7:15pm: Per Kostka, this deal is worth a guaranteed $2.625MM. That breaks down as a $2.5MM salary in 2025 with a $125K buyout on a 2027 club option worth $3.5MM.
3:58pm: The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve agreed to a one-year contract with left-hander Dietrich Enns for the 2026 season. It contains a club option for the 2027 campaign as well. Baltimore previously held a $3MM club option over Enns, a client of the Beverly Hills Sports Council. This new contract overrides that deal, per Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner.
Enns, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Tigers after a three-year run pitching in Asia (two years in NPB, one in the KBO). Enns pitched well enough in the Tigers’ Triple-A rotation to get a call to the big leagues in Detroit — his first MLB work since 2021 and just the third season in which he’s logged at least some MLB time. He struggled in 17 2/3 innings for manager A.J. Hinch’s club and was flipped to the Orioles for cash just prior to the July 31 trade deadline.
The change of scenery paid dividends. Enns thrived with the O’s, turning in 28 2/3 innings of 3.14 ERA ball (17 relief appearances, one start). He fanned 27.6% of his opponents in Baltimore and only issued walks at an 8.9% clip. Enns showed plenty of bat-missing ability with both teams, logging matching 13.5% swinging-strike rates in his two stops and topping a 34% opponents’ chase rate with each club.
Enns is out of minor league options, making him likely to break camp with the club next year. It’s at least possible that the O’s could try to pass him through waivers and stash him in Triple-A as a depth option, knowing he wouldn’t elect free agency and forfeit the guaranteed money on his contract. They’ve made similar depth-driven signings in the past under the current front office regime. Given how well Enns pitched for them down the stretch, however, there’s a good chance he’d be claimed, so today’s deal simply seems like a means of locking in some cost certainty and establishing another year of club control at a fixed rate.
Definitely did well for us so no brainer bringing him back. Bullpen still needs a lot of work as do many other areas on the team.
The reverse splits scares me on a lefty…
They don’t scare me as long as he and Akin aren’t the only 2 lefties. Neither one of them shuts down lefties. At this point in the offseason we need options for the pen.
His reverse splits are due to a rich diet. Reminds me of Barney Miller:
Dietrich brings in the priest who was selling stolen goods, and Barney asks him if he’s OK with busting a priest. Detective Dietrich looks at the priest and says, “Sure it was a good collar.”
Then later Barney tells him to take the stolen goods back and Dietrich picks up the wok and says, “I’ll just take a wok over there”. Barney totally doesn’t react, and Dietrich starts explaining about what a wok is, and Barney says, “Yeah, yeah, I know what a wok is!”
Harris walks in, sees the priest there, and hears the story about why he’s there, and says, “What are you gonna do, throw the Good Book at him?” Harris then starts laughing hysterically at his own joke.
And then at the end Barney and Dietrich are discussing religion. Dietrich says he’s an atheist. Barney says “What are you going to say if you find out, when you die, that there IS a God, or some supreme being in charge?” Dietrich thinks for a minute, and then says, “‘Whoops’?”
SPOILER ALERT!
He’s fine as the last guy in the pen. Maybe. But that’s it
If they kept John around, they could hand the ball off from a Means to an Enns.
You would hope that Means would pitch well enough to not justify bringing in an Enns
I often find this site to be lots of pun.
First Garcia and now Enns. Elias is locking up his journeymen in short order
No no no it’s Enns to the Os
I still don’t get why the Orioles declined Danny Coulombe’s option last offseason. Maybe they’ll bring him back.
All’s well that Enns well
I take it because he’s a lefty? I also was under the impression he appeared in the majors just every four years.
The scenario of the cheap Orioles trying to stash a guy with $2.5M in AAA seems unlikely. He will open 2026 with the club and stay unless he is ineffective, then they’ll try.
So they’ve signed the last two men in the bullpen (Garcia and Enns).
Nice to see a ballplayer who’s paid his dues get a good contract. Could be a bargain for the O’s but probably won’t be.