The Orioles are in agreement on a minor league deal with free agent righty Enoli Paredes, reports Ari Alexander of 7News. He’ll be in major league camp as non-roster invitee next spring.
Paredes, who turned 30 in September, is no stranger to Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias. He originally signed with the Astros as an amateur back in 2016, when Elias was the scouting director in Houston. Elias had already jumped to Baltimore by the time Paredes had emerged as one of Houston’s more notable pitching prospects and then made his subsequent MLB debut, however.
In parts of four major league seasons between the Astros, Brewers and Cubs, Paredes has totaled 54 innings with a tidy 3.00 ERA but far more concerning rate stats. He’s fanned a slightly below-average 21.7% of his opponents but walked a ghastly 16.8% of the hitters he’s faced in the majors. Paredes keeps the ball on the ground at a solid clip, has averaged better than 95 mph on his four-seamer and has done a nice job avoiding hard contact, but the lack of command is a glaring flaw.
In 2025, Paredes spent the season with Atlanta’s Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett. He tossed 57 1/3 frames with a 4.40 earned run average, a strong 27.6% strikeout rate and an ugly 11.5% walk rate (plus another seven plunked batters and four wild pitches). Paredes posted sub-3.00 ERAs in Triple-A in both 2024 and 2022, but he’s consistently logged sky-high walk rates in both Triple-A and MLB.
The O’s have plenty of uncertainty in their bullpen after Felix Bautista underwent shoulder surgery that’ll keep him out for all of 2026. They further thinned out their relief corps at the July trade deadline, shipping out Seranthony Dominguez, Gregory Soto, Bryan Baker and Andrew Kittredge — though they’ve since reacquired Kittredge from the Cubs. Dominguez and Soto were free agents anyhow, but Baker was under club control through 2028. Yennier Cano’s uneven season and poor cumulative results this year make it hard to count on him heading into ’26 as well.
Kittredge, Cano, Keegan Akin and Albert Suarez are the only relievers on Baltimore’s roster with even two years of big league service. Given the lack of defined options in the late innings, the Orioles will be active in bringing in bullpen help — both in the form of established arms and also in the form of low-cost depth grabs like today’s Paredes deal.
Just a body to shuttle back and forth to AAA
Never hurts to have depth
Deep depth, baby.
These minor league deals show that all players have tools. With mountains of injuries each year, they will likely get a shot. Produce at the big league level and they will keep using you.
I like arms, plenty of arms to experiment with and unfortunately, because arms like to go, “boing!”.
I like the amount of activity going on in the Warehouse. Better than the opposite. Moving around at the edges is good. Let’s pull the Band-Aid off of signing someone off the QO List. 😋