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Orioles Select Chandler Shepherd

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The Orioles announced that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Chandler Shepherd and optioned righty David Hess to their alternate training site. Baltimore’s 40-man roster is now up to a total of 39 players.

Shepherd, 28 later this month, made his big league debut with the O’s last season and allowed 14 runs in 19 frames — albeit with a solid 17-to-6 K/BB ratio. The longtime Red Sox farmhand had a solid track record in Triple-A prior to last year’s offensive explosion at that level, carrying a 3.91 ERA to that point in his career.

Shepherd has generally fared well in the upper minors while averaging a bit less than a punchout per frame and about two and a half walks per nine innings pitched. He sat at 92.2 mph with his fastball in last year’s debut effort and has posted roughly average ground-ball tendencies between Double-A and Triple-A.

Hess has a solid track record between Double-A and Triple-A over the past three seasons as well, but he’s yet to find success in the big leagues. He’s logged 190 1/3 frames since debuting back in ’17 and struggled to a 5.98 ERA with a 6.41 FIP in that time.

Orioles Release Ty Blach

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The Orioles announced this morning that they have released left-hander Ty Blach. He underwent Tommy John surgery last month. Blach wasn’t on the team’s 40-man roster but had been in their 60-man player pool, which dropped to a total of 59 players with his release.

Blach, 29, struggled in 20 2/3 frames with the Orioles in 2019 after being claimed off waivers out of the Giants organization. Between those two clubs, he was tagged for 36 runs on 46 hits and 17 walks with 20 strikeouts in 27 innings of work.

While that was a season Blach would surely like to forget, his prior work in San Francisco was solid. From 2016-18, Blach logged 299 1/3 innings with a 4.36 ERA, 4.14 FIP, 4.8 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 50.1 percent ground-ball rate. The lack of strikeouts is obviously glaring, but Blach generally avoided too much hard contact on his sinker, which helped him to limit the damage.

Orioles Claim Jorge Lopez

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The Orioles announced today that they have claimed right-handed pitcher Jorge Lopez off waivers from the Royals. Lopez, 27, was designated for assignment by Kansas City on Friday. He’ll be added to the Baltimore 40-man roster, which is now full.

Lopez made just one appearance for the Royals this year before he was placed on the bereavement list. That preceded his departure from the Royals, who designated Lopez owing to his lack of minor-league options.

Once a highly-regarded prospect, Lopez has thus far failed to find success at the MLB level between stints with the Brewers and Royals, who acquired him as part of the return for Mike Moustakas. In 190 innings at the MLB level, Lopez has a 5.97 ERA while averaging a mediocre 7.4 K/9. Last year, he was a key part of the Royals’ staff, throwing the fifth-most innings on the team as he was deployed both as a starter and in relief.

Lopez should be a viable depth option for an Orioles pitching staff that has actually fared pretty well this year: the Orioles staff is sporting a 3.87 FIP, good for tenth-best in baseball. Granted, the ERA figures have lagged behind thus far, and it’s not a group of world-beaters, but there are some intriguing names in Baltimore. Lopez, if he gets a crack in the Majors, could serve as a starter or reliever for Brandon Hyde.

Orioles Recall Keegan Akin, Option Cedric Mullins

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The Orioles announced today that they’ve promoted left-hander Keegan Akin to the Major League roster. To make room, outfielder Cedric Mullins has been optioned to the team’s alternate training site. Akin, 25, is set to make his MLB debut.

It’s possible that Akin will in fact start tomorrow’s game against the Nats, though on the other hand manager Brandon Hyde could still opt for a bullpen game instead. Either way, Akin, regarded by MLB Pipeline as the Orioles’ 13th-best prospect, is in line to make his Major League debut.

The product of Western Michigan University was Baltimore’s second-round draft choice in 2016, and he’s made a quick ascent through the minors since then, spending all of last season at Triple-A. In four minor-league seasons, he’s averaging 9.9 K/9, though he’s been somewhat prone to walking batters. His minor-league ERA is a solid 3.78, with last year’s 4.73 mark at Triple-A the highest of his career.

Per MLB Pipeline, some of those Triple-A struggles can be attributed to an increasing reliance on his breaking and offspeed pitches, which Akin threw more often than ever last season. His mid-90s fastball is probably still his best and most consistent pitch, though the changeup is a valuable offering against right-handed batters. Akin also throws a slider.

Mullins, meanwhile, had gotten off to a dreadful start to the year, with just a single hit through his first 13 at-bats—good for a .277 OPS. After a respectable debut in 2018, other O’s outfielders like Dwight Smith Jr., Austin Hays, and Anthony Santander have pushed Mullins to the periphery of the outfield mix in Baltimore.

Orioles Add Two To 60-Man Player Pool

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The Orioles announced Friday that they’ve added lefty Brian Gonzalez and infielder Gunnar Henderson to their 60-man player pool. Both have been assigned to the club’s alternate training site in Bowie. Baltimore’s pool is up to 59 players.

Gonzalez, 24, doesn’t rank among Baltimore’s best prospects but has had success up through the Double-A level, so he could emerge as an eventual bullpen option in 2020. The 2014 third-rounder struggled as a starter in Class-A Advanced and Double-A, but he was moved to a full-time relief role in 2019 and enjoyed his best year since 2016. Gonzalez tallied 53 1/3 innings last season, pitching to a 3.38 ERA with 8.9 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and an admittedly bloated 1.5 HR/9 mark. The O’s recently traded southpaw Richard Bleier to the Marlins, so Gonzalez replenishes some of that depth.

Henderson, meanwhile, won’t see any MLB time in 2020. The 19-year-old was Baltimore’s second-round pick in the 2019 draft and hasn’t even reached A-ball yet, so there’s no way the club will put him on the 40-man roster and bring him to the big leagues. That said, he’s widely regarded as one of the rebuilding club’s ten best prospects, so he’ll head to Bowie to get some work with the coaching staff there and see some simulated reps along with the club’s other top minor leaguers. As The Athletic’s Dan Connolly points out on Twitter, the O’s now have all of their Top 11 prospects (per Baseball America’s rankings) either on their MLB roster or at their Bowie site.

60-Man Pool Additions: Orioles, Brewers

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Here are the latest additions to 60-man player pools from around the majors:

  • Joining the Orioles’ 60-man player pool are righty Kyle Bradish, outfielder Ryan McKenna, and southpaw Bruce Zimmermann. Bradish, a fourth-round pick of the 2018 draft, had a solid year at the High-A level in 2019 and came to the Baltimore organization in the Dylan Bundy swap. The latter two will each be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this fall if they’re not added to the 40-man roster beforehand. McKenna had a tough season last year at Double-A, where slashed just .232/.321/.365 in 567 plate appearances. The 25-year-old Zimmermann topped out at Triple-A in 2019, scuffling in seven starts. But he earned his way there with 101 1/3 impressive frames at Bowie, over which he carried a 2.58 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9.
  • The Brewers have brought outfielder Hedbert Perez and righty Justin Topa into their alternate training site, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports on Twitter. It’s a rather interesting duo. The former only just turned 17 years of age and is obviously still a long ways away from the majors. The organization obviously sees quite a lot of potential. Topa is already 29 but sits in the upper nineties with his fastball, so this’ll be an opportunity for the Milwaukee organization to see if he could ultimately be an option at the MLB level. Last year, Topa worked to a cumulative 3.38 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 over forty frames split between the High-A and Double-A levels.

Marlins Acquire Richard Bleier

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AUGUST 1: In a corresponding roster move, the Orioles selected the contract of catcher Bryan Holaday, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (via Twitter). Holaday becomes the third catcher on the O’s active roster, joining Pedro Severino and Chance Sisco.

JULY 31: The Orioles announced that they have traded left-hander Richard Bleier to the Marlins for a player to be named later.

For the Marlins, this is clearly an attempt to fill in a roster that has been decimated by the coronavirus. Miami has seen a whopping 18 players test positive for the illness, which has prevented the club from taking the field this week.

In Bleier, the Marlins are getting a 33-year-old Davie, Fla., native who has experienced his share of success in the majors. Despite a measly lifetime strikeout rate of 4.47 per nine and a sub-90 mph fastball, Bleier has managed a 2.99 ERA/3.74 FIP across 177 1/3 innings with the Yankees and Orioles since he debuted in 2016. Excellent walk and groundball rates of 1.47 and 62.4 percent, respectively, have enabled Bleier to prevent runs at such an impressive clip.

While Bleier logged a woeful 5.37 ERA over 55 1/3 frames a year ago, he gave the O’s three scoreless frames this season before the rebuilding club parted with him. Bleier’s on a prorated $915K salary this year and still has two more seasons of arbitration eligibility left.

Kohl Stewart Opts Out Of 2020 Season

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Orioles hurler Kohl Stewart has opted out of the 2020 season, the team announced. He will receive his salary and service time because he was in a heightened risk category.

As Stewart discussed in a statement, he has type 1 diabetes. He says he’s at least pausing his participation. O’s manager Brandon Hyde made clear that the team supports his decision.

This was surely a tough call for the 25-year-old. While he was once a #4 overall draft pick, Stewart washed out with the Twins and entered the season hoping for a fresh start after the O’s signed him to a minor-league deal over the offseason. He started the season on the active roster but had not yet appeared in game action.

Stewart has been added to MLBTR’s list of players that have opted out of the 2020 season.

Orioles Add Grayson Rodriguez To 60-Man Player Pool

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  • One of the Orioles’ top prospects, right-hander Grayson Rodriguez has joined their player pool, the team announced. The 20-year-old isn’t far removed from going 11th overall to the Orioles in the 2018 draft. He made his Single-A debut last year and turned heads with a 2.68 ERA, 12.4 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 94 innings. Rodriguez currently ranks among the league’s best farmhands – FanGraphs (No. 29), MLB.com (36) and Baseball America (37) are among the prospect outlets that are quite bullish on him.

Orioles Trade Hector Velazquez To Astros

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The Orioles announced this morning that they’ve traded right-hander Hector Velazquez to the Astros in exchange for a player to be named later. Baltimore had outrighted Velazquez off its 40-man roster just prior to Opening Day.

Velazquez, 31, spent the past three seasons with the Red Sox, throwing well from 2017-18 before stumbling to a 5.43 ERA in 56 frames in 2019. He’d previously logged a 3.12 ERA in 109 2/3 MLB frames, with averages of 5.9 strikeouts, 2.7 walks and 0.9 home runs per nine innings. The righty’s low strikeout right and lofty 80.7 percent strand rate prompted fielding-independent metrics to treat that ERA with some skepticism, but even metrics like FIP (4.24), SIERA (4.54) felt he was at least a passable option.

Things deteriorated last year for Velazquez when his walk and home run rates spiked. His strand rate not only regressed toward the league average (72.3 percent) but blew right by it and swung toward another extreme: 61.9 percent. Velazquez doesn’t miss many bats, but he can generate grounders with a low-spin sinker when at his best, as evidenced by a near-50 percent grounder rate in 2018.

It’s a necessary depth move for an Astros club that has been hammered by injuries on the pitching staff. Houston currently has nine rookies on its staff, including seven relievers who hadn’t accrued a single day of MLB service prior to Opening Day. It’s not clear whether Velazquez will be selected directly to the Major League roster, although given the sheer inexperience that currently permeates the Houston roster, there’d seem to be a decent chance that Velazquez will be called up in the near future.

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