The Astros announced they’ve designated reliever Kaleb Ort for assignment. That opened the 40-man roster spot to finalize their three-year free agent deal with Tatsuya Imai.
Ort landed in Houston on a waiver claim from Baltimore early in the 2024 season. He turned in a 2.55 earned run average across 22 games the rest of the way. Ort made a career-high 49 appearances last year but was unable to maintain the numbers he showed in a smaller sample. He allowed 4.89 earned runs per nine across 46 innings.
The righty missed bats at an above-average clip and struck out more than a quarter of opposing hitters. That came alongside a near-14% walk rate, however, well above the 4.3% mark he’d posted in his MLB work a year earlier. Ort also allowed a higher than average home run rate for a third consecutive season. While manager Joe Espada preferred to use him in the middle innings, he was pressed into a few higher-leverage spots when Josh Hader and Bennett Sousa were lost to injury in August. That pushed Bryan Abreu into the closing role and left Ort as one of their more established right-handed setup arms.
It unfortunately didn’t take long before Ort joined his bullpen mates on the injured list. He went down with elbow inflammation at the beginning of September. That knocked him out for the rest of the season. There’s no indication he won’t be ready for Spring Training, but he was already on the roster bubble. Ort is out of minor league options and approaching his 34th birthday.
Houston has Hader, Abreu, Sousa, Steven Okert and Bryan King in the season-opening bullpen, assuming health. Enyel De Los Santos and Nate Pearson are out of options and near-locks to break camp. Pearson signed a $1.35MM free agent deal, while De Los Santos is guaranteed a $1.6MM salary after avoiding arbitration. There wouldn’t have been much flexibility for in-season maneuvering if they also carried Ort. He’ll be traded or placed on waivers within the next five days. Ort has less than three years of MLB service and no prior outright assignments, so the Astros could keep him around as a non-roster invitee if he gets through waivers unclaimed.
He’s going to be claimed. Oh well, he had good an bad times.
Astros – Of course he will, anyone who throws as hard as him will always have many teams thinking they can “fix” him.
Well, he doesn’t through triple digits. 97-98 for the fastball.
Sox fans knew this would happen. Hopefully, he finds himself.
Designated for assignment huh? That Ort to teach him to do better.
Not the best dad joke
It’s nothing out of the ortinary.
Astros decide to abOrt.
Well, this is a good one.
He’s a hold your breath type of reliever. He has no business being in high leverage situations but could be a sneaky good pick up in middle relief
I feel like he was pitching injured for more of the season than the Astros admit. That seems to be the case for multiple players on that team, though.
Rudy – I wouldn’t be surprised, he pitched while injured at times with the Red Sox.
So… I’ll always have my story how I saw his first career save with the Red Sox way back when and also him pitch for the Joliet Hammers of the Frontier league… So I got that going for me… Gunga… Gunga gulunga….
You must take copious notes, not sure I would remember such remarkable milestones by a fringe reliever if I had witnessed those same events.
Isob…. Useless baseball milestones / trivia… for $2000 please… I mean it’s not like a game I saw at tiger stadium early 80’s vs Yankees capped off by a 3 run pinch hit homer by some young buck off the bench…. Hit it off hard throwing Ron Davis if you remember him…. The young Buck…. Kirk Gibson…seems to went on and had a pretty big moment later on in life…Yup… names/dates/ last things talked about … nope.. Useless sporting stories I witnessed burned in my head forever…
No, I’m sure you’ve seen some great and memorable moments. The ones we see live are definitely etched more into our memory banks, even the more mundane and routine ones. I remember the Mariners were playing the Red Sox at the Kingdome and Wade Boggs hit a foul popup that landed neatly in my brother’s jacket that he left on his seat after leaving for a beer. He was mad when he returned and I had the ball with a stupid grin on my face.
He was a bit maddening in Boston, but had a really nice 2024 season in Houston. Last year was a bit of a regression production wise, but I think he’ll be claimed by someone. If nothing else, that level of big league experience is worth something.
Good candidate for the Nats empty bullpen
Looks like the Astros are out of Ort license plates
Underrated comment
4.89 runs per nine innings? Thx for clarifying. How many over five innings?
This is going to excite Chaim Bloom..i recall when Bloom grabbed him in Boston.welcome to St. Louis Caleb.
Kaleb
*Kaleb
Kaleb*
K-Sizzle
The Angels next RP rebuild project
They sent him to the Ort Cloud. I love astronomy.
haha
If you need to get out of an inning, walk up to Kaleb Ort and say “Klaatu barada nikto.” Remember those words.
The Pride of Aquinas College.
If the Cubs sign Kaleb Ort that would make it a perfect 3 for 3.
The only two prior Aquinas College big leaguers were pitchers with Cub Time. True Story, which come to think of it would be a grand name for Trevor’s son.
Cashman..can’t be worse than Jake Bird.
Brandon Beane on line one