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Orioles Claim Jorge Lopez From Marlins

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The Orioles have reunited with Jorge Lopez, as Joel Sherman of the New York Post (X link) reports that Baltimore has claimed the right-hander off waivers from the Marlins.  Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald reported earlier today that Lopez looked like the odd man out on the Marlins’ roster in some capacity, as the Fish needed to create roster space for Johnny Cueto’s activation from the 15-day injured list.  The Orioles designated right-hander Logan Gillaspie for assignment to create a spot for Lopez on the 40-man roster.

Lopez’s tenure in Miami ends after a little more than two months, as the Fish acquired the righty from the Twins in late July in a one-for-one swap for Dylan Floro.  In hindsight, it was a deal that hasn’t really worked out for either club, as neither reliever recaptured their old form after donning a new uniform.  Floro has posted a 6.30 ERA over 10 innings in Minnesota, while Lopez had even greater struggles, delivering only a 9.26 ERA in 11 2/3 innings for Miami.

It was a little over a year ago that Lopez was an All-Star, by dint of his outstanding 1.68 ERA over his first 48 1/3 innings pitched of the 2022 season as a member of the Orioles.  Given Lopez’s unimpressive career track record prior to 2022, however, Baltimore saw him less as a breakout star and more as a sell-high trade chip, so the O’s moved Lopez to the Twins at last year’s trade deadline.  Speaking of trade hindsight, that swap has already become an infamous move for Twins fans, as Yennier Cano was one of the four prospects sent back to the Orioles in return for Lopez.

While the Orioles front office took some heat at the time for dealing an All-Star closer (or being deadline sellers in general) when the club was contending for a playoff spot, those criticisms have certainly diminished given Cano’s breakout and Lopez’s lack of success basically since the moment he left Camden Yards.  The O’s now hope that Lopez can rediscover some of his 2022 magic to help a bullpen trying to get by without injured closer Felix Bautista.  Lopez isn’t going to step back into a ninth-inning role, of course, but he could provide some depth behind Cano and Danny Couloumbe as the temporary late-game closing duo.  The Orioles will be using Lopez for the stretch drive alone, as he isn’t eligible for postseason play since he was acquired after September 1.

Is there hope for a Lopez bounce-back?  Unsurprisingly, his metrics have dropped off sharply in most categories from 2022 to 2023, as his big advances in strikeouts and limiting hard contact have both fallen back to earth.  Lopez threw his sinker 50.5% of the time in 2022 and got plus results, though the pitch has now become much less effective, with Lopez throwing it only 34% of the time this season.  The righty has instead increased the use of his four-seamer to pretty disastrous results, as opposing batters have been teeing off on the pitch to the tune of a .400 batting average.

Rediscovering the All-Star version of Lopez may not be as simple as a change in pitch arsenal, but the Orioles are taking a relatively inexpensive plunge in hoping that he can provide at least adequate relief.  In making the waiver claim, the O’s pick up the roughly $578K remaining on Lopez’s $3.525MM salary for 2023.  The 30-year-old is also eligible for arbitration one final time this winter, though it seems likely that he’ll be non-tendered.  The fact that the Orioles (who have one of baseball’s best records) were even able to claim Lopez is a further sign of how his star has fallen in a year’s time, as it means that just about every other team in the league passed on Lopez before he was available for Baltimore to claim.

Since Lopez surely wouldn’t have been tendered a deal from the Marlins, the move provides a bit of salary relief for the Fish as they get an early jump on some offseason business.  It also allows Cueto to return without any further roster maneuvering, as Cueto is set to start today against Washington in his first outing since August 15.  The veteran righty has been sidelined due to a viral infection that scratched him from his previous start, and eventually required a 15-day IL stint to give Cueto time to fully recover.

Gillaspie made his MLB debut in May 2022, and has since been shuttled back and forth several times between the Orioles’ big league roster and Triple-A Norfolk.  The right-hander had a 3.12 ERA over 17 1/3 innings in 2022 but only a 6.00 ERA in nine frames of action this year, and his career Triple-A line sits at a 4.90 ERA over 71 2/3 innings, with a 23.08% strikeout rate and an 8.01% walk rate.  An undrafted player who broke in with the Brewers’ farm system in 2018, Gillaspie has been a member of Baltimore’s farm system since 2021.

Felix Bautista Placed On Injured List With “Some Degree” Of UCL Injury

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Orioles GM Mike Elias addressed reporters this afternoon regarding the status of right-hander Felix Bautista, who exited yesterday’s game against the Rockies with what was termed at the time as “arm discomfort.” It now appears that discomfort was something far more severe than initially indicated, as Elias told reporters (including MASN’s Roch Kubatko) that Bautista is dealing with “some degree of injury” to his ulnal collateral ligament. Naturally, Bautista is headed to the injured list, with Andy Kostka of of the Baltimore Banner reporting that left-hander DL Hall will take Bautista’s place on the Orioles’ roster. Baltimore has since made that move official, placing Bautista on the 15-day IL with a “right UCL injury” while recalling Hall.

While a prognosis is not yet known and no timetable regarding Bautista’s injury has been announced, it seems at least possible that the news brings an end to a season that has been nothing short of sensational for the 28-year-old righty. Bautista made his debut in the major leagues for the Orioles last year and produced an excellent season, with a 2.19 ERA, 2.91 FIP, 15 saves and a 34.8% strikeout rate across 65 appearances. Those numbers from his rookie season were impressive enough to convince Elias and his front office to ship then-closer Jorge Lopez to Minnesota at the trade deadline last year, with Bautista looking to be the club’s closer of the future.

The 2023 campaign has seen Bautista not only make good on that promise, but make a case for himself as the best reliever in the entire sport this year. In 61 innings of work this year, Bautista has racked up 33 saves (just one less than league leaders Alexis Diaz and Emmanuel Clase) while posting an unbelievable 46.4% strikeout rate with ERA (1.48) and FIP (1.89) marks below 2.00. His 2.8 fWAR this season puts him 20th in baseball among all pitchers, a figure that puts him in the same conversation as front-end arms like Luis Castillo and Kodai Senga despite offering less than half the volume of those starters.

Bautista’s heroics this season have catapulted Baltimore’s bullpen to or near the top of plenty of leaderboards this season. They collectively sport the sixth-best ERA (3.55), the best FIP (3.51) and fWAR total (6.8), and the third-highest strikeout rate (26.5%) in the majors this year, even in spite of middling performances from the likes of Shintaro Fujinami, Austin Voth, and Cionel Perez. The loss of Bautista naturally complicates the future for the club’s relief corps, though the addition of Hall, a former first-round pick who has posted gaudy strikeout totals in both the majors and minors despite limited big league experience, could provide a boost down the stretch.

Fellow right-hander Yennier Cano, who was acquired as part of the return in the aforementioned Lopez deal last year, seems primed to step into the closer’s role in Bautista’s stead. Cano is in the midst of what has been an excellent season of his own, with a phenomenal 1.62 ERA and 2.68 FIP. He’s managed to post those numbers in spite of a far less impressive strikeout rate of 24.2% thanks to a combination of a sensational groundball rate of 58.5% and a minuscule 4.2% walk rate.

Still, even in spite of the potential upside of Hall and the excellent performance of Cano, the loss of Bautista is a potentially catastrophic blow for the Orioles, who currently lead the AL East with an 80-48 record that trails only the Braves in all of MLB. Baltimore opted against any impact additions to a relatively weak starting staff that ranks just 19th in the majors in terms of fWAR and 15th by measure of ERA, instead only adding right-hander Jack Flaherty (91 ERA+ in 23 starts this season) to the mix. The club’s dominant bullpen, led by Bautista, surely played a role in the club’s decision not to more aggressively pursue an impactful arm like Eduardo Rodriguez or Jordan Montgomery.

With Bautista’s season now seemingly in peril, the club will have to lean more heavily on its rotation group going forward. Flaherty has struggled in three starts with the Orioles to this point, with a 7.07 ERA in 14 innings of work, but has a history as an excellent mid-rotation arm in the not-to-distant past. Kyle Bradish (3.03 ERA in 23 starts) has emerged as a clear playoff-caliber rotation arm this season, while rookie Grayson Rodriguez has posted a 3.24 ERA in seven starts since rejoining the team last month. Veteran righty Kyle Gibson has managed to keep the team in games despite a middling 4.89 ERA thanks to fourteen quality starts, a figure that places him in the top 10 among all AL pitchers this season.

AL East Notes: Yankees, Kjerstad, Swanson

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The Yankees are among the teams interested in star NPB pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, as noted by Newsday’s Erik Boland. Boland added that the club’s director of pro scouting Matt Daley is currently in Japan and another top scout visited to watch Yamamoto pitch earlier in the year. Jon Heyman of the New York Post also notes the Yankees interest, listing them among ten teams that scouted Yamamoto’s most recent start. That list of teams includes the club’s crosstown rival Mets as well as their division rival Red Sox.

Yamamoto, who claimed the #3 spot on MLBTR’s newest edition of the 2023-24 Free Agent Power Rankings, sports a sensational 1.34 ERA in 127 innings of work with the Orix Buffaloes this year, his age-24 season. That level of excellence extends all the way back to 2021; in 514 2/3 innings of work the past three seasons, Yamamoto’s ERA is 1.50 while he’s struck out 27.2% of batters he’s faced, walking just 5.2%. That level of dominance even eclipses that of former Yankee Masahiro Tanaka, who made two All Star appearances and posted a 3.33 ERA in ten postseason starts for the club after signing a seven-year, $155MM deal with New York prior to the 2014 season.

It’s no wonder the Yankees would have interest in Yamamoto; while they’ve gotten another excellent season out of ace Gerrit Cole, the club’s other starters have largely disappointed. Lefties Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes, nominally the club’s #2 and #3 starters, have been limited to just 7 and 12 starts respectively this season thanks to injuries and struggled badly. A Yamamoto signing would certainly give the Yankees a quality arm to pair with Cole at the top of their rotation while simultaneously helping to alleviate pressure not only on Rodon and Cortes, but also on youngsters like Clarke Schmidt, Jhony Brito, and Randy Vasquez entering 2024.

More from around the AL East…

  • Orioles outfield prospect Heston Kjerstad is on the club’s radar for a possible call-up option when rosters expand on September 1, as GM Mike Elias told reporters (including BaltimoreBaseball.com’s Rich Dubroff). The 2nd overall pick in the 2020 draft, Kjerstad didn’t make his MiLB debut until last June thanks to a myocarditis diagnosis but has done nothing but hit since then. In 473 trips to the plate this season between the Double-A and Triple-A levels, the 24-year-old outfielder has slashed a sensational .308/.378/.542 with a strikeout rate just below 18%. If called up for the stretch run, Kjerstad would join an outfield that typically sports Austin Hays in left, Cedric Mullins in center, and Anthony Santander in right.
  • Blue Jays reliever Erik Swanson exited today’s game against the Guardians with right mid-back discomfort, as noted by The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath. The severity of Swanson’s injury isn’t yet known, but even a short absence for the right-hander, who sports a 3.10 ERA and a 29.4% strikeout rate in 58 innings of work this season, would be a substantial blow to Toronto’s bullpen. Of course, the club would still have right-handers Jordan Romano (2.60 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate) and Jordan Hicks (3.83 ERA, 30.3% strikeout rate) available for the late innings even if Swanson required a trip to the injured list.

Felix Bautista Leaves Game Due To “Arm Discomfort”

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Felix Bautista left last night’s 5-4 Orioles win over the Rockies with an apparent injury.  The star closer had recorded the first two outs of a save situation, but after throwing the fourth pitch of an at-bat against Michael Toglia, Bautista looked to be somewhat shaken up on the mound.  Bautista then departed the game with a team trainer, and Danny Coulombe took over to record the final out.

In a postgame discussion with MLB.com’s Byron Kerr and other reporters, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said “Bautista left the game with some arm discomfort.  He is still being checked out.  I’m not going to discuss it any further than that.  We are going to get a bunch of tests and see how it is.”

At this stage, it is too soon to tell whether or not Bautista’s issue is anything serious, or perhaps just a minor tweak that will only sideline him for a game or two.  Still, even the possibility of a Bautista injury is a very notable storyline, as the closer has been such a key part of Baltimore’s rise to the best record in the American League.

Exploding onto the scene with a big rookie season in 2022, Bautista has taken things to an even higher level this year.  The 28-year-old has a 1.48 ERA and a whopping 46.4% strikeout rate over 61 innings, converting 33 of 39 save opportunities.  While his 11% walk rate is concerning, Bautista has been almost untouchable when he has been able to find the zone, and his four-seamer (averaging 99.6mph) is among the most dominating pitches in the sport.

The nature of Bautista’s injury isn’t known, but this isn’t the first time he has dealt with some manner of arm trouble.  His offseason work and entry into Spring Training was hampered by some shoulder problems as well as knee soreness, though Bautista overcame both injuries and entered the season none the worse for wear, given his subsequent success.

Losing Bautista for any amount of time would be a big setback for the Orioles’ chances of winning the AL East (they hold a three-game lead over the Rays), or their chances of making a deep run into October.  If Bautista was out of action, setup man Yennier Cano would be the logical candidate to step into the closer role, with Coulombe then becoming the top setup option.  Conceivably, Hyde could divide the save opportunities between the right-handed Cano and the left-handed Coulombe based on specific in-game situations.

Adam Jones To Officially Retire

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The Orioles announced that Adam Jones will retire as an Oriole on September 15. Presumably, he will sign a one-day contract and there will be some pre-game festivities, though those details have not yet been announced. Jones last played in the majors in 2019, heading to Japan for two years after that but didn’t sign anywhere last year. Now he will officially hang up his spikes with the organization where he spent the bulk of his career.

Jones, now 38, was selected by the Mariners with the 37th overall pick in the 2003 draft. He was initially used as a shortstop but moved to the outfield as a minor leaguer. He became a top 100 prospect and was able to get some brief major league time with the Mariners in 2006 and 2007, getting into 73 games over those two seasons. He didn’t quite establish himself at the big league level immediately, hitting .230/.267/.353 in that time.

Adam Jones | Amber Searls-USA TODAY SportsPrior to the 2008 season, Jones was one of five players that the Mariners sent to the Orioles in the Erik Bedard trade, a move that would prove to be career-defining for Jones. The O’s were in a rough period at that time and were able to give Jones some regular playing time. He got into 132 games in 2008, hitting .270/.311/.400. That translated to a subpar wRC+ of 84, but he stole 10 bases and provided above-average center field defense, leading to a tally of 1.5 wins above replacement from FanGraphs.

2009 would be a breakout year for Jones, as he hit 19 home runs, more than doubling the nine he hit in the prior season. He hit .277/.335/.457 for a wRC+ of 103, getting selected to the All-Star team and winning a Gold Glove award in the process. Despite being limited to 119 games by an ankle sprain, he still matched his 1.5 fWAR tally from the year before.

He would become a staple of the outfield in Baltimore for years to come, continuing to produce in that all-around fashion with above-average offense, defense and speed. In May of 2012, he and the club agreed to a six-year, $85.5MM extension that ran through 2018, the largest contract in franchise history at that time.

That led to Jones playing 11 seasons with the Orioles from 2008 to 2018. He was remarkably consistent and reliable in that time, never playing less than 137 games in a season after the aforementioned 119 games in 2009. He played 1,613 games overall as an Oriole, hitting 263 home runs and stealing 90 bases. His .279/.319/.459 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 108 and he was worth 29.3 fWAR over those seasons.

With Jones in the outfield, the Orioles were able to emerge from a long period of mediocrity and become a perennial contender. After losing seasons in each campaign from 1998 to 2011, they went on to finish .500 or better five years in a row from 2012 to 2016. They made the playoffs three of those years, won the AL East division title in 2014 and made it to the ALCS that year.

But by the time his contract expired at the end of 2018, the O’s were back in a rebuilding period, one that they have just recently emerged from. Jones signed a one-year, $3MM deal with the Diamondbacks for 2019 but his offense and defense declined to subpar levels. He then signed a two-year, $8MM deal with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He hit .250/.334/.390 in 159 games over those two years.

Although Jones didn’t begin his career with the Orioles, the largest and best part of his career was spent in Baltimore. He didn’t finish his playing time with the Orioles either but will now ceremonially conclude his career with the O’s in a few weeks, officially closing the books on his time as a player. Overall, he got into 1,823 major league games and tallied 1,939 hits, including 336 doubles, 29 triples and 282 home runs. He scored 963 runs, drove in 945 and stole 97 bases, made five All-Star teams and won four Gold Gloves. He also represented Team USA internationally, playing in the 2013 and 2017 World Baseball Classic tournaments. The latter of those two saw him make arguably the most famous catch in WBC history, robbing his Oriole teammate Manny Machado, who was representing the Dominican Republic.

We at MLB Trade Rumors salute Jones on a fine career and wish him the best in all his post-playing endeavors.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Orioles Moving Tyler Wells To Bullpen

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The Orioles are taking a look at right-hander Tyler Wells out of the bullpen down in Triple-A Norfolk and could use him as a reliever down the stretch and into the postseason, tweets Jake Rill of MLB.com. Wells was optioned to Double-A last month after an alarming lapse in his command saw him walk or hit a quarter of his opponents in his first three starts following the All-Star break (nine walks, three hit batters, 48 total opponents faced).

Wells, 29 this weekend, got out to a brilliant start for the O’s in 2023, pitching to a 2.68 ERA in his first seven starts (47 innings). That success was largely built on a minuscule .145 average on balls in play and 88.2% strand rate, however, both of which are unsustainable measures for any pitcher over a larger sample. Dating back to mid-May, Wells has turned in a more pedestrian 4.59 ERA, while both his BABIP (.250) and strand rate (80.1%) in that time have begun to regress (though they’re both still a ways from league-average levels). The right-hander also lost a mile per hour off his fastball during that stretch; he averaged 93.2 mph through his first seven starts and 92.2 mph thereafter.

The 106 innings that Wells threw for the Orioles in 2022 (minors and big leagues combined) was his highest total since 2018. The former Rule 5 pick out of the Twins organization tossed just 57 innings from 2019-21, owing to injury and the canceled minor league season in 2020. Including the 9 2/3 innings he’s pitched since being optioned, Wells is up to 123 1/3 innings this season — topping the career-high 119 1/3 innings he pitched back in ’18.

Though the plan might be to manage Wells’ workload down the stretch with shorter relief appearances, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes that the organization isn’t necessarily closing the book on Wells a starter entirely. He could get a look in the rotation again next year, depending on the extent to which the O’s address the starting staff in the offseason. Baltimore will see both Kyle Gibson and trade acquisition Jack Flaherty become free agents at season’s end. Wells would join Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish, Bruce Zimmermann and DL Hall as in-house rotation options next season (though Hall has also been working in relief since returning from a stint on the minor league injured list).

If Wells acclimates well to the relief role and pitches his way back onto the big league roster, he’d be a boon for what’s already a strong relief corps — headlined by All-Stars Felix Bautista and Yennier Cano. Baltimore relievers rank sixth in the Majors with a 3.58 ERA, third with a 26.5% strikeout rate and first with just 0.82 homers per nine innings pitched. Wells pitched out of Baltimore’s bullpen in 2021, logging 57 innings of 4.11 ERA ball as a rookie. In 274 1/3 innings at the big league level — all with the O’s — he’s posted a 4.04 ERA with a roughly average 22.9% strikeout rate and an excellent 6.6% walk rate but a more troubling 1.64 homers per nine frames.

Wells needed a full 172 days of Major League service time in 2023 to reach three years of service, which he won’t get after being optioned late last month. However, assuming he’s recalled at some point between now and season’s end, he should still gain enough service to qualify as a Super Two player, making him arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three. This optional assignment has nevertheless likely delayed his path to free agency by a year; since he can’t reach three years of service this season, he’ll now be controllable at least through the 2027 campaign instead of after the 2026 season, as he’d been on pace for entering the year.

Orioles Reinstate Austin Voth, Transfer Keegan Akin To 60-Day IL

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The Orioles have reinstated right-hander Austin Voth from the 60-day injured list and optioned righty Mike Baumann to Triple-A Norfolk, per a team announcement. Left-hander Keegan Akin, who’s been out since late June due to a back injury, was moved from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to create 40-man space for Voth’s return.

Voth, 31, has been out since mid-June due to an elbow issue but recently wrapped up a minor league rehab assignment, pitching 11 1/3 frames of 3.97 ERA ball across three minor league levels. Prior to hitting the injured list, Voth had pitched to a 4.94 ERA in 31 innings out of the Baltimore bullpen, punching out 21.5% of his opponents against a 9.7% walk rate along the way.

The O’s claimed Voth off waivers from the Nationals on June 7, 2022, and immediately received improved results from the longtime Nats prospect. He’d allowed 21 runs in 18 2/3 innings with Washington in 2022 and posted an overall 5.70 ERA in 189 2/3 innings as a member of that organization. Voth, however, tossed 83 innings of 3.04 ERA ball down the stretch in Baltimore, making 22 appearances — 17 of them starts. Voth and the O’s agreed to a one-year, $1.85MM deal with a club option over the winter, avoiding arbitration in the process.

Given the way the 2023 season has played out, the O’s might not be keen on picking up that $2.45MM club option. Even if the team declines, however, Voth would remain under club control as an arbitration-eligible player. The O’s could decline that $2.45MM salary and still try to work out a deal with Voth at a lower rate — somewhere between this year’s salary and that would-be club option price. Of course, Baltimore could also consider non-tendering Voth and moving on entirely. His performance down the stretch will go a long way in determining that outcome.

Akin, 28, finds himself in a relatively similar situation. The southpaw had a strong 2022 season with the O’s, compiling 81 2/3 innings with a 3.20 ERA, 23.4% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate, 49.3% grounder rate and 1.10 HR/9. He’s had a rough go of it in ’23, however, pitching to a 6.85 ERA in 23 2/3 innings. Akin has actually slightly improved his strikeout rate, maintained his walk rate and cut back on the home runs he’s yielded. However, his grounder rate has also tanked, and opponents are clobbering his pitches (90.7 mph average exit velocity) after struggling to make hard contact in 2022 (87.8 mph). A .434 average on balls in play is surely due for some regression, but the uptick in hard contact and a line-drive rate that’s jumped from 18.1% to 28.6% underlines the fact that Akin’s struggles can’t be chalked up to poor luck alone.

Like Voth, Akin will be eligible for arbitration this winter. He’s going through that process for the first time, so he’ll be looking for his first raise of note over the league minimum. Akin’s success out of the ’pen in 2022 could well be enough to convince the Orioles to tender him despite this year’s poor results, but it’s not a lock they’ll choose to do so. Akin has already been out since late June, so the move to the 60-day IL is largely procedural. He’s already missed nearly 60 days, so this move won’t materially alter his path to a return. Akin began a minor league rehab assignment in late July but had a setback after two appearances and has yet to get back into a game.

Orioles Release Mychal Givens

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TODAY: The Orioles announced that Givens has been officially released.

AUGUST 19: Givens has cleared DFA waivers, and the Orioles announced that he has been placed on unconditional release waivers.

AUGUST 13: The Orioles announced that right-hander Mychal Givens has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and designated for assignment.

Givens, 33, signed a one-year deal in the offseason with a $5MM guarantee. Unfortunately, injuries have prevented him from providing much of anything this year. He began the season on the injured list thanks to left knee inflammation. He was activated in May but returned to the IL after just six appearances, this time due to right shoulder inflammation, eventually getting transferred to the 60-day version of the IL.

He seems to be healthy again, as he began a new rehab assignment a couple of weeks ago. But the O’s seem to have decided they don’t have room for him on their roster and have cut him loose instead. As a veteran with more than five years of service time, he can’t be optioned to the minors. He also has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of electing free agency while retaining all of his salary.

The deal that he signed came with a $3MM salary here in 2023 and then there’s a $6MM mutual option for 2024. If Givens declines his end of the option, he would receive a $1MM buyout. If he triggers his end and the team declines, it’s a $2MM buyout. There’s still about $790K of that salary left to be paid out, as well as the buyout/option. Given his health issues this year and that money, he’ll almost certainly clear waivers, leaving the Orioles responsible for that cash.

That will allow any of the 29 other clubs to sign him and pay him just the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the O’s pay. Although he’s been injured for much of the year, other clubs could still be interested based on his previous track record. Givens has a career ERA of 3.47 over 425 appearances dating back to 2015, striking out 28.2% of hitters while walking 10%.

Orioles Place Aaron Hicks On 10-Day Injured List

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Prior to tonight’s game with the A’s, the Orioles placed outfielder Aaron Hicks on the 10-day injured list due to a lower back strain, with a retroactive placement date of August 16.  Ryan McKenna was called up from Triple-A to take Hicks’ spot on the active roster and as part of Baltimore’s outfield mix.

Injuries have plagued Hicks throughout his career, and his recent setbacks are at least less serious than some of his past season-shortening issues.  However, Hicks missed about three weeks due to a hamstring strain before being activated last Monday, but he played in just one game before being sidelined again with his back problem.

As Hicks told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko and other reporters, “as soon as I start hitting it kind of starts to flare up a little bit….Walking around I feel fine, doing little things feel fine, rotation feels fine.  And then as soon as I start to try to fire it up and get moving as fast as possible is when it starts wanting to shut down.”

The Orioles’ plan is to shut Hicks down for around two weeks, manager Brandon Hyde told Kubatko and company, then re-evaluate.  With this cautious approach, Hicks will need some ramp-up time and perhaps more minor league rehab games before returning, so the veteran seems to be looking at a rough return timeline of the second week of September.  Because the injury is “kind of hit or miss right now,” as Hicks put it, the timeline might conceivably be shorter if his back spasms quickly dissipate.

The two IL stints have put a damper on a nice comeback run for Hicks in an O’s uniform.  After the Yankees designated and subsequently released Hicks in late May, he caught on with the Orioles for a minimum salary, as New York is still paying the rest of the roughly $22.6MM still owed on Hicks’ contract through the 2025 campaign.  The change of scenery seemed to help, as Hicks is hitting .261/.355/.440 with six homers over 155 plate appearances for Baltimore, after managing only a .211/.322/.317 slash line in 579 PA with the Yankees in 2021-22.

Given Hicks’ previous IL trip, the Orioles have gotten used to adjusting with Hicks in the lineup.  Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins, and Anthony Santander will remain the club’s primary outfield trio, though Santander is missing today’s game due to what Hyde described as “general soreness.”  Ryan O’Hearn and McKenna will also provide outfield depth in a part-time capacity.

John Angelos Reportedly Seeking Public Land, Extra Funding In Orioles’ Stadium Lease Negotiations

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It was reported back in February that the Orioles had declined a five-year lease extension on their lease at Camden Yards. The hope was that they could work out a longer deal that would allow them to take advantage of a new Maryland law and borrow $600MM for stadium upgrades. It was hoped that the longer deal would be worked out by the All-Star break, but it hasn’t come to fruition, with new reporting from Andy Kostka, Brenda Wintrode, Hallie Miller and Pamela Wood of The Baltimore Banner indicating club CEO and chairman John Angelos is trying to leverage the negotiations to acquire public land.

As noted in the report, Angelos and Maryland Governor Wes Moore took a tour of The Battery in March. The Atlanta area development houses Truist Park, where the Braves play, as well as various other spaces for retail, commercial and residential uses. He seems to see The Battery as a kind of model to emulate, though there are logistical challenges to following that blueprint in Baltimore. As noted in the report from the Banner, the Braves moved away from Turner Field in Atlanta to the suburb of Cumberland, purchasing 82 acres of land and spending $452MM on The Battery.

With that model in mind, Angelos is reportedly trying to get an extra $300MM in state funds as well as public land around Camden Yards, which is holding up a deal as the deadline looms at the end of the year. There are several obstacles to Angelos getting his wish, per the authors of the report.

One complication involves the Baltimore Ravens, who play in M&T Bank Stadium, just south of Camden Yards. The Maryland Stadium Authority lease with the Ravens, which that club signed in January, contains a clause requiring “parity” with their fowl neighbors. If the authority negotiates more favorable terms for the Orioles, they would have to modify their agreement with the Ravens in a comparable fashion.

Another part of that lease is that 4,000 nearby parking spaces have to remain surface lots, not to be turned into underground parking, so as to allow tailgating. The report notes that there are also state-owned parking lots nearby, with the revenue generated from those lots goes to the teams. If the O’s wanted that land, the authority would need to start a procurement process that could involve bids from other developers. One source with knowledge of the negotiations tells the authors that Angelos won’t get the land or money he is seeking.

Regardless of the complicated details, the report notes that the negotiations have shifted, with the plan moving from straightforward stadium upgrades to a much more complex design. A public opinion poll was circulated this week, from an unknown source, asking Marylanders how they felt about the Orioles potentially pursuing a larger revitalization project in a “public-private partnership.”

All this comes on the heels of an apparently tumultuous period for the Angelos family. Reports from 2022 indicated the family had been battling each other over how to move forward with the club after Peter Angelos collapsed in 2017, with Goldman Sachs having been retained to look into the possibility of a sale. There were various lawsuits involving Peter’s wife Georgia and their sons John and Louis, though it was reported in February of 2023 that those had all been dropped, just a few days after the club declined to renew its lease at Camden Yards. John was formally approved by the league’s other owners as the Orioles’ new control person following the 2020 season.

John Angelos has declined to comment on the current matter but Governor Moore expressed optimism about the process. “There is a core belief that this is about what we need to do to create a winner on the field, but also I’m committed to making sure that this is a win for Baltimore, and that this is a win for the state of Maryland,” he said. “We have a shared vision to be able to build a new journey and a new era where having the Orioles and the Ravens and all the other activities you can have in Baltimore … [happen] simultaneously. And we’re all going to win.” The current lease expires on December 31 of this year.

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