The Orioles announced their Opening Day roster today, noting that right-handers Roansy Contreras and Matt Bowman are no longer on the 40-man. Contreras has been designated for assignment. Bowman has already cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A.
Both pitchers are out of options. That meant they needed to stick on the active roster or else be removed from the 40-man entirely. In both cases, they didn’t make the Opening Day squad and have subsequently lost their 40-man spots.
Bowman, 34 in May, signed a minor league deal with the O’s in the winter. They selected his contract a few days ago, perhaps to stop him from triggering an opt-out in his contract. They’ve now quickly run him through waivers. He has at least three years of service time but less than five. That means he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, but in so doing would forfeit the money still owed to him on his contract.
It’s not known how much Bowman is owed but is seems he preferred to stick with his current deal, as opposed to looking for a new one. He’ll provide the O’s with some non-roster depth. In 216 career innings, he has a 4.17 earned run average, 19% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 54.6% ground ball rate.
Contreras, 25, has been bouncing around the league for a long time. That’s due to some enticing numbers and his out-of-options status. Dating back to May of last year, he has gone from the Pirates to the Angels, Rangers, Reds, Orioles, Yankees and then Orioles again via small trades or waiver claims. He has a 4.72 ERA, 19.7% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 39.3% ground ball rate in his 234 2/3 career innings.
He has less than three years of service time and doesn’t have a previous career outright, which means he would not have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers. The O’s will have a maximum of one week of DFA limbo time to figure out what’s next for Contreras. The waiver process can take 48 hours, so any trade talks would need to develop in the next five days.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
The master Baker must have incriminating photos of someone important in the organization, I hope he gets shelled and is gone soon! Is Hyde that dense? Did he not witness 3 consecutive HR in spring training???
we’ll see. Jake Fox’s career didn’t exactly take off after that historic Spring Training.
No, he just has absolutely fantastic raw stuff and 4 years of team control left, so he would 100% get claimed by a rebuilding team if put on waivers. It’s a perfectly reasonable choice to carry him as the last guy in the pen and give him one final shot before cutting bait with Kittredge and Grayson injured to start the year.
Also, actively rooting against a guy on your own team is VERY classy, but I would expect no less from a guy who has a meltdown every time the Orioles sign a depth guy to a minor league deal.
If they took into consideration for one bad outing they would have a hard time fielding a team.
Arnold- Ol’ Coop isn’t exactly the savviest baseball fan in the world lol.
I hear he has photos of ownership and farm animals.
Did they not just select Bowman’s contract?
He had an opt out Sunday. If he wasn’t added to the 40 man roster he could have asked for his release. My guess is the Orioles told him he would be added to the roster but they would try to sneak him through waivers. Since he is out of options any team claiming him would have to put him on their active roster. So they did him a favor by adding him to the roster and then putting him on waivers. If they had released him he would have had to settle for a minor league contract. This gave him a chance to be on an MLB active roster. Unfortunately for him nobody claimed him. Worked out for the Orioles since he stays in the organization and is available especially if Baker struggles which is likely
Bowman was just selected, no?
The league has not treated Roansy Contreras kindly of late.
May 11: DFAed by Pirates
Oct 29: DFAed by Angels
Dec 12: DFAed by Rangers
Jan 06: DFAed by Reds
Jan 16: DFAed by Orioles
Feb 05: DFAed by Yankees
Mar 27: DFAed by Orioles
Didn’t the Orioles just add Bowman to their 40-man?
Seems like an innings eater. At 25, I guess there’s still some potential there but no major loss.
congratulations @coop.
you went from someone with a differing opinion to someone that deserved a mute.
come’on. grow up.