TODAY: Bowman accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A after clearing waivers, the Orioles announced.
MAY 8: The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Matt Bowman for assignment and recalled fellow righty Colin Selby from Triple-A Norfolk. Selby will give the O’s a fresh arm for today’s series finale in Minnesota, which is set to begin at 12:10pm CT. Selby was already on what was a full 40-man roster, so Baltimore now has a vacancy after designating Bowman.
Bowman, 33, pitched in each of the past two games against the Twins and now finds himself on the outs in Baltimore as the O’s look to get some reinforcements for a beleaguered pitching staff. Bowman actually came to the O’s last summer after opting out of a minor league deal with Minnesota. The Orioles eventually passed him through waivers but re-signed him on a new minor league deal after he opted for free agency.
Baltimore selected Bowman to the major league roster late in spring training. He’s been a heavily used arm for manager Brandon Hyde, appearing in 16 of the Orioles’ 35 games (46%). The journeyman right-hander posted a sparkling 1.98 ERA through his first dozen appearances but has hit a rough patch of late, surrendering seven runs across his past four outings. Overall, Bowman carries a 5.19 earned run average with a sub-par 15.2% strikeout rate but a terrific 3.8% walk rate.
Bowman pitched for four teams in 2024, including both the Twins and Orioles. He’s now suited up for seven teams across parts of seven major league seasons. In 233 1/3 frames at the MLB level, he’s produced a 4.24 ERA, 18.7% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. Bowman doesn’t miss many bats and has never thrown hard — his 91.3 mph average on his sinker in 2025 is an exact match for his career mark — but he’s consistently proven capable of avoiding hard contact. Opponents have mustered a putrid 86.3 mph average exit velocity against Bowman in his career and posted similarly bleak barrel and hard-hit rates of 5.1% and 29.6%, respectively.
Because he’s out of minor league options, Bowman couldn’t simply be optioned to Norfolk to bring up a fresh arm. The O’s will have five days to find a trade partner for him before they have to place him on outright or release waivers (which is another 48-hour process). He could be waived at any point prior to that, of course, but his DFA will be resolved within a maximum of one week.
More inconsequential Os news
Their core of hyped position player prospects isn’t coming through…..and no one is biting on Kjerstad or cocky K machine Coby Mayo being guys sellers want even if the club were to rebound. Elias declared them all untouchable in deals for good players like they were all his kids.
“Their core of hyped position player prospects isn’t coming through”
Cowser and Westburg have both been on the IL for a couple of weeks now, and Gunnar missed basically all of spring training and the first week of the season with an intercostal strain, and has only really gotten going in the last few weeks or so (but is now white hot). Adley is underperforming right now, but his solid underlying metrics suggest that there’s probably been some bad luck involved there and he’s actually been much better than his surface level stats indicate. Kjerstad has certainly been bad so far this year, but Holliday has been very good and increasingly looks like the real deal.
Point is, the performance of the Orioles’ young position player core is not the main reason we are 14-23 right now, it’s mostly been due to injuries and woefully underperforming vets like Morton, Kremer, and Mountcastle.
I agree with most of what you said except Krener – one bad start and one so so otherwise he’s been solid and better each time out. After Sugano he’s been their best starter.
People can call out the young guys and all that but no team could survive this number of injuries to key regulars and pitchers
Kremer was awful in 4 of his first 6 starts, and middling in 1 more.
He has been excellent in his last 2 starts though, so hopefully he has righted the ship.
on the upside, it’s not an announcement of a player joining the long list of Oriole injured players. so there’s that…
Trade him for Taijuan Walker.
Taijuan F. Walker
You need to get some editors over there because clearly someone spelled Charlie Morton incorrectly in this article.
Morton’s contract is saving his bacon for the moment. Eventually, he’ll have to be released or offered to a very, very desperate team.
Hey hey ho ho
Brandon Hyde has got to go.
Hey hey ho ho
(Repeat line 2)
Clyde has made too many wrong turns!
Solid “Every which way but loose” reference! “Right turn, Clyde” lol
shocked he is still manager. He may deserve some leeway because he helped them overperform in the past, but yikes. This team, regardless of rotation, should not be this bad.
I pin maybe 15% of the blame on Hyde. That team has a carload of underachievers. So-called “can’t-miss” potential superstars who haven’t lived up to the hype. Gunnar is the real thing. Holiday is getting there. But the rest are flat-out overrated.
The disastrous pitching isn’t Hyde’s fault. He can only use the players that the Front Office gave him. The responsibility for this pitching nightmare falls on either ownership or Mike Elias. And since ownership will never take the blame, it’s time to replace Elias.
His bad management cost them the division last year. Should’ve been let go during the off season.
Please, someone claim him!
I remember watching him pitch in Brooklyn in 2012. Never thought anything special of him at the time, if you told me he’d be pitching in the bigs at age 34 I’d have thought you were crazy. Amazing how some guys just hang around.
Be careful. His Uncle Dave may get upset.
Not a good look when the news is about who was let go, not who was promoted. Any love for the Colin Selby cat?
Jeff – Selby? Um….he’s younger? Probably has options remaining?
I think we’re seeing signs of the bullpen being overused already. Bowman was great for a few weeks. Cano walked 2 today. Soto getting touched, even Akin giving up runs. Some of these guys on pace for 65-70 appearances (its not # of innings, either, some could have less appearances if they went 2 innings instead and be better off)
Thanks TM! Man oh man oh man. Well Mr. Selby; limber up there young feller. Oof.
Bowman was smoke and mirrors from the jump. We rode him til it didn’t work.