The Orioles announced that right-hander Thaddeus Ward has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. There was no previous reporting that he had been removed from the 40-man roster, so this move drops their count to 37.
Ward, 28 in January, has never pitched for the Orioles. He was just claimed off waivers from the Nationals at the start of November but has now been bumped from his roster spot just over a month later.
Once upon a time, he was a notable prospect in the Red Sox’ system but he was left unprotected in the 2022 Rule 5 draft. The Nats grabbed him and kept him on the roster for the entire 2023 season. He didn’t pitch especially well, posting a 6.37 earned run average in his 26 relief appearances, but the Nationals likely didn’t care much. They were rebuilding that year and were presumably happy to obtain Ward’s full rights, even if it meant suffering through that subpar performance.
With his Rule 5 restrictions gone in 2024, the Nats were able to send him to the minors, but the numbers were again uninspiring. He made 28 Triple-A starts this year with a 5.64 ERA. His 19.3% strikeout rate and 17% walk rate were both a few ticks away from average. As mentioned, they put him on waivers, which is when Baltimore grabbed him.
The O’s are surely hoping to get Ward back to the form he showed prior to his Rule 5 selection. Way back in 2019, he threw 126 1/3 innings across 25 minor league starts, split between Single-A and High-A. He had a 2.14 ERA that year, striking out 29.9% of batters while giving out walks at a 10.9% clip. The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 and then Ward didn’t pitch much in 2021 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He was back on the mound in 2022 and able to toss 51 1/3 innings with a 2.28 ERA, mostly in Double-A.
That was enough for the Nats to take a shot on him but, as mentioned, the past two years with that club didn’t go especially well. The O’s clearly have some belief in him, as they’ve grabbed him off waivers and now bumped him into a non-roster depth role. If he can get back on track and earn his way back onto the roster, he still has two option years and exactly one year of service time.
Blockbuster move!
And MORE to come…..no less
Former RS. I guess no loss here, but people were pissed when he was left unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft. lol
Soxss – agreed! Some RS fans were mad loosing Ward, but the fact that he was already age 26, had hardly pitched above high A ball, and coming off TJ were all reasons he was not protected. Like you said….no loss.
Some fans were mad about loosing Drohar last year, but as good as he was in AA, he sucked in AAA. The White Sox returned Drohan and he is back in Worcester.
More people should be called “Thaddeus”.
And with a name like Thaddeus, one would expect him to be exiled or banished instead of outrighted.
They clearly did this so the Os can sign Soto, Burnes, and Fried. More to come…
No no. Only Burnes and Fried and then a Rule V pick – you know better.
Was he outrighted from 1876?
It took a few seconds but I get it, Thats funny. Not a bad name though. Better than Chaddeus.
Wasnt this the guy some red sox fans went nuts over bloom leaving exposed to the rule 5 a few years ago?
Sox fans are hysterical creatures, don’t take it seriously
Yup, along with the two other Hall of Famers-Darwinzon & Politi. They couldn’t believe anyone would be stupid enough to let them go.
The Orioles’ move to claim Thaddeus Ward and drop him a month later is a perfect example of poor roster management. Ward hasn’t shown anything impressive lately, and it’s hard to see how bouncing him around from team to team benefits anyone. It’s another gamble that seems to be going nowhere.
Edit: wrote this before I saw altoriolesfan’s post. Agreed!
How is that poor management? Orioles need bullpen pieces with options left. Part of the reason why they let go of Webb and Coloumbe. You can stash this guy in AAA and even if you roster him and call him up, he still has 2 option years left. There’s quite literally no downside from the team perspective unless I’m totally missing something. This is the same team that got guys like Austin Voth (also from Nats) and Spencer Watkins to perform well above expectations. Look what they did with Cano who the Twins just gave away..
1) Ward is terrible(but props for being named after that eleventh apostle!)
2) Oriole management is confident they can fix him.
It will be a nice challenge for Os pitching staff to see if they can polish him into a worthwhile bauble. I’m sceptical.
Nobody is expecting him to pitch at OPACY unless he drastically improves.
Sure. He’s AAA depth with no downside. The other 3 guys I mentioned were considered horrible at one point too. I could name more but I won’t
This will surely affect his inheritance Nyeh!
How is it poor roster management? He’s off the 40 man, but is at Norfolk with 2 options. They had no 40 man issues when they picked him. Sounds like perfect roster management.
Go back to the MLBTR article of him being claimed in the Rule V Draft 2 years ago. The crying by Red Sox “fans” was outrageous. Now, he’s not even on a 40-man roster, lol.
RS fans are divided into three groups: the very smart, the very casual, and the ones that simply criticize every move.
It’s the latter ones that make the most noise. They don’t need to k now anything about the player(s) involved to be critical.