The Cubs have traded infielder Luis Vazquez, whom they designated for assignment earlier in the week, to the Orioles in exchange for cash, the teams announced. Baltimore has designated fellow infielder Emmanuel Rivera for assignment to create space on the 40-man roster.
The 25-year-old Vazquez made his big league debut with the Cubs in 2024, though he only appeared in 11 games and went 1-for-12 in a small sample of 14 plate appearances. He hit .263/.347/.432 in Triple-A, about four percent better than average, by measure of wRC+. That marked his second season with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Iowa. He’s posted slightly better-than-average offense in both seasons there while walking at an 11.6% clip against a 22.5% strikeout rate. In 543 plate appearances in Des Moines, he’s popped 17 homers and gone 7-for-12 in stolen base attempts.
Primarily a shortstop, Vazquez ranked 16th among Cubs farmhands at Baseball America just one year ago. BA touted him as the best defensive infielder in the Cubs’ minor league ranks while praising some offensive strides he began to display after years of light hitting in the lower minors. Vazquez has multiple minor league option years remaining and gives the O’s a utility option who can back up at multiple positions or simply be stashed in Norfolk as a depth piece.
Rivera, 28, joined the O’s as an August waiver claim from the Marlins. He logged 73 plate appearances down the stretch with Baltimore and torched opponents with a .313/.370/.578 batting line and four homers. That type of production was largely out of line with Rivera’s career .244/.306/.369 output, however. He’s long been viewed as a glove-first third baseman with modest power and plodding speed. Defensive metrics soured on his glovework at the hot corner in 2024’s 611 innings, but he has above-average marks in overall in 2005 career innings.
Even with that torrid hot streak following his waiver claim, Rivera looked like a non-tender candidate entering the winter. The O’s instead opted to tender him a contract and sign him to a $1MM salary. That salary could now help him pass through waivers if the O’s don’t find a trade partner in the next five days. Rivera is out of options, so any team that acquires or claims him would need to be willing to carry him on the Opening Day roster or else try to pass him through waivers themselves. If Rivera goes unclaimed, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would mean forfeiting any guaranteed salary; he’d likely accept the assignment and stick with the O’s while hoping for a call to the majors at some point early in the season.
Luis Arraez jump scare
Not the orioles news we want
In the form of…
SP from Toronto you think?
I doubt either of those things happen and that’s okay. The team is plenty solid enough already to get to the trade deadline in playoff position and make further upgrades for the playoffs then if it is still needed.
with our rotation will WILL need upgrades
It’s certainly possible, and it wouldn’t shock me at all, but I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion, especially with Bradish and Wells on track for second half returns.
King from San Diego??? Curious what it would cost…
Grayson Rodriguez is entering his second year, at age 25, with all of 200ish inning’s.
It’s not crazy to think he’ll take step forward like Bradish did, and become TOR like.
Every other Orioles prospect gets tons of attention while the Grayson slips peoples minds often. He was the #1 pitching prospect when Adley was the top position prospect.
Grayson gets Cy Young votes this year.
Oh I absolutely think he’s on his way. Was just wondering about another arm in front of him for one more year…
Bradish can be a top tier SP. Wells is…hard to figure out.
Red — Oh think Bradish IS a top of rotation guy. Once he learned/threw his 2seamer/sinker he went off. It’s brutal that just when he had 3 months of being TOR he gets injured.
Well said about Wells.
I’d rather have Rivera but it’s really unlikely either guy would see much time in Baltimore unless we get a freakish amount of injuries again this year.
Maybe he clears waivers, but his scorching finish to 2024 might convince somebody to take a look at him for a bench role.
Hey Vasquez you ever get mistaken for a man?
Just watched that again the other day.
What a classic, they don’t ’em like that anymore.
“Excuse me sir, what sort of chicken sh@t outfit is this anyway?!”
RIP Bill Paxton. Gone way too soon.
{{The Directors Cut…there’s like 45 minutes of Cut film, it’s insane; Newt’s parents; auto-turret sentry guns massacre. James Cameron at his finest of blowing budgets and making massive films…before he was ‘allowed’ to do those things, lol}}
For sure. Never realized how much the Ripley’s daughter cut subplot would have elevated the film as it shines new light on why she’s so protective of Newt. It works without it, but it would have really enriched the storytelling. Tough cut. But alas, Newt dies unceremoniously 5 mins later so whatever.
Sneaky move by the Oriole Braintrust
Nothing sneaky about more crappy “depth”
Cubs adding more cash for Ricketts.
I just hope we break even.
More dumpster diving!
It’s just a depth move, bro. Relax.
Every team makes tons of them every offseason because even minor league teams need bench players.
Young talent, I’m not mad at it but we already have a boatload of position players, many of whom will likely slot in front of him. As the article mentions, a depth signing but we really need impact players on the pitching side.
I believe they need to get involved with Alonso and if he can be had on a short term deal at a decent rate, they should be in on it and make an offer. MLB Network said that the Mets might be at 3 years/70 million. Orioles should be all over that and then trade Mountcastle and others for pitching – impact pitching/young controllable pitching – if they can sign Alonso. He would be the type of legitimate RH power bat the team needs.
Why lock up Alonso for 3 years @ $20m+ a year when we have Basallo and Mayo to give at bats to between 1B and DH and they cost a whole hell of a lot less? Seems to be a poor way to utilize our resources.
Even if we stay with Mountcastle at 1B, putting Alonso in his place is not an addition or subtraction. They each had 2.6 WAR last year. I understand that Alonso has the name attached and the pedigree but spending millions more so that we can say “We got Pete Alonso” means absolutely nothing.
I have zero interest in Alonso because he’s just not very good anymore and will also cost us a draft pick.
And he’s flat out miserable defensively
Yup, and overall, he’s been basically equal offensively to Ryan O’Hearn over the last 2 years.
I just don’t get all of the Orioles fans I see pining for him. Is it the name value? Because that’s the only clear “upgrade” I see there.
There’s not even anywhere for him to play unless they trade Mounty.
He’s still a top ten first baseman
Alonso is a miscast DH in obvious decline and he’s not even a clear upgrade over what the Orioles already have on the roster. He’s a massive downgrade defensively from Mountcastle and basically equal to O’Hearn offensively.
I honestly can’t think of a single reason why the Orioles should surrender a draft pick and guarantee him $20+ million a season for several years when we already have Mountcastle and O’Hearn, who make less combined than the AAV he will get, plus Mayo and Basallo waiting in the wings.
Unless the O’s get hit with pitching woes again late/winter early spring, I don’t think they need much help in the rotation to kick their season off right. Of course, I’d like to see them make a trade with SD or MN for a stud TOR arm, but both the rotation and bullpen are solid as currently constructed. Grayson is the key, because he has the pedigree to be the breakout stud they’ve been envisioning.
Luis Vázquez went 1-for-12 in the majors last year, which is also roughly my batting average when trying to guess which Orioles infielders will actually stick around for more than a few months.
I thought you were going to say “which is roughly the batting average for the Orioles in the playoffs last year.”
Brutal, but accurate.
I can’t decide which is more exciting, this or them dropping 3.55M on a guy who can’t hit and shouldn’t be more than the occasional relief for a guy who might need a day off.
I have seen you complain many times about the Orioles not spending and now you’re complaining about them spending $3.5 million on a very solid bench piece with elite speed and baserunning ability who hits lefties well and can back up both middle infield positions and CF?
Would you have preferred they non-tendered Mateo and just handed his bench spot to an unproven waiver claim making the league minimum instead?
You willcontinue to see me complain about the strategy of wasting lesser amounts of money on multiple players who don’t add much value versus spending it instead on a TOR guy who does. When you already have a couple candidates fighting for the 4/5 spot in the rotation, you haven’t added much value adding 2 more. When you have a UIF in Urias who hits much better than Mateo and a glut of OF already, don’t need Mateo.
I don’t call career ~.680 OPS “hitting lefties well.” We’ve seen the act for a few seasons now-hits ok for a few weeks, nothing the rest of the year, finishes with .267 obp so all that elite speed goes back and sits on the bench.
3.55M is a steal all right, Mateo is stealing it.
I have harped on guys like Mateo…and Ryan Flaherty, and David Lough, and Richie Martin and Cole Irvin before and get the same response about the hustle and the utility and the hidden value, that I don’t understand baseball and get criticized. They get all this face time with the Orioles and the other 29 teams see so much value from them that once the Orioles finally have enough of them sucking, they play very little or no additional MLB time. Irvin was so highly desired he passed thru waivers in the middle of crunch time.
We’ve seen Mateo’s best. His ceiling would kneecap most people. I would have non-tendered.
Other ones I thought were bad choices
Cesar Izturis
Manny Alexander
Juan Bell
All lauded for speed, hustle, things you can’t actually see.
None produced.
Urias cannot play SS or CF and he does not have elite speed or elite base stealing ability. Also, Mateo’s OPS against lefties was .799 last year and .746 in 2023, so yeah, he does hit lefties well now. He’s a very solid bench piece overall and a great guy to have around to protect Holliday from tougher lefties as he gets his feet under him in MLB.
Also, not a single one of the other names you randomly posted are remotely relevant to this discussion, so I am not really sure why you wasted your time typing them.
Also, you CAN see, and even scientifically measure, speed, and Mateo’s speed is in the 99th percentile of all MLB players, which is…
*checks notes*
Not too shabby.
Urias played a chunk of games at SS in 2021, roughly league average defense. No, he has not played CF, but Cowser can, Mountcastle and O’Hearn can play RF if need be.
The Orioles have plenty of interchangeable parts around the diamond without Mateo. At least 2 if not 3 guys who can hit can play each position.
Mateo’s 99th percentile speed does him absolutely no good in exactly 73.3% of his plate appearances. Not worth 3.5M.
I looked at this last fall, maybe 2 teams at .500 or above could have used Mateo with a significant amount of playing time, because their SS position was a black hole (think 2008 Orioles, with 4 guys who couldn’t hit or field splitting time) or he was a plus versus whatever warm body played there in 2020 after their last “this guy can run and he can field” (but can’t hit) failure – that was Richie Martin – that’s why relevant – where Mateo was an improvement by default. Because Manny Alexander and Juan Bell were also marketed that exact same way by Orioles brass, that’s why mentioned.
Hearing so much about the offense, don’t waste a spot with Mateo. If they are not going to go and get the pitching they need to give them space to breathe on offense, then they need to max out the offense.
1) There is a reason Urias has played 8 total games (only 4 starts) at SS in the last 3 years (and not even a single inning there since the start of 2023) and that is because he isn’t good enough to play SS anymore. Mateo, OTOH, is a very good defensive SS.
2) Suggesting that Ryan Mountcastle and his 1st percentile arm strength can play RF made me laugh out loud, so thanks I guess?
3) Mateo has been worth more than $35 million dollars during his 3 years and change with the Orioles, so $3.5 million is a perfectly reasonable price for his services in 2025.
4) Manny Alexander and Juan Bell still aren’t remotely relevant to this discussion. You might as well be bringing up Tim Tebow because he’s about as relevant as they are here.
1. Mateo is a bit above average at SS. He is not Mark Belanger. He is merely above average and not incredibly so. He also hits even worse than I remember Belanger’s last 2 years after he gives you a couple weeks of competence.
2. Santander played in RF all year last year. They put Sammy Sosa out there, Jay Gibbons, etc. You don’t need Nick Markakis out there. While Mountcastle would not be a defensive preference, if he is hitting and having him in RF is the only option then you put him there. He will generate more runs than he costs, just like having someone who can hit replacing Mateo results in more net runs (you’ve heard my Cesar Izturis argument many times)
3. He has? I’m glad you’re not in charge of my money. If they non-tendered Mateo he’d get picked up but odds are no more than a backup or the AAAA player pretty much the rest of the league would place him.
4. Yes they are relevant. If you remember, the very same logic was used to justify having both of them on the team. Both could run and the team was drooling over the defense (young and cheap helped too, but not as much of a factor back then). The Orioles have overvalued these types of players time and time again. They were going to displace Ripken off SS at the time because Alexander’s defense was THAT GOOD. Whie that eventually happened, it was like 4 games and not because Alexander earned it, I think that was Davey Johnson proving a point. Then Juan Bell, same thing, so fast and a hustle guy who played good defense (contrasting against the HOF they traded away for him). Yeah, they tried to make him play 2B because Ripken wasn’t going to be moving for years. Neither ended up being able to hit. Just like Mateo can’t. And neither had much of any PT after they left the Orioles because honestly they weren’t MLB caliber hitters.
And Tim Tebow at least won a playoff game.
1) I said he was “very good,” not “literally one of the greatest of all time.”
2) We already tried Mountcastle in the old, tiny OPACY LF and he was absolutely awful out there. I would probably be a better defensive RF than Ryan Mountcastle and I haven’t played baseball in over 20 years.
3) Yes, he has. Even more if you go by rWAR instead of fWAR.
4) They still aren’t relevant and they never were, because they were absolutely horrendous at playing baseball, whereas Mateo is actually pretty good at playing baseball. He was worth more in half a season as a part-time player last year than both of them were for their entire careers combined.
3.55 mil is a steal for a guy with Mateo’s upside. If this kid puts it all together or even begins to scrape his ceiling, look out. We’ve all seen him to kick it into gear for a few months at a time with some months where he wasn’t very good. But if he’s evolving and stays healthy, he can be a huge catalyst.
Mateo is already valuable, even if he doesn’t get any better.
$3.5 million for him is money well spent.
I don’t think Mateo’s getting any better at this point. He’s very useful at his price point. Thornton has a weird hate for the guy. He fits well.
Assuming his 2025 performance is in line with his 2023 and 2024 seasons, I would happily exercise Mateo’s 2026 team option for $5.5 million. With his ability to play both middle infield positions at a high level and hit lefties well, and Gunnar and Jackson both being left handed hitters, he’s a perfect compliment for them, and he’s an elite baserunner with elite speed, so there’s your elite pinch runner for late in tight games too.
If the Tigers had an open 40 man roster spot, I could see them claiming Rivera until Bregman stuff gets figured out, and then DFA him if they signed Bregman. But with no spot open, doubt they would want to cut someone else loose prematurely.
He costs 1 mil. taking on extra money just to cut him seems odd.
Always forgoing the pursuit of a top of the rotation starter for the waiver wire. There’s a reason why these teams cut these guys.
Rivas will sign with Pittsburgh we need MORE2nd basement LOL
It’s just an opinion on potential options out there. It’s fun to think about and he definitely has the legitimate RH power we need. Mayo is not ready and has clearly shown he can’t hit the breaking ball at the major league level yet. Basallo will catch primarily I believe.
What sites, if any, are out there that would allow a user to create a roster and simulate a season just for fun?
HOW CAN YOU JUST DROP PLAYERS AND GET NEW ONES LIKE THIS?!? THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN!
Hot Damn ! World Series!!!