The Orioles announced a number of roster moves just before today’s series opener against the Yankees. Third baseman Jordan Westburg and catcher Gary Sánchez have each landed on the 10-day injured list. Westburg’s placement, which is retroactive to April 27, is due to a left hamstring strain. Sánchez is battling right wrist inflammation. The O’s selected third baseman Emmanuel Rivera and catcher Maverick Handley onto the MLB roster in their places. Baltimore also confirmed the Walter Pennington waiver claim which MLBTR had reported this afternoon. They needed to create two openings on the 40-man roster, which they did by transferring Grayson Rodriguez and Colton Cowser to the 60-day injured list.
It continues a frustrating start to the season for Westburg. He made the All-Star game behind a .264/.312/.481 showing a season ago. He’s been out to a much slower pace this year, posting a .217/.265/.391 slash through 23 games. Westburg has hit four homers, but a drop in his hard contact rates have contributed to a mediocre .242 average on balls in play. He had a stretch of seven consecutive hitless games during the middle of the month. He’d begun to turn things around, with hits in six of his last seven, before hamstring discomfort kept him out of Sunday’s lineup.
Ramón Urías has drawn into the lineup at the hot corner over the past few days. He’ll take over as the starting third baseman while Westburg is on the shelf. Urías is a good depth infielder. He won a Gold Glove a few seasons ago and has shown himself to be a slightly above-average hitter over parts of six seasons. He has raced out to a .317/.386/.400 start this year, drawing eight walks against 11 punchouts over 70 trips to the plate.
Rivera comes up to join Jorge Mateo as multi-positional infielders on Brandon Hyde’s bench. It’s his first major league call of the season. Baltimore had outrighted the defensive specialist off their 40-man roster during the offseason. He accepted a minor league assignment and has appeared in 17 games with Triple-A Norfolk. Rivera is batting .308/.370/.338 with plus contact skills but minimal power (two doubles and no homers) across 73 plate appearances.
A veteran of parts of four MLB seasons, Rivera has suited up for four teams at the highest level. That includes a productive 27-game stint with the Orioles late last year. His overall offensive track record is fairly modest, as he owns a career .244/.306/.369 batting line. He has above-average marks for his third base defense. He’s out of options, so the Orioles would need to DFA him again if they want to take him off the big league roster at any point.
Baltimore also makes a change behind the plate. Sánchez has worked as Adley Rutschman’s backup after signing an $8.5MM free agent deal. He has started 10 games — nine at catcher and once as the designated hitter — without making an impact. Sánchez has three hits, all singles, with one walk and 12 strikeouts across 35 plate appearances. His injury opens the door for Handley’s major league debut.
A Stanford product, Handley was selected in the sixth round of the 2019 draft. The righty-hitting catcher owns a .224/.342/.344 line over parts of six minor league seasons. Handley’s offensive upside is limited by middling power, but he’s a very patient hitter who has worked a lot of walks. He went unselected in last winter’s Rule 5 draft but has been hitting well in Norfolk to begin the season. Handley owns a .346/.433/.558 slash through 15 games. His broader minor league numbers suggest he’s unlikely to carry anything like that over against MLB pitching, but he should provide a reasonably high-floor backup behind Rutschman as long as Sánchez is out of action.
The IL transfers for Rodriguez and Cowser are essentially procedural moves. They backdate to the time of their initial IL placements in late March. Rodriguez opened the season on the shelf with elbow inflammation and was shut back down after sustaining a mild lat strain. He’s still a few weeks from throwing and probably down into June or July. Cowser broke his left thumb diving into first base during the first week of the season. That came with an initial 6-8 week timetable. There haven’t been any recent updates on his status, but the O’s determined he wouldn’t be ready for MLB action before the final few days of May at the earliest.
Surprising they didn’t call up Mayo.
Mayo has been inconsistent at Norfolk plus has 5 errors last I checked. Also they are paying Rivera a guaranteed $1MM salary so that may play into it.
Somewhat surprised myself, even though he isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire in Norfolk and hasnt produced in his cup of coffee in the majors. The O’s offense has been pretty terrible outside a bright spot or two. Realistically the guy doesn’t carry too much trade value either so eventually you have to give him a chance. Would’ve thought it would be when there was another position player injury but what do I know?
No it’s not. He is just starting to heat up a bit, but they are not calling him up for an injury – you call him up to stay. This is exactly what Rivera is there for.
They’re holding Mayo
Perhaps they felt that he could produce better at the minor league level and didn’t want to take the risk of exposing him in an effort to maximize his value for a possible trade? He was absolutely brutal and completely taken advantage of by the breaking ball in his brief stint in the show, especially late last season. He wasn’t likely to get as many ABs as he will in the minors. Obviously pure speculation on my point, but a possible explanation.
They consulted with Special Advisor Samuel and he informed them that Mayo sucks. “Did you see how bad he was in his brief trial last year? He can’t play third base.. Not fundamentally sound. I hate prospects.”
Mayo will get traded before he ever plays for the big club again. Not calling him up is a “cut off the nose to spite face” type action. They club is poorly run and going cheap on SP has already derailed their season. There is no coming back from 10 -17
The Orioles season has gone about as badly as possibly so far. This past offseason was the time to open up the checkbook and make a big trade or two. What they did simply wasn’t enough to take them to the next level. They easily could have traded for guys like Crochet or Luzardo, easily could have signed a couple top tier free agents, and so on. Instead they replaced Corbin Burnes with Charlie Morton, and didn’t do much else. I’d be quite unhappy if I was an Orioles fan right now.
Who did you want the Orioles to sign?
Should’ve signed burnes or if not him then someone like Flaherty
Or could’ve traded for a starter like Castillo or luzardo
yeah, the Mariners were eager to trade him esp when they started to take on injuries to their starting rotation. boy did the O’s miss out when the M’s traded Castillo.
Wait, he wasn’t traded?
Wait, Burnes didn’t accept Baltimore’s higher AAV offer to sign near his family and new twins?
Huh. I was huge fan of getting Luzardo and I do wish that the O’s could have him. But even that wasnt a slam dunk trade with his injuries last season. he has done well so that’s a miss but the other two above really aren’t worth wishing over, that’s rotisserie baseball and not reality.
Not Rotisserie League
I mean they could’ve gotten Castillo if they were willing to not be cheap
I forgot about burnes wanting to play in Arizona no matter what even then they should’ve used the potential money on something
An easy signing for not much money could have been Quintana.
Congrats Maverick! Hyped he’s getting a chance.
He deserves it. He just keeps working. Hope he takes advantage of the opportunity
There should be a Goose Goslin joke in there somewhere.
Does Maverick have a “loose cannon” for an arm?
Mayo hasn’t been playing well enough at Norfolk this season to be starting at 3B over Urias, and it’s better for his development to play every day at Norfolk than to be a bench player with the Orioles. Rivera is better suited for the bench and occasional 3B starts. And Basallo wasn’t about to be brought up just to be Adley’s backup.
All true but Baltimore should have traded Mountcastle before the season and O’Hearn by this trade deadline. If their front office doesn’t want to spend, they need to get talent back for expiring contracts like Tampa and Cleveland.
They don’t need to trade o’hearn yet since basallo (the lefty future 1st baseman) won’t be ready until 2026
But mountcastle is about to become expendable with mayo coming
Maybe even westburg too with Holliday behind
What are you even talking about “maybe even Westburg too with Holliday behind”
Westburg is 3B and Holliday is 2B. Gunnar is SS. None of the three are getting traded, they are all part of the core. Injuries aside, they all have their primary position entrenched but have the positional flexibility to move around to accommodate injuries, days off etc.
Trading Westburg because of Holliday makes absolutely no sense, neither one is blocking the other, I am not sure what gives you that idea.
I mean mayo since he will probably be at 3rd with basallo at 1st in 2026
Westburg is not getting traded over Mayo. Mayo will not take Westburg out of the equation, if anything it’s the other way around. Mayo will not be in the organization much longer, I think he gets moved this year.
i understand Mayo’s stock has slipped since he can’t handle 3B as well, which makes him a primary 1B. When they sent him down in ST and didn’t trade him, I said there was nowhere for his stock to go but down. He’s hitting .247 in AAA at the moment (up from a really slow start) so right now he’s not forcing their hand.
Until they can sign big boy contracts elsewhere, Westburg, Holliday, and Henderson have 3B, 2B, and SS. Westburg can also play 3B. Holliday can also play SS. It would be nice if they would start hitting! (Holliday is better this year).
They also have Urias on the cheap who can play all 3, primarily 3B, and he can hit at or above MLB average especially when he has steady playing time. “On the cheap” = Orioles keeping him.
Then it comes down to who they can get more in Mountcastle versus Mayo, and honestly how much they cost. Mayo will be cheap in pre-arb while Mountcastle will get expensive, which tips the scale toward Mayo even if Mountcastle is more productive. Mountcastle is streaky but extra cold now, so the Orioles are fervently hoping he turns it around before July. Honestly, they should have traded Mountcastle after the 2023 season, he had a market then.
The 1B/DH mix includes Basallo (soon), Rutschman when not catching, O’Neill when not in RF, Mountcastle/Mayo. Kjerstad I thought would be RF/DH but he needs to turn it around – O’Neill playing poorly means he will take his player option and force Kjerstad to DH/4th OF.
Unless the team does a 180 in the next 8 weeks, O’Hearn and Mullins are playing their way onto new teams come July. Cowser will then take over in CF. They’ll go with O’Neill, Cowser, Kjerstad, and Laureano (Carlson back to AAA). If Dylan Beavers keeps hitting, deserves a look in the 2nd half of the year. Bradfield, in AA now, should be up in 2026. But unless O’Neill starts looking like what they expect, that’s a huge ugly roadblock to either of them so they’ll dump Laureano (that’s ok) or push aside Kjerstad. Cowser’s stuck until big boy contract.
O’s better turn it around soon… season catches up quick and the division is unforgiving.
Hyde should’ve been canned at the end of last season.
Hyde is definitely not the problem.
Where is Hyde adding value? No one’s been able to answer that. Tonight he nearly added another L by leaving Soto out there for too many batters.
His awful in game managing last year cost them the division. He took a talented roster, and wasted it.
How do the O’s not call up Mayo with Westburg going on the IL? Emmanuel Rivera will really help the sputtering offense
Even if he’s not lighting Triple A up, give him a shot
Instead of yanking him up and down, I’m glad that the O’s are going to let let Mayo find his way in Norfolk first. I think his cup of coffee last year was bitter. I’d like to see his confidence up before we throw him in the fire when he’s even struggling in AAA.
$1MM is chump change in the MLB. I think Baltimore paid Tony Kemp $1MM for like 5 games of good vet locker room vibes last year.
The O’s injuries are just insane – it’s like the Rays a couple of years ago. There’s nothing you can do but wait it out and hope they have a shot when guys come back but that seems unlikely.
You can’t blame Hyde for this start, but this stretch has really highlighted his weaknesses. His in game decision making is just so weak but the last two years talent repeatedly bailed him out. He just can’t think 2 moves ahead and it’s as if he decides before the game starts what moves he’ll make regardless of game situations.
He also seems so uptight I think it impacts the team. Maybe the blessing of this disastrous start will be a fresh look in the dugout
Okay get this logic: my name is Mike Elias and I don’t draft pitchers with my high picks. I am also loathe to sign free agent pitchers to long term contracts (the Burnes offer notwithstanding, but could it have been offered knowing he was going to reject it?) On top of those two key points, for the most part I like to sit on my (plethora of) hitting prospects and won’t trade them for pitching. Okay so given those three proclivities, something has to give if you want to have any semblance of a competent pitching staff. So what’s next Mike? You’ve boxed yourself into a corner due to your ironclad stubbornness in regard to acquiring pitching talent.
Well said. Especially Starting pitching talent. Miami always seems to produce pitchers. How did Elias trade for the worst Marlins SP? Marlins still have SPs. Elias should pay up for Max Meyer.
Miami will be trading Alcantara, not Meyer.
Meyer has 5 years of control remaining, there is zero chance Miami trades him, let alone shops him right now. Maybe in 3 years, but absolutely not happening this season or next.
This explains the O’s Top 10 SP ERA last year and hitting collapse this year…how?
Y’all act like you know something Elias doesn’t and hasn’t tried to address. Cringe af.
Sorengo – they consistently try to patch it up and it worked last year mostly because of Burnes. They should know by now they can’t rely on Grayson or Bradish to be healthy. They need to either take a Royals approach and sign a couple of mid-tier guys as anchors like they did with Lugo and Wacha or trade for and extend young talent. This time the patch job looks really bad.
Elias has proven he is a scout and not a GM.
He should have paid better attention in 2017 when the 101 win Astros traded for Justin Verlander and traded for Gerrit Cole. Yes, traded some prospects for two TOR guys. His boss did not make snarky jokes at the winter meetings about moving the wall in because he signed injury prone O’Neill (because he was losing Santander) and wasted money on Sanchez (because he was losing McCann).
Pitchers changed teams via free agency or trade, good ones, but not to the Orioles. Elias only outsmarted himself, and this is why they are in this predicament. I can only assume Sugano’s interpreter has gone rogue (like the one in Mr. Baseball) ignoring whatever the Orioles are telling him and its to his benefit.
The other issue is the young core seems to be regressing and nothing’s being done. Only Holliday (who had the biggest improvement to make) is better than last year. Rutschman is finally taking some walks which is really the only glimmer. Otherwise, I see no signs. Hyde is still there, he’s not being taken to task for questionable bullpen deployment. Guys like Perez keep getting put out there as if nothing’s wrong, Morton as if his ERA was 1.39 instead of 10.39, Mateo and Sanchez still have spots hitting .100. 11-17 seems to be perfectly fine with those in charge. Its like its 2008 again.
Who would you suggest replaces Morton in the rotation right this moment? What options do they have in the minors that would be an upgrade and not simply throwing stuff at the wall and hoping it sticks? Gibson is starting tonight, first start of the season, not that he’s a major upgrade, but more experienced than anyone at the lower levels and knows how to handle the major leagues, including failure. You bring a kid up who isn’t ready just because you want change and he gets rocked and then regresses and confidence is screwed – no thanks. There are pitchers coming back from injury who should act as reinforcements. Plus the deadline acquisition possibility, which hopefully happens. You could attempt to make a deal now but the likelihood of that is extremely slim, especially for an impact starter. Teams are going to hold out to maximize their value prior to trading. They know they will have more teams vying for their players and thus increasing the type of return. The best thing right now is to keep the players we have right now healthy. May is a much easier schedule than April. I believe they play just one series against a team with a winning record. They also lined up vs multiple front line starters in April while simultaneously slumping offensively. While it looks bleak now, in reality it definitely is not over. Teams have gone into the all star break with losing records and still made a push and made the playoffs. I believe Texas had a losing record at the break when they won the WS.
F@n21-The Orioles themselves in the 70s and 80s annually started slowly and made a furious run in August and September either into contention or to take over a close race. That flipped; they became known as fast starters who faded in most good years.
For May?
-3 vs. Royals, already 1-2 vs KC who’s a .500 team
-6 vs. Twins, bad team with poor hitting and good pitching, this would be a good team for both sides of the Orioles to turn it around on
-3 vs Angels, fairly similar to the Twins
-3 vs. Nats, bad too, but O’s went 1-2
-3 at Brewers, close to .500, not as good as last yr, solid pitching
-4 at Boston, already beaten the Orioles, offense has broken out. They will be trouble
-3 vs Cardinals, should be better than they are at 12-17 but not world beaters
-3 vs White Sox, they’re terrible. Inexcusable not to take at least 2 out of 3 from them.
If they’re going to get any momentum, winning at minimum 7 or 8 in that Twins/Angels/Nats 12-game stretch and looking good doing it is desperately needed. Something like 9-3 or 10-2 with something like Kremer and Povich putting together multiple good outings and the offense gaining confidence with several 7, 8, 9+ run games with Henderson, Rutschman, Kjerstad leading the way would be showing the team has a chance at salvaging something.
Well the Gibson era has started wonderfully – 4 HR and a triple on the first 15 pitches of the game! Yikes.
Gray-Rod to the 60 Day.
Sugano
Povich
Gibson
Kremer
Young
yikes!