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Jerry Walker Passes Away

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The Orioles announced this morning that former All-Star pitcher Jerry Walker passed away over the weekend. He was 85.

Walker, a 6’1″ right-hander, signed with Baltimore out of East Central University in Oklahoma. Even though he was just 18 years old at the time, the O’s sent Walker straight to the big leagues. He remarkably managed a 2.93 ERA over 13 appearances (three starts) down the stretch in 1957. The O’s sent him down the following season and gave him nearly a full year in the minors to build up as a starting pitcher. In 1959, Walker got a shot at Baltimore’s rotation.

During his age-20 season, Walker turned in the best year of his career. He fired 182 innings of 2.92 ERA ball while recording 100 strikeouts. Between 1959-62, MLB hosted two All-Star Games per season. The American League tabbed Walker to open the second All-Star contest in 1959.

At 20 years and 172 days, he remains the youngest starting pitcher in All-Star Game history. (Just behind him on that list are Fernando Valenzuela, Dwight Gooden, Mark Fidrych, Vida Blue, yesterday’s NL starter Paul Skenes, and Denny McLain.) Walker started opposite Don Drysdale and got the win against a National League lineup that included Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks and Stan Musial.

Walker pitched one more season in Baltimore, working to a 3.74 ERA across 118 innings. The O’s traded him to the then-Kansas City A’s going into the 1961 campaign in a deal that netted them outfielder Dick Williams and reliever Dick Hall. Walker struggled over two seasons in the Kansas City rotation. The A’s eventually swapped him to the Indians for Chuck Essegian (who’d coincidentally gone to K.C. alongside Walker in the 1961 trade before being quickly sold to Cleveland). Walker worked out of the Cleveland bullpen for two seasons. He finished his playing career in the upper minors in 1967.

That preceded a much lengthier second act in various off-field roles. Walker worked as a scout, minor league manager and MLB pitching coach well into the 1980s. He worked his way up to general manager of the Tigers in 1993, leading the front office for one season in which the team went 85-77. Walker held roles in the Cardinals and Reds front offices into the 2010s.

Over parts of eight MLB campaigns, Walker turned in a 4.36 earned run average. He compiled a 37-44 record with 326 strikeouts across 747 innings. Walker tossed 16 complete games, seven of which came during the ’59 season in which he made All-Star history. MLBTR sends our condolences to Walker’s family, loved ones, and various former teammates and colleagues throughout the industry.

Corbin Burnes Named Starting Pitcher For American League All-Star Team

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Orioles right-hander Corbin Burnes has been named the starting pitching for the American League side in this year’s All-Star game, per announcements from Major League Baseball and the O’s. This will be his fourth All-Star selection but his first time starting.

Burnes, 29, has been one of the best pitchers in the majors in recent years. He spent most of his career with the Brewers but came to the O’s via an offseason trade. From 2020 to 2023, Burnes logged over 600 innings with Milwaukee, posting a 2.86 ERA in that time. He struck out 30.9% of batters faced, limited walks to a 7.1% clip and kept balls in play on the ground at a rate of 46.4%. He made the All-Star team in three straight years from 2021 to 2023 and won the National League Cy Young in the first season of that stretch.

Since coming over to the American League, he has largely continued in the same manner. Through 19 starts as an Oriole, he has a 2.43 ERA in 118 2/3 innings. His 23.3% strikeout rate is down relative to his past work but he’s also lowered his walk rate to 5.3% and increased his ground ball rate to 49.4%.

It was a bit questionable as to whether Burnes would be able to participate in the game as his wife recently gave birth to twins, but she apparently signed off on him appearing in the game, per Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic on X. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy is the skipper for the American League and mentioned the success of the O’s as well as the track record of Burnes as factors leading to his decision, per Jake Rill of MLB.com on X.

Burnes is in his final season of arbitration and will be a free agent at season’s end. He placed second on the most recent edition of the MLBTR Free Agent Power Rankings, trailing only Juan Soto of the Yankees.

Poll: Who Will Win The 2024 Home Run Derby?

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The 2024 All-Star break festivities are already well underway, with the Futures Game in the books and the second of three draft days currently taking place. Tonight, the Home Run Derby will take center stage at 7pm Central time, with these participants:

The winner will get $1MM, with $500K for the runner-up and $150K for everyone else in the field. There’s also a $100K bonus for the player who hits the longest home run. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won last year but opted not to defend his title, so there will be a new champion, though Alonso has two previous titles from 2019 and 2021 and will be looking for a third.

This year’s format will be different from previous versions, with Cole Jacobson of MLB.com providing a rundown. The primary change is that there will be no head-to-head matchups in the first round, as the four players with the most home runs will advance. If two players tie, the longest home run will be a tiebreaker. Previously, the knockout-style bracket system started right away but this year’s version won’t see that until the field has been narrowed to four. Once the knockout stage begins, ties will be settled by 60 seconds of extra time. If the players are still tied, they will engage in three-swing showdowns until they are no longer tied.

In the first two rounds, players with have three minutes, which drops to two minutes in the final round. The three-minute rounds will now have a 40-pitch maximum while the two-minute round will feature a 27-pitch maximum.

The bonus time is also different. Previous versions featured 30 seconds of automatic extra time, which jumped to 60 seconds if the player hit two or more home runs 440 feet or longer. This year, the bonus time will continue until a player record three “outs,” which is a swing that doesn’t result in a home run. If a player hits a home run 425 feet or longer in the bonus period, he will get a fourth out.

Of the eight players competing this year, Henderson has the most homers this year with 28. He is followed by Ozuna at 26, Ramírez at 23, Alonso and Hernández at 19, García at 17, Witt at 16 and Bohm at 11.

Who do you want to win and who do you think will win? Have you say in the polls below!

Orioles Place Heston Kjerstad On Seven-Day Concussion IL

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The Orioles announced that outfielder Heston Kjerstad has been placed on the seven-day injured list for concussion-related injuries.  Outfielder Kyle Stowers was called up from Triple-A Norfolk to take Kjerstad’s place on the active roster.

The injury stems from a scary incident in last night’s 4-1 Orioles loss to the Yankees, as Kjerstad was hit in the head by a Clay Holmes fastball in the bottom of the ninth.  Both benches cleared in the aftermath of the HBP, only adding to the tension between the two AL East rivals in this important series.  Kjerstad naturally left the game after being hit, and though he was initially included in today’s lineup, he was a late scratch following the pregame workouts.

Since there was some idea that Kjerstad could’ve returned to the field today, it might imply that the IL placement is precautionary in nature.  Due to the upcoming All-Star break, Kjerstad would miss only three games if is able to return after the seven-day minimum, plus Baltimore also has an off-day on July 22 if the club wanted to give him a bit of extra recovery time.  Given the fluid nature of head-related injuries, it is also possible Kjerstad could miss far beyond seven days if he has indeed suffered a concussion.

Kjerstad made his MLB debut with 13 games in 2023, and the top prospect began this season in Triple-A before being recalled to the Orioles’ roster for about a three-week stretch bridging late April to mid-May.  He received only 17 plate appearances over seven games in that first stint, but has gotten much more playing time since his last recall on June 24, and has forced his way into regular action in the O’s lineup.  Kjerstad has hit .378/.465/.676 with three homers in 43 plate appearances since June 24, seeing action as a DH and in both corner outfield slots and almost exclusively facing right-handed pitching.

The left-handed hitting Stowers could essentially fit right into Kjerstad’s role on paper, and also like Kjerstad, Stowers is another former top prospect looking for playing time within the crowded Baltimore roster.  Appearing in each of the last three MLB seasons, Stowers has hit .222/.269/.365 over 167 career PA, though those numbers are weighed down by a dismal 33-PA performance in 2023.  This year, Stowers has a more respectable .286/.278/.486 slash line in 36 PA, and he has continued to mash at Triple-A.  Strikeouts remain a flaw in Stowers’ game, but he can provide the O’s with some power potential at least until Kjerstad is back.

Orioles GM Mike Elias Discusses Trade Deadline, Holliday, Mayo

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Orioles GM Mike Elias spoke to reporters prior to this afternoon’s game against the Yankees and touched on a number of topics, including the club’s needs and goals ahead of the trade deadline as well as the status of two of the club’s key, upper-level prospects: infielders Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo. As noted by Roch Kubatko of MASN, Elias suggested to reporters that both Holliday and Mayo figure to factor into the club’s plans as “big contributors” in the second half this year.

Holliday, of course, is the consensus top prospect in the entire sport and got a brief cup of coffee at the big league level earlier this year. The 20-year-old looked overmatched in the majors at the time, slashing just .059/.111/.059 in 36 trips to the plate across ten games. He then returned to the Triple-A level and hit .252/.418/.429 over his next 40 games. That’s a solid overall slash line but a far cry from what Holliday had done in the past, especially looking at his production in early June, when he hit just .212 with a 26.7% strikeout rate and a .394 slugging percentage in ten games before being placed on the minor league IL due to what the club referred to at the time as a “barking” shoulder.

The young phenom returned to action after two weeks on the shelf and has looked more like himself at the plate, slashing a solid .250/.464/.425 in 12 games since returning. He’s been limited to appearances at DH since returning, but that restriction figures to come off soon as Elias told reporters (including Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball) this afternoon that Holliday will resume playing the field after the All-Star break. That should leave Holliday in line to take over a regular role at second base for the Orioles at some point in the second half.

Baltimore has been relying on a combination of Ramon Urias and Jorge Mateo to fill out the infield mix, with Jordan Westburg playing second base on days Urias is in the lineup and third base on days Mateo is in the lineup. Holliday’s arrival would likely open the door for Westburg to settle in at the hot corner on a more permanent basis while shifting both Urias and Mateo into bench roles. Of course, that infield picture figures to get complicated further by the introduction of Mayo, who Elias spoke of glowingly in conversation with reporters (including MLB.com’s Jake Rill) this afternoon.

“He is in an exceptionally good spot. We talk about him all the time,” Elias said of Mayo, according to Rill. “He’s very close. He’s going to help us this year. It’s just going to be about the right moment and the right opportunity and the right runway for something like that.“

Mayo’s readiness for a new challenge is all but undeniable at this point. The 22-year-old infielder posted a 127 wRC+ in 62 games at the Triple-A level last season and has followed it up with even stronger numbers this year. In 284 trips to the plate at Triple-A this season, Mayo has slashed an incredible .297/.380/.606 with a wRC+ of 147. While his 24.6% strikeout rate is perhaps a smidgen higher than is ideal, he more than makes up for the swing-and-miss with a 10.4% walk rate and a phenomenal 19 homers in just 63 games.

Talented as the slugger is, however, his roster fit in Baltimore is a difficult one to sort out. Mayo’s native position is third base, and that’s where he’s received almost all of his reps throughout the minors. With that being said, his defense has drawn mixed reviews and with Westburg likely to lock down the hot corner on an everyday basis upon Holliday’s ascension to the majors, that would leave Mayo on the outside looking in when it comes to reps at his natural position. Mayo has also received occasional time at first base, however, and it’s fairly easy to imagine him factoring in to the club’s first base/DH mix. Even that part of the roster is overcrowded, however, as Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn are currently splitting time there while Adley Rutschman also spends time at DH when not behind the plate and the club’s five outfield bats- Austin Hays, Anthony Santander, Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins, and Heston Kjerstad– vie for what’s left of the playing time available at DH when not patrolling the grass.

The Orioles’ overflow of positional talent could, of course, be lessened somewhat by trades in the run-up to the deadline on July 30. Elias told reporters (including Dubroff) that while the front office is largely focused on the draft, which will run from tomorrow until Tuesday, the club will turn its attention toward the upcoming deadline afterwards and will have the flexibility to add payroll as they pursue additions. Kubatko adds that while Elias did suggest that payroll could increase under the club’s new ownership group, that doesn’t mean it’s “definitely” going to happen this summer and that the front office plans to be “disciplined” in their spending going forward, even as the purse strings loosen relative to where payroll had been under the Angelos family. Of course, even just reaching the vicinity of peak payroll under the Angelos family, which Cot’s Baseball Contracts lists as just under $165MM back in 2017, would offer the Orioles plenty of room to work with this summer and headed into the offseason.

In terms of specific needs, Elias acknowledged (as relayed by Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun) that adding a starting pitcher with multiple years of team control would be a “big bonus” for the club as they stare down an offseason where they’ll need to fill out an Opening Day rotation where only Grayson Rodriguez, rookie Cade Povich, and struggling righty Dean Kremer can be reliably penciled in thanks to the pending free agencies of John Means and Corbin Burnes as well as surgeries underwent by Means, Kyle Bradish, and Tyler Wells that figure to sideline them into 2025. Attractive as the addition of a controllable arm would be, however, Weyrich goes on to note that Elias made clear the club will be “approaching this deadline with 2024 front and center.”

A look at MLBTR’s Top 50 Trade Candidates for the summer will reveal a list littered with potential options that feature multiple years of control, ranging from breakout White Sox star Garrett Crochet and veteran righty Erick Fedde, to Rockies hurlers Cal Quantrill and Austin Gomber, and even Rays starters Zach Eflin and Zack Littell. While an intradivision trade with Tampa seems somewhat unlikely, the Orioles certainly have the farm system to acquire virtually any player they set their sights on, even without parting ways with Holliday or Mayo.

That said, it’s certainly feasible that the club could look to acquire shorter-term pitching options as well. Right-hander Jack Flaherty is the top rental pitcher on the market this summer and seems like a less than ideal fit after he struggled to a 6.75 ERA down the stretch with Baltimore last year, but hurlers like Frankie Montas, Michael Lorenzen, and Trevor Williams could also be available this summer as pure rentals depending on the competitiveness of their respective clubs in the run-up to the deadline. It would also hardly be a surprise to see the Orioles attempt to beef up a bullpen mix that recently lost left-hander Danny Coulombe to surgery that will keep him out of action until at least September.

Orioles Select Vinny Nittoli

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1:07pm: The Orioles have announced the selection of Nittoli’s contract. In corresponding moves, left-hander Cade Povich was optioned to Triple-A and Coulombe was transferred to the 60-day IL.

8:45am: The Orioles are selecting the contract of right-hander Vinny Nittoli, as MASN’s Roch Kubatko reported this morning. The righty signed with the club on a minor league deal earlier this month. The club will need to make a corresponding 40-man move in order to add Nittoli to the roster, though that could be accomplished by transferring lefty Danny Coulombe to the 60-day injured list.

Nittoli, 33, was a 25th-round pick by the Mariners back in 2014 and has spent his decade in professional baseball largely as a minor league journeyman. After spending a few years in Seattle’s minor league system, Nittoli departed affiliated ball in 2017 and spent two years pitching in the independent American Association before catching back on in the minors. Over the course of his professional career, he’s suited up for the Mariners, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, Yankees, Phillies, Cubs, Mets, A’s, and now the Orioles at the Triple-A level. In all that time, however, he’s received only scattered playing time in the majors with 13 big league appearances to his name.

More than half of those appearances came with the A’s earlier this season. He pitched eight innings of work in total with Oakland, and performed to a strong 2.25 ERA with five strikeouts against two walks. The righty has actually received similarly brief cups of coffee in the major leagues in each of the last four seasons, having first made his big league debut with the Mariners back in 2021. In all, Nittoli sports a 3.07 ERA despite a lackluster 5.02 FIP and a strikeout rate of just 16.4% in 14 2/3 innings of work at the big league level.

Despite those relatively pedestrian numbers at the big league level, it isn’t hard to see why the Orioles would be interested in giving Nittoli a look at the big league level. He’s been nothing short of dominant at the Triple-A level this year with a 2.73 ERA in 26 1/3 innings of work split between the affiliates of Oakland and Baltimore. That already impressive figure is made all the more intriguing by the fact that the majority of those innings came in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, where the Athletics’ affiliate in Las Vegas plays. Nittoli has paired those strong run prevention numbers with an eye-popping 36% strikeout rate at the level this year, suggesting that there could be a meaningful improvement in skills to go along with the results.

Altogether, Nittoli’s resume is interesting enough for the Orioles to give him a shot in their bullpen mix. The club’s relief corps has been more or less league average this year, rankings 14th in baseball with a 3.84 ERA, but there’s certainly room for improvement ahead of the club’s back-end duo of Yennier Cano and Craig Kimbrel, particularly after Coulombe underwent surgery last month. Right-hander Bryan Baker, for example, can be optioned to the minors and has struggled to a 5.14 ERA and 4.38 FIP in 14 innings of work with the club.

Royals Trade Colin Selby To Orioles

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The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve acquired right-hander Colin Selby from the Royals in exchange for cash. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. Kansas City had recently designated Selby for assignment. The O’s transferred Kyle Bradish from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Selby, 26, pitched just three big league innings for the Royals this season, allowing a pair of runs in that short time. Kansas City acquired Selby from Pittsburgh back in April, sending minor league southpaw Connor Oliver to the Pirates in return. Selby pitched 24 innings with the Bucs last year but was tagged for 24 runs in that time. To date, he’s allowed 26 earned runs in 27 MLB frames.

Obviously, that’s a poor track record but also a small sample at the game’s top level. But the former 16th-round pick is no stranger to minor league success, having posted excellent numbers at the Double-A level in addition to some decent but inconsistent results in Triple-A. Selby notched a sub-4.00 ERA with a 30.8% strikeout rate for Pittsburgh’s Triple-A club last season but has struggled to a 5.32 ERA in 20 Triple-A frames between Indianapolis and Omaha this year.

Missing bats is nothing new for Selby, who’s punched out 25.6% of his career minor league opponents. That includes some lesser strikeout rates in the lower minors when he was still working as a starter. Since moving up to the Double-A level and shifting exclusively to a relief role, Selby has fanned 29.8% of the batters he’s faced. His bat-missing arsenal, as is often the case, is accompanied by troubling command woes, however. He’s dished out a free pass to 12.5% of his combined Double-A/Triple-A opponents and plunked another five hitters. Between those walks and HBPs, he’s given first base away to about 14% of the hitters he’s faced in the upper minors.

Selby is in the second of three minor league option years and doesn’t yet have a full season of MLB service under his belt. If the O’s can get him straightened out, he’ll be optionable again next season and under club control for a full six seasons. There’s quite a ways to go before that’s even a plausible situation, but Baltimore has a knack for coaxing strong relief work from unheralded acquisitions. Their track record isn’t spotless, of course, but the O’s have unlocked next-level performances from Yennier Cano, Danny Coulombe, Cionel Perez and Jacob Webb, among others, despite middling to nonexistent track records at their time of acquisition.

Orioles Select Burch Smith

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The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Burch Smith from Triple-A Norfolk. Fellow righty Dillon Tate was optioned to Norfolk in a corresponding move. Baltimore already had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so a 40-man move wasn’t necessary.

The 34-year-old Smith signed with the O’s on a minor league deal two weeks ago. He’s pitched a pair of shutout innings for the Tides during his brief Triple-A stint in the organization, fanning a pair and only allowing one hit along the way. He also tossed 29 2/3 innings out of the Marlins’ bullpen earlier this season and worked to a solid 4.25 ERA — albeit with a subpar 17% strikeout rate. However, Smith also walked only 6.7% of his opponents and kept the ball on the ground at a hearty 47% clip.

That marked Smith’s first big league work since 2021. He spent the 2022 season with the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and the 2023 season with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Hanwha Eagles. A former 11th-round pick, Smith has pitched in parts of six big league seasons between the Padres, A’s, Royals, Giants, Brewers and Marlins, logging a combined 5.79 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate.

As for Tate, he was a key member of the Baltimore bullpen in 2022, when he pitched 73 2/3 innings of 3.05 ERA ball for manager Brandon Hyde. He opened the 2023 season on the injured list due to a flexor strain, however, and when he’d progressed to the point that he was ready for a rehab assignment, he suffered a stress reaction in his elbow that led to a second shutdown. He wound up missing the entire 2023 season as a result of those two injuries.

Now healthy, Tate was enjoying a strong season up through mid-June before hitting a substantial rough patch. As recently as June 19, Tate was sitting on a sparkling 2.31 ERA. A poor 15.6% strikeout rate suggested he would have a hard time sustaining quite that level of success, but Tate sported an average walk rate and huge 56.3% grounder rate. Regression indeed came — and far more aggressively than anyone could’ve reasonably predicted. He’s been scored upon in three straight appearances and has given up runs in six of his past eight outings. Dating back to June 19, Tate has a 9.90 ERA (11 runs in 10 innings).

The move to option Tate comes not long before he’d have been granted the right to refuse such an assignment. The former No. 4 overall pick entered the season with 4.048 years of MLB service and has run that total up to 4.128 years. With just 44 more days on the active roster or injured list, he’d reach five years of service. At that point, he’d have to consent to being optioned.

So long as Tate gets 44 more days on the active roster or injured list between now and season’s end, he’ll remain on track to become a free agent following the 2025 season. If, however, he’s up for 43 or fewer days, he’ll finish the season with four-plus years instead of five-plus and have his path to free agency pushed back by a year.

Orioles Moving Cole Irvin To Bullpen

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The Orioles are kicking left-hander Cole Irvin to the bullpen, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (X link via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). Baltimore will stick with a starting five of Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, Albert Suárez and rookie Cade Povich.

Irvin has spent the majority of his career as a starter. Yet this is the second straight year in which he’s been squeezed out of the Baltimore rotation, at least temporarily. Acquired from the A’s going into the 2023 season, Irvin only started half of his 24 appearances a year ago. Baltimore moved him back into the rotation this year — in part because of injuries to Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells. He has started 14 of 16 outings.

The southpaw’s overall results are serviceable. Irvin carries a 4.13 ERA in 80 2/3 innings. His 16.1% strikeout rate is well below average, but Irvin’s game has never been built around missing many bats. He’s primarily a control artist and has continued to excel in that regard, walking fewer than 5% of opponents this year.

However, the vast majority of Irvin’s production came in the first two months of the season. He carried a 2.84 ERA through 50 2/3 innings into June. Opponents have teed off on him over the past couple weeks. Irvin was rocked for 6.30 earned runs per nine in 30 innings last month. His home run rate spiked to an untenable 1.8 HR/9 while opposing hitters put up a massive .341/.373/.591 slash line. Irvin’s three most recent starts have been especially poor. He allowed at least five runs in each without completing five innings in any.

The 30-year-old will try to sort things out in a multi-inning relief role. Hyde left open the possibility for Irvin to return to the rotation at any point. His chance of returning to starting could become more limited over the coming weeks. Acquiring starting pitching — ideally a third starter who could join Burnes and Rodriguez in a playoff rotation — should be a deadline priority for an O’s team holding a narrow advantage on the Yankees in the AL East. There might not be a robust supply of high-level starters this summer, which complicates things, but it’d be a surprise if the Orioles weren’t among the more aggressive suitors for starting pitching.

Irvin is playing this season on a $2MM arbitration salary. He’s out of options, so the Orioles can’t send him to Triple-A without putting him on waivers. Baltimore controls him via arbitration for two seasons beyond this one, yet it wouldn’t be surprising if they shop or even non-tender him next offseason. There’s an outside chance the O’s field trade offers on Irvin this summer (especially if they first acquire an impact stater who firmly blocks his path back to a starting job).

For now, he’s likely to serve in a long relief role in Hyde’s bullpen. Irvin had solid numbers in that capacity a season ago, working to a 3.26 ERA while striking out 23.3% of opponents in 19 1/3 frames as a reliever.

Orioles, Vinny Nittoli Agree To Minor League Deal

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Right-hander Vinny Nittoli and the Orioles have agreed to a deal, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com on X. The righty will report to Triple-A Norfolk. Earlier today, Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune reported on X that the righty had elected free agency. He was designated for assignment by the Cubs last week but passed through waivers unclaimed.

It was just over a week ago that Nittoli elected free agency after he was outrighted by the Athletics. That led to him signing a major league deal with the Cubs, though he was bounced off the roster one day later without appearing in a game as the Cubs selected Jorge López. He’s out of options and also has the right to reject outright assignments by virtue of having previously been outrighted in his career, with both of those factors contributing to his many transactions in recent days.

The 33-year-old Nittoli signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason and started the season pitching well in Triple-A. He tossed 23 1/3 innings for Sacramento, allowing 2.70 earned runs per nine. His 11% walk rate was on the high side but he also struck out 36% of batters faced and got grounders on 45.1% of balls in play. He may have benefited from an 82.7% strand rate but was also pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and allowed a .347 batting average on balls in play.

That got him called up to the big leagues and he continued putting up good numbers, allowing just two earned runs in eight innings pitched for the A’s. He only punched out 15.6% of major league hitters but in a small sample of work. Despite that fairly solid performance, he lost his roster spot with Oakland and has been in suitcase mode for over a week now, thanks to getting that Cubs deal but then promptly being DFA’d again.

For the O’s, there’s no real risk in bringing him aboard via a minor league deal and getting an up-close look at him. As mentioned, he was racking up strikeouts in bunches in Triple-A earlier this year. This is his fourth straight season with MLB work but he’s never had a lengthy stretch in the show, currently with just 14 2/3 total innings on his résumé from those four seasons. In 159 Triple-A innings since the start of 2021, he has a 4.19 ERA. His 29.8% strikeout rate in that time is strong and his 8.3% walk rate close to average, but his 29 home runs allowed have pushed the ERA up.

If he can earn his way onto Baltimore’s roster, his grip on a spot may be tenuous, as it was with the A’s and Cubs. Though if he happens to have a roster spot at season’s end, he can be retained well into the future since he has less than a year of service time.

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