The Orioles announced Thursday morning that right-hander Roansy Contreras has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster goes to righty Shawn Dubin, who has now been added to the roster after being claimed off waivers out of the Astros organization.
It’ll be a one-and-done stop on the big league roster for Contreras, a former top prospect with the Yankees and Pirates who landed in Baltimore by way of the waiver wire this past offseason. He’s pitched well in Triple-A this season and gave the O’s 4 1/3 innings of scoreless long relief yesterday in his team debut. That lengthy appearance obviously renders him unavailable for the next few days, however, and Contreras is out of minor league options and thus couldn’t be sent down without first passing through waivers.
Some fans will bristle at the notion of a pitcher being called up, pitching as well as Contreras did, and then being removed from the 40-man roster. This type of transaction is common among today’s baseball operations departments, however, and Contreras’ camp likely knew it’d be a one-off appearance due to his lack of minor league options. The O’s could have subtracted Dietrich Enns instead, as he’s also out of options and unavailable for a few days after tossing 34 pitches yesterday, but Enns has pitched well overall in nine total outings with strong rate stats.
Designating Contreras leaves the Orioles with a mostly full slate of relief options, and based on his minimal MLB track record, there’s a good chance he’ll clear waivers and could thus stick around as a depth option despite the DFA. Contreras, after all, was on waivers five times this past offseason before the Orioles succeeded in passing him through at the end of spring training.
In 239 big league innings, Contreras has a 4.63 earned run average. He’s fanned 19.6% of his opponents against a 10% walk rate. He was effective in Triple-A Norfolk this year, tossing 91 2/3 innings of 3.73 ERA ball with a sub-par 17.8% strikeout rate but a solid 8.4% walk rate. That generally aligns with his career numbers in Triple-A (3.83 ERA in parts of four seasons). The O’s can hope to pass Contreras through waivers within the next couple of days, though he’ll be available to the other 29 teams and would have the right to reject an outright assignment even if he does clear.
How actually pitched pretty well yesterday
He made a nice audition for the shorthanded Red Sox last night.
Slaten’s back from the IL today.
Hit Bregman middle of the spine on purpose.
I thought he got hit on the butt!!!???!!!
And I thought it was Dietrich who did it!!
Didn’t think it was on purpose, his second pitch thrown in 2 years away from MLB. He threw it at 98mph, and that’s way faster then normal for him. Seemed like the nerves/adrenaline of getting back on a MLB mound in years.
But if you say it was intentional, I’ll take your word. Cheaters deserve it. (Too bad Cora doesn’t step in the box).
…does that mean that Trevor Story intentionally tried to spike Gunnar sliding into second in game 1? I guess so, huh
O’s
You know its only one sided when it comes to Boston fans, just like their area’s football team is the only one slapped with deflating balls and filming opponents’ practices.
Nonsense. Typical Boston lies.
Looked like BAL’s best pitcher all year, gets shown the door the next day. Tough gig!
All year? He pitched once
Hello??? Trevor Rogers says, “Hold my beer”!
0.00 ERA > 1.40 ERA
I’m glad you guys appreciate the humor, though! 😎
Orioles Designate Roansy Contreras For Assignment
This is outrageous!!!!
It is Marching around Elias’ office time and I have been itching to march around about something and this may be it!!!!
And Cano still has a job. Why?
drungo – Cano must be the Mateo of the bullpen. Will probably come back at 2x the salary in 2026 no matter how poorly he throws.
I say let’s do it. Grab your pitchfork and I’ll bring the torches. Enough is enough!
And I will bring the sergeant’s metal arm, we’re putting on the Ritz tonight. Walk this way!
Please twins claim him he has shown he is a solid pitcher.
Now that his Waiver Club card has six punches, does he get a free dozen donuts?
I really hope he clears waivers… Elias loves his “don’t look over here” DFAs. I get it. odd to try his slight of hand trick after Contraras’ strong outing.
Another former top Yankees prospect that flamed out.
Meanwhile Volpe strikes out by a position player in a blow out win yesterday.
Some things never get old.
Orioles makes moves daily just to be in the news.
4.1 innings of 3 hit, shut out ball last night and already sent packing (must be giving him deja vu to last winter). I find it hard to believe there wasn’t another option to send down though i do understand that by throwing as many innings as he did last night he won’t be available for a few games
Teams searching the waiver wire for bullpen help this tine of year likely need a guy who can step in right away, not a guy who needs several days of rest. There is a good chance he goes unclaimed for the exact same reason he was waived in the first place.
Literally the best single relief performance this team has gotten from a pitcher in months, maybe even the season and they thank him for his service by kicking him off the team?
He’s gonna get claimed and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s from the team right down the beltway with a comparatively atrocious bullpen.
I know the Red Sox have a lot of swing and miss but his strikeout numbers being so low after what I saw the other night is surprising. He’s young and his stuff looked really sharp. I saw enough to happily let him audition for long relief role in Boston
Seems like he would have been worthy of holding onto over some of the other guys in our pen right now, but okay.
Elias will give a former Astros player extra points when considering vs other players he did not draft years ago. Don’t get that really, seems a bit haughty about “yesterday Elias'” skilz.
Can’t be down an arm for four days or however long he’d be unavailable after essentially a start
with all the pitching problems they have he should have gotten a longer look especially after a scoreless outing.
Yeah but, after 4 innings he wasn’t going to be available for at least two days if not the full five since he was on starter workload. Can’t be down a bullpen arm for that long, even in the O’s shoes.
is felix or grayson ever coming back to the majors? or nah?
Grayson is supposed to be back from his surgery April-ish. Felix, though… that sounds doubtful.
If Grayson doesn’t pitch next season he’s done. Been year and a half out with injuries. Felix could be back in 27 if recovered from shoulder surgery.
Don’t count on either of them. Need a new closer and tor starter for 26.
Huh? G-Rod is 25 years old. He just had elbow debridement surgery. He’s by no means “done.”
Felix, at 30 with labrum & rotator cuff damage, may indeed be done though.
Wade – this isn’t Grayson’s only surgery. he’s had 3 major injuries within 4 seasons. I think he’s a reliever in 2026 if he plays at all. Try to stretch him out again he’ll get hurt.
What other surgery did Rodriguez have? I’m aware he’s had multiple lat injuries but not of other surgeries. And he’s still only 25, the comment was that if he doesn’t pitch next season (he will) he’s done, which doesn’t make sense.
Wade – I think he’s entered the group so many Orioles pitching prospects hit given the injuries, for example, DL Hall or Tanner Scott where they become relievers.
For Grayson I think we’ve had:
2025 – Elbow debridement surgery. The elbow inflammation that led to this came out of his “shoulder discomfort” during rehab over the winter. He also had a lat strain in there around spring training.
2024 – season ended originally on a lat strain in early August. Supposed to be “very mild” and then it kept him out all through the winter. Shoulder inflammation caused separate DL trip April/May.
2023 – Healthy – no injuries or DL trips. Just didn’t do well initially, sent to AAA to work it out, pitched very well down the stretch. Made 30 or 31 total starts.
2022 – lat strain, missed 3 months. Was lighting up AAA when he went down. He was under consideration to call up.
I can’t find much between his draft in 2018 and 2022 season. I thought he had TJ in 2019 or 2020 (no season in 2020) but I could be wrong, given the sheer # of injured Orioles. The volume of injuries in 4 years is bad, surgery or not.
Either way, very troubling. Guy was ready to come up summer 2022 but since that point we had half a season at the near-ace level (late 2023) and about 60% of another at maybe a solid #3, and we’re questioning availability for 2026.
He’s only crossed 100 IP 3x….once in 2021, once in 2023 (163 IP), then 2024 before injury. This is the exact kind of pattern leading up to a lot of guys when they move to the bullpen.
Yeah so one surgery. At 25, it’s way too early to give up on him as a starter, and they won’t. The muscle issues are troubling but recent. He was healthy from 2019-22. Not so much 2022-25. But still only 25 years old and one surgery – and even then, a minor one.
Like I said, I believe there was a 2nd surgery in 2019-22 but can’t confirm what it was.
The point is, every time this guy tries to put a load on his arm, his shoulder, lat, or elbow breaks down. Every time. It is nearly guaranteed to happen again.
Poor guy. Ought to be a can’t-be-DFA’ed-after-a-good-performance clause to protect players like this.