The Orioles announced that infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. He has the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency but the O’s say he has accepted and will report to the Tides.
Vavra, 28, signed a minor league deal with the O’s in the offseason. He has seemingly been the club’s “break glass in case of emergency” player. He was selected to the big league roster in May when Ramón Laureano hit the injured list. The next day, the O’s signed Cooper Hummel. Vavra did not appear in a game before being designated for assignment, clearing waivers and accepting an outright assignment.
Ahead of the deadline, the O’s traded Laureano, Ryan O’Hearn, Cedric Mullins and Ramón Urías, opening up a lot of playing time on the position player side of things. Vavra got selected back to the roster on Friday. He got put into Saturday’s game as a pinch hitter, lining out in his one plate appearance. He was designated for assignment again on Sunday when the O’s grabbed Ryan Noda off waivers.
He’ll now return to his role as a non-roster depth player. He brings a bit of experience to the table, as he has appeared in 68 big league contests, though his recent lineout is his only action since 2023. He has a .252/.329/.302 batting line and 84 wRC+ in the big leagues.
He put up some strong numbers earlier in his minor league career but hasn’t been as impressive lately. He underwent shoulder surgery in 2023 and has a .241/.343/.342 line and 91 wRC+ on the farm since then. He has at least some experience at every position on the diamond, including one inning of Triple-A mop-up work on the mound.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images
Thanks for not repeating the false statement in the previous MLBTR Vavra story that he hadn’t appeared in a MLB game this year. Some writers do their homework better than others.
Cool name.
They should’ve traded this dude instead of Kyle Stowers.
Stowers had value, Vavra not much. I think Vavra was a low end deadline trade a few years ago with the rockies (did not look any of that up; so i may be wrong), but he has always had MLB utility guy upside. He is a hair below that level as basically taxi squad guy who can play anywhere, and can take a big league at bat. There is a place for those guys, and he will be paid a few hundred thousand a year to basically be in the big league roster a few weeks of the year while playing the rest in AAA (Where he will jump around the diamond too just to keep getting reps everywhere). I am also pretty sure there are bloodlines there (i think his dad and brother had time in the bigs and/or upper minors).
Stowers was always viewed as a high strike out every day player. This season is more than anyone ever expected, but .250 with 25hr power and too many strike outs was what virtually everyone expected if he got every day playing time. I think this is his career year, and he settles into that slightly below average contact but plus power.
The Os did not want to move Stowers (and norby) but wanted to do right by both guys. so they were traded for Rogers so they could get every day at bats like they should be getting. Rogers has worked out well thus far (took longer than expected, but he has been good thus far this year, and i think we are all penciling him in as a #3 SP next year). So it is not like the Os got nothing. They just knew Norby was blocked by Westburg, gunnar and hollday (and urias as the utility guy) and Stowers was blocked by the glut of OF they had (mainly Cowser and Heston Kjerstad were expected to be the corner OF of the future). No one ever thought they needed to do right for Vavra, since at best a team would give him the role Urias had, and that is still not much.
James
I want to see Rogers go more than 9 starts before I see where he settles. More like 30. 8 IP/1 run allowed vs Cubs was the best start the team has had this year. He’s going to be given a shot for 2026 rotation because he’s cheap and under team control, I think he’s a 4-5 option if they go shopping for 1-2’s as they desperately need (assuming Bradish is the only injured starter coming back with impact in 2026).
Stowers had shown glimpses 2023-24 in very limited opportunities and is showing growth. Now he’s on pace for 35+ HR and is hitting almost .300 as he has most of a full season. Not sure he’ll maintain that. Will he continue/maintain growth or is he having the year that we saw Henderson (43 HR between ASB 2023 and 2024) or Adley (.280-.290/30 HR a year pace 2022-mid 2023) have before they both dropped off?
Certainly doesn’t look great choosing Kjerstad and Cowser – who has also regressed from last year and is striking out a ton – over Stowers at the moment. Rogers is salvaging a little of that (finally) now, but this can still evolve.
Vavra has always been the 3rd option UIF, and they’ve insisted on keeping Mateo as a now expensive, injured pinch runner who can’t hit, and have passed Vavra over numerous times as the article stated. Don’t forget about Rivera, that was another one they got for that role who ultimately didn’t stick.