with a 2.13 ERA and a 24.5% strikeout rate in 25 2/3 innings of work. Eflin has been sidelined in recent weeks by a bout of shoulder inflammation, but it seems now he’s healthy enough to return to action. The Orioles are surely counting on the righty to help keep afloat a beleaguered rotation that also lost Grayson Rodriguez to the injured list in the month of August.
While Mayo and Eflin were both expected to be the club’s extra players following roster expansion, it’s possible after last night’s game that two more spots on the roster could open up today as both right-hander Dean Kremer and infielder Ramon Urias exited due to injuries yesterday. Kremer was struck by a comebacker in the fourth inning yesterday and exited with a right forearm contusion, with Manny Randhawa of MLB.com among those to relay the news that Kremer’s initial x-rays came back negative. As noted by Danielle Allentuck of the Baltimore Banner, both he and Urias, who who suffered a sprained ankle after also narrowly avoiding injury when struck in the face by a pitch earlier in the game, figure to be evaluated further today to see if either player will require a stint on the injured list.
The planned returns of Eflin and Mayo to the roster coincidentally figure to cover for the losses of Kremer in the rotation and Urias at third base in the short term, but if either player requires a stint on the injured list the team will likely need to deep into its depth in order to fill out the roster. Deadline addition Trevor Rogers is on the 40-man roster and could return to the rotation is Kremer misses time, though he was optioned after posting a disastrous 7.11 ERA in his first four starts as an Oriole. On the positional side, meanwhile, non-roster veterans like J.D. Davis or Jean Segura could provide infield depth for the club if Urias ends up going on the shelf.
Eflin comes back, Kremer goes down, and thus the Orioles IL rotation remains quite strong (Bradish, G-Rod, Means, Wells, and now Kremer) with a solid IL back of the bullpen behind them- Bautista, Coulombe, and Webb.
We also will now have a full IL IF- Westburg, Mateo, Urias, and Mountcastle, and a potential everyday COF/DH in Kjerstad.
And I am probably forgetting someone. This year sucks lol.
If you want to include McDermott you can. He is done for the year, too! He only made 1 start in the bigs this year but some say he’s our top pitching prospect in the organization.
Out of all the major league teams, Baltimore has been the most hammered by injuries, it seems to me. Some people will argue the Dodgers, but both teams have been able to overcome regardless. Not sure if having the excuse of “too many injuries” can even be used anymore because obviously teams like these two teams have done it. (Caveat: assuming they both make it into the playoffs.)
The Braves have also gotten hit pretty bad, I believe.
That’s a big one I forgot, sorry Braves fans. Rooting for you to still make it into the playoffs, that would be awesome with all the setbacks.
Mayo’s worst case scenario is observing and learning while the O’s chase postseason success. Best case scenario is he contributes in a big way for them.
Hey Deeds a simple calculation in your head will tell you that it is impossible to have an .059 batting average in 20 at bats. He only had 17 at bats….not 20.
Yeah, it should be 20 PAs. Good catch.
Nobody’s perfect. Deeds isn’t nearly as bad with the careless errors as TC Zencka was.
Jean segura just seeing him mentioned makes me laugh
The injuries are killing this team
The bats going cold haven’t helped. Adley has been awful for 2+ months now. Even his defense is poor of late. I think he’s hurt and trying to be a gamer and play through it.
Gunnar and OHearn are feeling the pressure. You can outwardly see their frustration after their at bats. The team misses – and needs – their clutch hits and power.
Injuries haven’t helped of course, but the position players who are healthy have massively underperformed.
Starting to think the Orioles young core and prospects are highly overrated.
Based on what exactly?
Adley was AL ROY runner-up 2 years ago, Gunnar was last year’s AL ROY, Cowser is likely this year’s AL ROY, Westburg was a 2024 All Star, and Kjerstad had a 130 OPS+ before getting beaned in the head and going on the IL with a concussion.
Most teams would kill for a collection of high-end young talent like that, so what am I missing?
Adley has regressed and isn’t the star you make him out to be. Gunnar is coming back to earth. The Orioles themselves don’t like Kjeserstad and don’t play him. The Orioles traded Norby and Stowers for garbage. There have been tons of rookie of the year winners that have had absolutely no careers afterwords so let’s not just use that award. The Orioles prospects were considered as superstars and that doesn’t seem to be the case except for Gunnar( and he’s still becoming less superstar). Maybe they develop and get better but with your spas-mastic GM I doubt it.
Mets6986, comically wrong as usual lol.
Good counterpoint. Your knowledge has no bounds. You can retype my screen name.
If you had posted anything worth responding to, I would have done so.
“The Orioles themselves don’t like Kjeserstad”
lol, lmao
King – Mets fans like him are so jaded and broken due to their own teams decades long misfortunes that they can’t help but try to take it out by trolling other teams burgeoning successes.
Great post sn33, but far too much effort expended on Mets6986 lol.
I genuinely burst out laughing when I got to “The Orioles themselves don’t like Kjeserstad” part btw. Not only was the statement itself hilariously wrong, but he also managed to completely butcher Kjerstad’s name despite the fact it was *right there* in the post he was replying to. Just PEAK clueless.
@skinsfan- Missing the playoffs by a mile when you had the highest payroll in MLB history by a mile must be VERY traumatizing (and embarrassing).
You did respond Einstein.
I used to be like that, but I generally just go right into troll-the-troll mode now. I value my time and energy far too much to treat unserious people seriously these days.
That Adley excuse is made up garbage. Every player has dings. That an excuse. If he was hurt he wouldn’t be playing. The Orioles don’t like Kerjsted. They cal him up and sit him. He plays once every four days and then trade for a crap player to replace him. He is not his boy. He is 26 years old and hasn’t been given a real chance to play. Norby still got traded for junk. He wasn’t valued at all. You all have excuses. I have a village idiot reputation? You all let your team intentionally lose and know your GM makes stupid moves and you praise him like a god. I think you all are the village idiots. You all have excuses for everything but everyone else is stupid.
Bro, we already know that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
Like, are you actively trying to embarrass yourself? If so, you’re doing a heck of a job right now.
Not as bad as intentionally being the worst team in baseball for five years on purpose. You should be proud.
Still probably better than spending like $100 million more on payroll than any other team in MLB history and not even coming close to making the playoffs.
Like, how is that even possible lol?
No winning 40-50 games a year for 5 Years is a joke. How is that possible? The Mets had significant injuries is how that was possible and then traded everyone way. At least they weren’t losers that didn’t even try. How do you respect yourself to stay being a fan of a team that’s not even trying? Enjoy your high 80 to low 90 win seasons until it’s time to intentionally lose again. Meanwhile I’m sure most of the players you’re going on about will eventually play for one of the New York teams.
Wait, I thought injuries weren’t an excuse for playing poorly? 😉
And no, setting the all time record for opening day payroll by well over $100 million and then coming in 4th in your own division is basically the single most embarrassing thing that has ever happened in all of MLB history.
The Orioles currently have an entire starting rotation, an entire infield, and an entire back of the bullpen on the IL, but still have one of the best records in MLB on September 1st, and that is with 1/4 of the payroll that the Mets had last year. Must be pretty humiliating lol.
It at all. Most of your injuries your claiming were well before the season. I would bet the Mets win a World Series before the Orioles do. Would you make that same bet? You do realize every team has injuries and not just the Orioles? The Orioles were supposed to be set up better than anyone else with their deep farm system to replace injuries. The farm system has not lived out to that hype. That was the point too the orginal post. Thanks for making the point for the original poster.
“Most of your injuries your claiming were well before the season.”
The injuries to Bradish, G-Rod, Wells, Means, Westburg, Mateo, Mountcastle, Coulombe, Webb, Kjerstad, and now Kremer and Urias all occurred in-season. Only Bautista was done for the year before the season started.
Any other clueless takes for us or are you finally ready to take the L and move on?
Mets guy. Where r you getting “5 years being worst team in baseball?”
2018 yes, but under old regime that was actually trying to be competitive,
2019 agreed,
2020 no (in division Red Sox were worse), 2021 agreed,
2022 winning record,
2023 – 101 wins,
2024 – 20 +/- over 500
He’s getting it from the exact same place he gets pretty much all of his takes, Jeff:
His arse.
So you are using a covid shortened season to counter the argument. Ok it was 4 horrific seasons of intentional losing. One season of intentionally losing is unacceptable. It is against what the whole point is sports is about.
You defending intentionally losing shows more bout you all than me. Take some pride in yourselves and have some respect.
Oh look, Mets6986 claiming the moron crown once again. Does it hurt to be THAT stupid?
Means hasn’t been healthy in a couple of years. If you were counting on him then it’s on you. Kjerstad is a minor leaguer that barely played. He was sent to the minors before he went on the IL. Kremer isn’t good. If you list every reliever on the Il every team has about a dozen. Senga is better then every pitcher you put up there and we lost him for the year but you don’t here Mets fans using that as an excuse. You take the L. Your farm system was overrated and let you down. You have a bad GM that makes spurratic bad moves after a couple bad games. Your team embarrassed the sport by losing to get players and now don’t know how to handle being a contender.
Look there keyboard warrior is back.
Wow.
That’s a lot of cope.
3 years of bottom dwelling not 4. The old regime was actually trying to win in 2018. The new managing owner (John Angelos) didn’t take control of team employing this tear down strategy direction until 2019. And yes, 2020 counts. 50 plus games played. You make it sound like it was some kind of college playoff double elimination tournament.
Lol this clown chooses Kremer and Means as his ammunition about the farm being a disappointment. Talks on and on about Kjerstad then says “he’s just a minor leaguer.” What a moron.
They spent on free agents and tried to win the division in 2018, but failed. They were not the worst team in 2020. Winning record in 2022. Comically wrong as usual from the village idiot.
Oh, so injuries make a difference when it’s the Mets failures but “it’s made up garbage” when it comes to Adley’s back injury. Great insight, cretin.
That’s okay, I suspect the Os will FINALLY understand that they need pitching and trade for Crochet in the offseason. If so – Mayo and/or Kjerstad, and probably Povich will be on the Sox but the Os will actually have a shot at winning something. If not – they can continue to ‘have the top farm system’ and flame out in the postseason because they have terrible starting pitching.
The O’s have a full pitching staff on the IL, moron
Feisty Swanson is back, love it. They have some solid starters on the IL, for sure, but help me fill in the 2025 Os opening day rotation (and btw – you know that having pitchers on the injured list isn’t a GOOD thing, right? It could mean they are injury prone, like Means who’s thrown 51 innings over the last 3+ years)
They lose Burnes
Bradish and Means won’t be available until either late in 25, or not at all.
Rodriguez is injured now and presumably back, so let’s pencil him in. Help me beyond that. Oh yeah – you loved the Rogers trade, so you’ll probably put him as number 2? Then Suarez, Kremer, Povich mess that you are dealing with now? Silly silly Swanson wants a great farm system and isn’t really interested in winning World Series, but we already knew that.
Listen – you know I’m yanking your chain a bit and I’ll back off. My point is that I just don’t understand why Os fans are so adamant about keeping their prospects when they have an incredible lineup already, and a questionable rotation (with injuries). If I was an Os fan (sadly, I’m a Sox fan so yeah, my baseball life blows) I would be anxious to trade from a strength to improve a weakness, so I get a bit frustrated with the Elias is God and never question him mentality that few on here seem to have.
G-Rod, Eflin, Kremer, Rogers, Suarez, Irvin, Povich, McDermott, and Brandon Young are all in-house candidates for the 2025 rotation mix.
At least 1 significant addition via trade or FA will definitely be necessary though.
Thats just not equal to their lineup and/or world series calibre. Add Crochet and it is.
I agree that a significant outside addition is necessary, but I would personally prefer to go the FA route, which actually seems to be open now with the new ownership. Getting Crochet would obviously be awesome, but I’m not sure we have the ammo to spare at the moment with our high draft picks from the tanking years all having graduated (more or less) and our newfound international presence only just now starting to bubble up into the higher minors.
Then again, considering the return for Fedde, maybe still-faraway guys like Stiven Martinez and Thomas Sosa would be of more interest to Getz than guys already in their 20s in AA and AAA.
The O’s offense is a big question mark, actually. The starting five next year should be at minimum G-Rod, Eflin, Kremer, Rogers or Povich, Suarez or Wells. Then add an FA, and get post-ASB bump from Bradish.
Bautista will be back which revitalizes the pen.
But the offense has to find some consistency or it won’t matter anyways.
Come on, the Os have scored 707 runs, behind only the dbacks and yankees, and that’s with Adley having a bit of a down year, Holliday adjusting in and Westburg hurt. Losong Santander will hurt, but the offense is way ahead of the starting staff.
They MUST add probably 2 starters to feel good, with at least one of those being a top end guy to slot behind Grayson.
Don’t worry Floch, Elias just has to ask Getz nicely and he won’t have to give up much. Fleecing the Sox right now isn’t that difficult.
I didn’t necessarily mean that in a derogatory sense, BH, just that he seemed to be targeting younger guys with high upside rather than almost finished products, and Martinez and Sosa are a couple of guys who fit that bill in the Orioles system.
That said, yeah, you guys did seem to get kind of hosed on the Fedde deal. It seemed like one more significant piece should have gone back to CWS but was missing for some reason.
Yeah, i don’t think Pham was much of a piece, but there is no way they should have bundled Kopech in with Fedde considering some of the huge value relievers were getting.
Thanks for proving you have not paid any attention. The O’s offense has been limping along since late June. No power from either 1B, no RISP numbers from Cowser, Henderson mired in several slumps, Rutschman in a long slump, no Westburg, Holliday still isn’t hitting regularly but he’s getting there, and then virtually no production from any bench player. The hottest hitters on the team in August were Mullins & Urias. And now Urias is out.
I was at the game today. As usual, big-ol’ 0fer with RISP. Same story every series.
Swanson, you are incredibly short-sighted if you think the powerful Os lineup going through a bit of a rough patch means the “Os offense is a big question mark.” Pencil in their lineup for next year, then look at the list of 7 potential starters that Floch outlined above and tell me which you’d rather have. 100 of 100 would take the field players. Even Floch admitted there’s a need for 1 addition.
It’s good to have interactions with people like that, even if i don’t agree and theink they should sell from the farm. You just yell MORON!!! to anyone who doesnt agree. Come on my friend, i know you can settle down and interact 😉
2+ months isn’t just a rough patch. Again, you show the limits of your awareness.
Lol, and you show the limits of yours. I am a White Sox fan, so OF COURSE you have watched more. If you think the Orioles “dynasty window” that you Os fans have been talking about is 2 months, then you’re right… Offense is a huge concern. I’m done.
Who you’re a fan of doesn’t matter. The Orioles offense was a monster for the first 2.5 months of the season. But it has collapsed – it began collapsing before the ASB and it is still nothing more than limping along. .500 team since the end of June. 16th in the league with RISP. The Runs per game metric is skewed and does not reflect the regular trend like they’re doing since… the final game of the ChiSox series, among many other examples. One run on 9/4, then two runs on 9/6, one run yesterday, no runs today… even against the ChiSox, only 5 of the 9 runs on 9/3 were earned. O’s left 10 on base. And 16 LOB on 9/2!
I am guessing you are late teens/ early 20s, which would explain why you have replied 20 times yet haven’t yet understood the longer term vision /point. I get that you are frustrated with the 2nd half offense, but you would be wrong.
The Os record sonce the all star break is 24-25, but they have score 239 runs during that time, so almost 5 runs per game. Only 5 teams have scored more, and the 2nd highest in the league has scored 243 runs, or 4 more TOTAL runs in ~50 games. Conversely, they have allowed 235 runs during that time, or 8th MOST. The Astros and Tigers have only allowed 166 runs, to show you how bad th Os pitching has been.
Just concede bro, you have no data to back your gut.
Dude – look at RISP. Last year, 1st in the league. This year, 16th. It’s pathetic. Their offense sucks. 1-for-22 RISP in the Rays series. Are you really stupid enough to look at run totals? The O’s have a habit of piling on runs twice a month which BRUTALLY overrates their offense. They are not a good offense. It’s fact. They came down to earth in June and have sucked ever since. In games where they hit 1 or fewer homers, they are WAY below .500. It’s boom or bust.
Lol of course the clown runs from the discourse. Two hot months don’t make up for almost three months of suck.
Hard to be overrated when your team is fighting for first place in the toughest, most competitive division in baseball. They are a strong team.
In order for the orioles to get a good pitcher for 2025 after they lose burnes theyll have to trade mayo or at least they should if they want a front line starter
Or they could just sign somebody.
The costs weren’t high the Orioles were just morons.
Stupid comment by Mets6986 again. What a loser.
So Stowers was a good player when he was with the Orioles and now he’s trash? Norby definitely had a place too play as evidence as your none production at second and the injury that immediately happened after the trade. You traded him away for garbage and defend it like it was a brilliant move and the only thing you can say is insults and name calling. You all obviously can’t defend your arguments with anything intelligent and revert to childish behavior.
Do you need attention? You are the one that keeps arguing. Grow up and stop being a POS. Sorry if you think the Orioles are a cult and only Orioles fans can talk about the Orioles. Sorry you got butt hurt.
Lol look how many comments you’ve made vs how many I’ve made. Watching you flail is hilarious in a really pathetic way
You aren’t even in the conversation moron.
Then so were 20 other teams, considering that no premier SPs got dealt at the deadline. Other than Paul Blackburn, of course. LMFAO at the village idiot.
Such a sellers market? That is a myth. No top tier prospects were traded at the deadline this year or all last offseason.
Teams aren’t going to trade guys like Crochet/Skubal/Snell, etc for lackluster returns.
Pay $ or with prospects.
So you think a seller has to cave to best of bad returns as a loophole for your O’s not wanting to pay market value for a quality SP? Nice try-it’s not a teenage fantasy league. Efflin n Rogers is what you get when blocking anyone of importance.
Also, you can’t call trades within a season on speculative seller side. O’s are a WC who could easily lose right away n Burnes signs with highest bidder (which BTW is blessing for O’s yet they need to replace him with a good one other than Bradish in-house).
The 2017 Astros punted the 2016 season when they were in the thick of the wild card. On top of that, Astros corrected their deadline mistake in 2017 to land Verlander. If not for those two decisions the Astros would not be contending today. 2016 was a brilliant decision.
As for Baltimore they are trying to run the same playbook, in a way. Unfortunately they will need to throw some money at an ace, be it Burnes or someone else. They do not have one in-waiting. Bullpen also needs addition. Once things shake out this offseason we will find out what the window will be; 6-7 years or just 4.
Every year is a seller’s market now that there are 12 playoff teams and 20+ teams competing for those spots.
@King
Maybe @froggy should “start to think” about those points.
Judge didn’t break into the bigs until Soto’s current age. By Froggy’s “thinking”, Judge is overrated too.
Baseball is a sport where success is barely ever linear. Especially now with the gap that exists between AAA and MLB. It’s not surprising to see prospects, even top ones, come up and struggle immensely at first.
I really would like to hear his reasoning, but I strongly suspect that he will not provide it.
Hold the Mayo, he’s the secret sauce if the Os want to catsup to Yankee
Mayo will be spreading hits all over the field. It’s going to be Hell,man
Mayo will be a .220 hitter with 200 k a season and a crappy on base %
Stupid thing to say about a 22-yr old with strong contact skills.
All summer long it’s been Effin’ pitching. Might as well go w Elfin pitching
I find it hard to believe that Kremer won’t land on the IL. That contusion looked like something out of a cartoon.
Probably will put him on the IL when they return home. Norfolk is in Jacksonville so it didn’t make sense to fly a pitcher out to Denver and then have him fly back to Baltimore after 1 day. And there was no urgency to replace Kremer since he wouldn’t be available today anyway even if he hadn’t taken a line drive off his arm. Banuelos was on the taxi squad so he was already in Denver. Surprised about Wall but how likely is it he gets claimed? Wouldn’t be eligible for the postseason. If he clears waivers and stays in the Orioles organization he would be eligible as an injury replacement. Not likely ( J D Davis and Juan Segura would be more likely) but it is possible
Yeah, his forearm blew up like Popeye. A very pleasant surprise to hear that the x-ray was negative. I’m no doctor, but I wonder what can cause that much swelling that quickly.
Broken blood vessels from being hit by a 103 mph baseball. What do you think caused the inflammation?
I see they signed Adrian Houser to a minor-league deal last night. He can eat some innings if Kramer is out, at least until Grayson returns. And would be postseason eligible if they get desperate.
Orioles FO thought they needed extra Mayo.
I mean, we basically have an entire starting infield on the IL right now, so yeah, give me some of that Mayo please.
Rays got a rare look at a healthy Eflin, and hopefully, the O’s don’t get the perpetually injured version Phillies came to know.
“Meanwhile” needs to start the sentence. As a conjunctive adverb, it can’t come in the middle between commas.
Right. Though it could follow a semicolon.
Yes it could! That’s essentially just as if you’re starting a new sentence.
It certainly can, as this post demonstrates. Whether it should is a different discussion.