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Orioles Sign Anthony Bemboom To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles have signed catcher Anthony Bemboom to a minor league contract, the team informed reporters (including Dan Connolly of the Athletic). Bemboom was eligible to sign a minors pact during the lockout because he’d been passed through outright waivers by the Dodgers midseason and elected minor league free agency at the end of the year.

The 31-year-old backstop has appeared briefly in each of the last three MLB seasons, tallying 144 cumulative plate appearances between the Rays and Angels. He’s a .178/.241/.287 hitter with four home runs in that time. The left-handed hitter owns a more solid .250/.347/.398 line over parts of five seasons at Triple-A.

Bemboom adds some much-needed depth to the top of the Orioles’ farm system. Baltimore doesn’t have a single backstop on the 40-man roster. Top prospect Adley Rutschman looks likely to get the bulk of playing time next season after hitting his way up through Triple-A. It’s possible Rutschman begins the 2022 season back in Norfolk, particularly if service time continues to be relevant in determining a player’s free agency trajectory in the next collective bargaining agreement. Even were Rutschman to break camp, the O’s would need at least one 40-man addition to serve as a backup. Baltimore also added Jacob Nottingham on a minor league pact last week.

Roland Hemond Passes Away

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Longtime major league executive Roland Hemond passed away last night at age 92, the league announced. Hemond served as a big league general manager for more than two decades between 1970 and 1995, leading the White Sox’s and Orioles’ baseball operations departments over that time.

“Roland Hemond was one of the most respected executives that our game has ever known,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “He served the Chicago White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles as general manager, was a staple of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ front office throughout their history, and also worked for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, the California Angels, the Commissioner’s Office and USA Baseball during his exemplary career.  Roland was a pivotal figure in the formation and growth of the Arizona Fall League.  Most importantly, he mentored countless people in our sport and found ways to make our game stronger.  Roland Hemond was a great gentleman whose contributions to our National Pastime will never be forgotten.”

In addition to his time in Chicago and Baltimore, Hemond worked in various scouting and advisory capacities throughout his career. He began his front office time with the Braves in 1951, collecting a World Series ring five years later for his role as the team’s assistant scouting director. He held that role in Milwaukee (where the Braves played from 1953-66) through 1960, then spent the next decade as the Angels’ scouting director.

By 1970, Hemond was leading the charge with the White Sox, a stint that partially overlapped with Tony La Russa’s first run as Chicago manager. His clubs won one division title over that stretch, a 1983 season that saw Chicago win 99 games but drop a four-game AL Championship Series against the Orioles. In 1986, Hemond made the jump to the commissioner’s office, a position he held for a bit more than a year before taking over baseball ops in Baltimore.

Hemond ran the O’s from 1988-95. Baltimore didn’t make a postseason appearance during Hemond’s tenure, but a few players whom his front office group had acquired (i.e. Rafael Palmeiro, Brady Anderson and Mike Mussina) played key roles on the ’96 squad that went to the ALCS. Hemond spent 1996-2000 as an executive with the D-Backs, then spent the better part of the next two decades in advisory capacities with the White Sox and Arizona before retiring in 2017.

In 2011, the Baseball Hall of Fame presented Hemond with the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award. He’s one of five all time honorees (joining O’Neil himself, Joe Garagiola, Rachel Robinson and David Montgomery). Hemond was twice named the league’s Executive of the Year, winning the award in 1972 and 1989. Unsurprisingly, given his decades of experience in high-level front office positions, Hemond had personal ties to many key front office execs and coaches who continue to hold influence today — including La Russa and Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who got his start in professional baseball with the White Sox during Hemond’s tenure as Chicago GM.

MLBTR joins countless others around the game in expressing our condolences to Hemond’s family, friends and loved ones.

AL Notes: Astros, Blue Jays, Orioles

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Alex Bregman is preparing for a move to shortstop, should the Astros have a need, the third baseman told Michael Schwab on his podcast. Houston has not indicated a willingness to move Bregman, and in fact, GM James Click recently said that moving Bregman was not something they were considering. Still, it doesn’t hurt for Bregman to offer. We have seen a trend lately of third basemen moving up the defensive spectrum as players like Mike Moustakas and Travis Shaw have seen time at second and Eugenio Suarez tried his hand at shortstop. These moves were hardly universal success stories, however, so it’s likely Bregman remains at the hot corner when the 2022 season opens.

In other rumblings from around the American League…

  • Like Bregman, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was adamant last winter about his willingness to move up the defensive spectrum. Ultimately, Vladdy spent all of two innings at the hot corner in 2021. Recent rumors have again suggesting moving Vlad to third in order to accommodate a totally hypothetical Freddie Freeman signing, but that’s not something the Blue Jays have discussed with their young star, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. There would be other ways to accommodate a Freeman signing, but at least for now it seems their interest in Freeman was more due diligence than earnest sales pitch.
  • The Orioles signed five pitchers to minor league deals, writes Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Bryan Bautista, 17, Raynel Duran, 18, Wilton Rondon, 19, Darwin Caballero, 21, and Noelin Cuevas, 19, will start the 2022 season in the Orioles’ organization. The Orioles continue to be one of the most pitching-needy organizations in the game, so while adding a handful of minor league free agents hardly qualifies as a game-changer, it’s a positive data point nonetheless. These five were all international free agents who will join the lowest level of Baltimore’s system, notes Kubatko.

Orioles Sign Jacob Nottingham To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles have signed catcher Jacob Nottingham to a minor league deal, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Nottingham spent some of 2021 in the big leagues with the Brewers and Mariners but was outrighted in June, thus making him eligible to sign a minor league deal during the ongoing lockout.

Although it’s a minor league deal, it’s noteworthy for the Orioles given their catching situation. They don’t currently have any catchers on their 40-man roster. In 2021, most of the time behind the dish went to Pedro Severino, who was outrighted at the end of the season and has since signed with the Brewers. Chance Sisco got some playing time in the first half of the year but was claimed on waivers by the Mets in June. Austin Wynns and Nick Ciuffo, who were also in the mix, were both outrighted off the roster at the end of the season.

The club has the consensus top prospect in baseball, Adley Rutschman, set to debut at some point in 2022 after he finished this year in Triple-A. However, they will need some other catching options on hand to cover the position until his call-up, or to act as backup to Rutschman later in the year. That means Nottingham has a decent path to some playing time in the big leagues next year.

Nottingham, 26, was selected by the Astros in the sixth round of the 2013 draft. In 2015, he was shipped to the Athletics as part of the trade that sent Scott Kazmir to Houston. A few months later, Oakland sent him to Milwaukee as part of the Khris Davis deal. He made his MLB debut in 2018 and spent three years as a frequently-optioned depth catcher, appearing in 38 total games over the 2018-2020 campaigns.

2021 saw Nottingham be the centerpiece of a game of hot potato between the Brewers and Mariners. Having exhausted his option years, he was designated for assignment by the Brewers in April. He was claimed by the Mariners and then designated for assignment again a few days later. Seattle traded him back to Milwaukee, who designated him yet again after less than two weeks. He was claimed by the Mariners a second time and then, just over week later, designated yet again. In the middle of June, he finally cleared waivers and was outrighted.

Over the past four seasons, Nottingham has only gotten into 53 games at the big league level, hitting eight home runs and slashing .184/.277/.421 in that time, with a strikeout rate of 38.5%. In 2021, amidst all that traveling, he got 45 plate appearances over 15 games. He hit three homers and slashed .150/.222/.400, with a strikeout rate of 44.4% in that tiny sample size.

Orioles To Sign Jordan Lyles

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The Orioles are in agreement with right-hander Jordan Lyles on a one-year, $7MM guarantee with a 2023 club option, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link). The deal is pending a physical, which is expected to take place after the work stoppage.  Lyles is represented by Ballengee Group.

If the Lyles deal is completed, it will mark the Orioles’ largest free agent expenditure since Mike Elias was hired as Executive Vice President and General Manager three years ago.  Elias’ previous largest free agency outlay had been a $3MM deal for Jose Iglesias.  Adding veteran Major League talent has not been a priority during Elias’ rebuild.  In 2022, Lyles and Trey Mancini figure to be the only Orioles to be paid as much as $7MM.  The Orioles have run a bottom-four payroll for the entirety of Elias’ tenure.

Drafted 38th overall by the Astros out of a South Carolina high school in 2008, Lyles peaked as a top 50 prospect prior to the 2011 season – around the time Elias moved from the Cardinals to the Astros with fellow executive Jeff Luhnow.  Luhnow ended up trading Lyles to the Rockies for Dexter Fowler in 2013.

Lyles, 31, posted a 5.15 ERA, 19 K%, 7.3 BB%, and 37.6% groundball rate in 180 innings for the Rangers this year.  There wasn’t much to like about Lyles’ season other than his taking the ball 30 times, which is a big need for an Orioles rotation with no reliable members after John Means.  After a decent 2019 season for the Pirates and Brewers, the Rangers gave Lyles a two-year, $16MM contract.  The righty struggled throughout his time in Texas.

Given that lack of success, Lyles’ contract is a bit higher than you might expect.  Perhaps that’s the cost of luring a pitcher to one of the game’s worst teams.  Lyles received more than Rich Hill or Dylan Bundy ($5MM), the same as Michael Wacha, and only $1MM less than Corey Kluber.  If the contract is completed, he’ll join Means and perhaps Bruce Zimmermann in the rotation with a cast of pitchers competing for remaining spots – unless Means is traded post-lockout.  Prize prospects Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall should debut at some point during 2022, having both reached Double-A in ’21.

Outrights: Scrubb, de Geus, Martin, Anderson

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As a busy evening of contract tendering (and non-tendering) draws to a close, some players find themselves in a new position of being outrighted off their team’s 40-man roster. The following players cleared waivers and remain with one of their organization’s minor league affiliates:

  • Right-handed Astros reliever Andre Scrubb has been outrighted to Triple-A Sugar Land. Scrubb posted a shiny 1.90 ERA across 23 innings last season despite a huge 19.6% walk rate. His ERA regressed to 5.03 in a similar sample size of 19 innings, while his home run rate ballooned to nearly double the league average.
  • Arizona infielder Andrew Young and right-handed pitcher Brett de Geus  are ticketed for Double-A Amarillo and Triple-A Reno, respectively. Young demonstrated strong power numbers in limited action but struck out an untenable 43.3% of the time. The 24-year-old de Geus was a Rule 5 pick who was thrown into the fire by both the Rangers and Diamondbacks this season, but will return to the minors for additional seasoning after recently being designated for assignment.
  • Baltimore shortstop Richie Martin is headed to Triple-A Norfolk following a sub-replacement level season as an Oriole. The 26-year-old Martin has shown some offensive prowess at Double-A in the past, but for now he’ll look to establish himself as a plus hitter at Triple-A for the first time.
  • Blue Jays right-hander Shaun Anderson is on his way to Triple-A Buffalo after a busy season that saw him pitch for three big league teams, only to be claimed by Toronto in mid-November. Anderson didn’t have much go right in his 23 innings this year, but has consistently been capable of 3-something ERAs in the minor leagues as a starter or reliever.

Orioles Sign Rougned Odor To Major League Deal

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The Orioles announced agreement with infielder Rougned Odor on a major league contract for 2022. Odor is a client of Beverly Hills Sports Council. Baltimore’s 40-man roster now sits at 38.

It has now been a few seasons since Odor was a productive regular. After breaking into the majors with the Rangers in his early 20’s, Odor posted a couple solid seasons. That led Texas to strike on an early-career $49.5MM extension in March 2017, but his production took a downturn almost immediately thereafter. The left-handed hitter slumped to a .204/.252/.397 line that season. He improved upon that lowly output in the following years, but Odor has still been a below-average offensive player in each of the past four years.

Going back to the start of the 2018 campaign, Odor owns a .216/.291/.418 line. That’s come with worse than average strikeout and walk rates (27.8% and 7.9%, respectively), sapping much of his overall value. The Yankees acquired Odor from Texas this past spring, hoping that a move to the Bronx would reinvigorate his lefty bat.

While Odor did hit 15 homers in 361 plate appearances in pinstripes, he managed just a .202/.286/.379 line altogether. New York designated him for assignment and released him earlier this month to clear roster space for prospects to be added before the Rule 5 draft.

Odor is still just 27 years old (28 in February). He’s young enough that teams can continue to hold out hope he may yet find his stride offensively, but it’s been quite some time since he was a capable everyday player. There’s no financial risk for the O’s in integrating him into the infield mix, though. Under the terms of the Rangers – Yankees swap, Texas remains on the hook for almost all of the $12.3MM in guaranteed money remaining on his deal. Baltimore will only be responsible for the league minimum salary.

Dan Connolly of the Athletic first reported the Orioles were nearing agreement with Odor on a big league deal.

Tender Deadline Signings: 11/30/21

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With the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players looming tonight at 8pm ET — the MLBPA and MLB jointly agreed to move the deadline up a couple days due to the looming expiration of the collective bargaining agreement — we’ll likely see a slew of arbitration-eligible players signing one-year deals.

It’s commonplace for a large batch of players to sign deals in the hours leading up to the tender deadline. “Pre-tender” deals of this nature often fall shy of projections due to the fact that teams use the looming threat of a non-tender to enhance their leverage. Arbitration contracts at this juncture are often take-it-or-leave-it propositions, with the “leave it” end of that arrangement resulting in the player being cut loose. Given the widely expected lockout, there could be more incentive than usual for borderline non-tender candidates to take those offers rather than being cast out into free agency just hours before a transaction freeze is implemented.

As a reminder, arbitration contracts are not fully guaranteed. In a typical year, a team can cut a player on an arb contract at any point before the halfway point in Spring Training and only be responsible for 30 days’ termination pay (about one-sixth of the contract). Releasing a player in the second half of Spring Training bumps the termination pay to 45 days of his prorated salary.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for each team’s arbitration-eligible players last month, although for many of the players listed below, this isn’t so much avoiding arbitration as it is avoiding a non-tender. Here’s a look at today’s agreements…

  • The Yankees have agreed to deals with infielder Gio Urshela and right-hander Domingo German, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter links). Urshela will make $6.55MM, while German has agreed to a $1.75MM deal. Urshela has two seasons of control remaining; German is controllable for three years. Urshela is coming off a .267/.301/.419 showing while playing third base and shortstop. German tossed 98 1/3 innings of 4.58 ERA ball.
  • The Twins have signed three arbitration-eligible pitchers, per reports from Feinsand and Darren Wolfson of SKOR North (on Twitter). Right-hander Jharel Cotton signed for $700K, reliever Caleb Thielbar lands $1.3MM and reliever Tyler Duffey signs for $3.8MM. Thielbar and Duffey were both productive members of the Minnesota relief corps in 2021. Cotton was recently claimed off waivers from the Rangers.
  • The Giants have agreed to terms with outfielder Austin Slater on a $1.85MM deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link). The 28-year-old (29 next month) appeared at all three spots on the grass while hitting .241/.320/.423 over 306 plate appearances in 2021.
  • Reliever Emilio Pagan and the Padres have agreed on a $2.3MM deal, reports Rosenthal (on Twitter). The 30-year-old worked 63 1/3 innings of 4.83 ERA/3.93 SIERA ball this past season.
  • The Diamondbacks agreed to a $2MM deal with left-hander Caleb Smith, reports Zach Buchanan of the Athletic (via Twitter). The 30-year-old posted a 4.83 ERA/4.68 SIERA across 113 2/3 innings in a swing capacity in 2021.

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Nationals Claim Lucius Fox

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The Nationals have claimed infielder Lucius Fox off waivers from the Orioles, per announcements from both clubs. Baltimore had claimed Fox off waivers from the Royals earlier this month.

Fox, 24, was a big-time international signing by the Giants out of the Bahamas back in the 2015-16 international signing period. Signed to a $6MM bonus, he was viewed as a gifted up-the-middle defender with a promising hit tool but a lack of power. San Francisco clearly wasn’t the only club enamored of his skill set, as Fox has been included in a couple of fairly notable trades — going from San Francisco to Tampa Bay in the Evan Longoria swap and from the Rays to the Royals in exchange for Brett Phillips.

To this point in his career, Fox has gotten on base at a respectable clip but has indeed demonstrated a lack of power. In five minor league seasons, he’s posted a .244/.339/.332 batting line — never topping five home runs or 20 doubles in a given season. Scouting reports, including this one from FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, note that Fox has plus speed and strong defensive tools but is still inconsistent with the glove.

Fox will vie for a spot in a fairly wide-open Nationals infield mix next spring, where Alcides Escobar, Luis Garcia and Carter Kieboom look like the incumbent options at shortstop, second base and third base, respectively. That said, Fox also has a minor league option remaining, so if he lasts on the 40-man roster through the remainder of the offseason, he can be sent to Triple-A without first needing to pass through waivers.

Orioles Release Brooks Kriske

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The Orioles have released right-handed pitcher Brooks Kriske, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports that he could be interested in an opportunity with a foreign professional club.

Kriske, who turns 28 in February, was selected by the Yankees in the sixth round of the 2016 draft. He climbed his way up the ranks of the minors and eventually made his MLB debut in 2020. However, he’s been given very limited opportunities at the big league level thus far, only logging 15 innings in the past two seasons combined. He has an unsightly 14.40 ERA in that small sample, but has been much better in the minors.

At Triple-A this year, between the Yankees’ and Orioles’ systems, he threw 29 1/3 innings with an ERA of 3.68, along with a hefty strikeout rate of 37.4%, but a lofty walk rate of 12.2%. The Orioles claimed him on waivers from the Yankees in September, but he wasn’t able to hold onto his roster spot through the winter. He is still young and has an option year remaining, which could give him some appeal to other clubs as a depth signing.

The release of Kriske means Baltimore now has 39 players on their 40-man roster, allowing them to potentially use that open spot in the Rule 5 draft. The rebuilding Orioles have been quite active in recent Rule 5 drafts, making three selections in 2017, one in 2018 and then two selections in both 2019 and 2020. The draft is scheduled to take place December 9, but could be delayed by the lockout and transaction freeze that are expected to follow the expiration of the CBA on December 1.

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