The Orioles announced this morning that infielder Emmanuel Rivera cleared waivers, was assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk, and has accepted the assignment. As a player with more than three years of service, Rivera could’ve rejected the assignment to become a free agent. The O’s also confirmed their signing of righty Dylan Coleman, who’d announced the agreement himself on Instagram over the weekend. It’s a minor league pact with an invitation to spring training.
Rivera, 28, signed a one-year, $1MM contract to avoid arbitration earlier in the offseason. He landed with the Orioles on an August waiver claim out of the Marlins system and immediately caught fire. In 73 plate appearances down the stretch with the O’s, Rivera raked at a .313/.370/.578 clip and popped four home runs.
That massive output dwarfs a more modest track record in the big leagues. Rivera is a career .244/.306/.369 hitter in 1042 major league plate appearances. He’s a solid defender at the hot corner but has below-average plate discipline and (per Statcast) sprint speed that clocks into the 33rd percentile of big leaguers.
Now that he’s gone unclaimed, Rivera will head to camp as a non-roster invitee with Baltimore and try to work his way back into the 40-man roster mix. The O’s have an extremely crowded infield, with Jordan Westburg, Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Urias and (once healthy) Jorge Mateo all in the mix. Top prospect Coby Mayo would probably get the first look if a regular role opened up following an unfortunate injury at the corners, but Rivera can nonetheless provide some depth at the hot corner and join a group of infield NRIs that also includes Terrin Vavra, Vimael Machin, Luis Vazquez and Livan Soto.
Good job, Mike. A million dollars down the drain.
$1 mil for a 28 year old with 1000+ PAs as an emergency depth option is perfectly fine
Given they seem to already have 137 options in AAA, I’m inclined to lean toward this being a waste this time.
Do you really cry about every single depth move or is this just a schtick?
cooperhill complains and cries about everything, I’m not surprised. I don’t even think cooperhill has a schtick, he’s just that depressing from his previous comments.
If it isn’t a schtick, then he clearly has no idea who is even on the roster right now, because Terrin Vavra (for just one example) has about as much of a shot of breaking camp on the MLB roster as I do.
Stupid move,no way he was going to make the team, down the !
“…you don’t know ball”. You disagree, I get it, but why be a jerk? Why try to insult the person, who you don’t even know? I don’t understand this type of mentality…we’re all baseball fans, maybe just politely disagree, explain why, and move on. No need for nasty.
Just a reminder that the major league minimum is 760k. A million dollars in baseball isn’t a million in the real world.
Hallelujah. Emmanuel.
The most ironic title is Emanuelle in Bangkok.
Best Beard in MLB
Sorry, that title is still held by free agent leprechaun Justin Turner.
Short, fat!
@Tom B
I prefer Mambo #5 with Jessica or Erica by my side!
Sweet, Mike’s million dollar gamble paid off.