Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Orioles Rumors

Orioles Sign Beau Taylor To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Orioles have signed catcher Beau Taylor to a minor league contract, per a team announcement. He’ll head to Major League camp as a non-roster invitee.

The 32-year-old Taylor appeared in 75 games for the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate in 2021, tallying 234 plate appearances with a .232/.339/.333 batting line and four home runs. He didn’t get a call to the big leagues with Cincinnati and has just 60 Major League plate appearances under his belt in total, which he’s split between the A’s, Jays and Indians.

Taylor hasn’t hit much in his limited MLB time — 6-for-51 with a pair of homers and a double — but he’s posted a solid line in parts of four seasons in Triple-A, where a huge 14.5 percent walk rate has helped him to a .251/.366/.373 in 1032 plate appearances. Defensively, he’s drawn average or better marks both in pitch-framing and pitch-blocking in the upper minors, per Baseball Prospectus. He’s also thrown out 29 percent of would-be base thieves throughout 10 professional seasons.

The Orioles recently signed veteran Robinson Chirinos to a big league deal, and they have baseball’s top overall prospect, Adley Rutschman, knocking on the door to the big leagues. However, Rutschman recently incurred a triceps injury that will see him shut down for up to three weeks, thus prompting Baltimore to bring in a bit of extra depth. Taylor will join Jacob Nottingham and Anthony Bemboom as veteran non-roster invitees who’ve been signed by the O’s this winter. Baltimore also has a pair of in-house options, Brett Cumberland and Cody Roberts, who’ll be vying for opportunity as well.

Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays Drawing Trade Interest

By | at

In his latest notes column, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic indicates that rival teams are “asking the Orioles about” outfielders Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays. The veteran reporter cautions that a trade coming to fruition is unlikely, since Baltimore would like to “get a clearer picture of how their rebuilding plan is progressing before considering trades of their better players.”

It’s not surprising that the retooling Orioles are taking a wait-and-see approach with two of their more promising position players. Both Mullins and Hays come with four more years of team control and at ages 27 and 26, respectively, are likely to be in their primes when the Orioles turn a corner competitively.

While the O’s have been willing to listen to offers for Mullins (and presumably Hays) dating back to before the MLB lockout, it has long seemed that the team’s asking price would prove too prohibitive for inquiring clubs. That’s not to say a team in dire need of a center fielder or outfield thump in general won’t step up, but beyond the club control afforded by both players, each of Hays and Mullins is coming off a career year.

In 2021, the lefty-swinging Mullins made a name for himself with a .291/.360/.518 (135 OPS+) slash en route to a 9th-place MVP finish and Silver Slugger Award. Even that 9th-place finish may undercut how good Mullins was last season, as he remarkably played 159 games and served as MLB’s only 30-30 club member. Defensive metrics varied on the breakout player, but most agree he was at least an average defender in center field.

Hays had the quieter season but still supplied above-average production in the form of a .256/.308/.461 (106 OPS+) slash through 131 games. The right-handed hitter also swatted a career-high 22 home runs and 26 doubles that kept his slash line serviceable despite a below-average walk rate. A good deal of Hays’ value last season came from his glove. A center field-capable player, Hays spent most of his time in the outfield corners to generally positive reviews. As an arguably overqualified corner outfielder, Hays racked up 14 Defensive Runs Saved and a 3.1 bWAR in 2021.

Short of an offer that bowls them over, the Orioles are likely to hang onto two outfielders who thus far have the makings of core players. The team could see either player regress in the coming season, which is a very possible outcome given the limited track record of both players. Still, after five very losing seasons and a new collective bargaining agreement that included some anti-tanking measures, the Orioles may look to piece together a winning roster sooner rather than later.

Top prospect Adley Rutschman’s setback notwithstanding, the future in Baltimore looks to be brighter than it’s been for some time. Baseball America tabbed their farm system as the fourth best in the game in their latest farm rankings, calling attention to their five top-100 prospects— none of whom figure to be redundant on a roster with the aforementioned Hays and Mullins. The four-headed AL East monster above the Orioles in the standings may tempt the team to further bide their time and accumulate prospect capital. For the time being however, Baltimore appears set to hold off from doing anything too drastic.

Adley Rutschman Shut Down 2-3 Weeks Due To Triceps Strain

By | at

Orioles catching prospect Adley Rutschman recently suffered a right triceps strain, the team informed reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). The club is shutting him down from activity for the next two to three weeks.

With the MLB season set to begin in 22 days, it seems as if the injury will keep Rutschman from being ready for Opening Day. He presumably won’t jump right back into game action once he’s again cleared to begin baseball activities. Getting him back up to game speed could take some time, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him open the year on the injured list.

Rutschman is the sport’s most promising farmhand in the estimation of each of Baseball America, FanGraphs, MLB Pipeline and The Athletic. There’s no indication the injury poses a long-term concern, but the O’s will surely be cautious with a player they envision as a central piece of the future.

That’s all the more true because the injury could give the team a justification for keeping Rutschman in the minor leagues for the first few weeks. The 24-year-old is not yet on the 40-man roster, meaning he’d go on the minor league injured list if an IL stint is ultimately required. Rutschman wouldn’t accrue major league pay or service time for any time spent on the MiLB IL. The front office is obviously keenly aware that keeping him in the minor leagues for an extra couple of weeks could delay his path to free agency until the 2028-29 offseason.

Given those service time considerations, it seemed unlikely the rebuilding Orioles would break camp with Rutschman even were he healthy. Yet the injury could provide them some cover against backlash that may have arisen from the fanbase for holding him down to start the year, akin to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s Spring Training injury back in 2019. It’s hard to argue Rutschman isn’t ready for the big leagues on merit after he combined for a .285/.397/.502 line between Double-A and Triple-A last season.

The new collective bargaining agreement made some efforts to deter service time manipulation. Teams are eligible to receive extra draft choices for carrying players who later go to win major awards on their Opening Day rosters. The top two finishers in Rookie of the Year voting in each league will “earn” a full year of service time no matter how many days they spend on the active roster, so Rutschman could still play his way into a full season of service even if he doesn’t break camp. At present, Robinson Chirinos looks likely to open the year behind the plate for manager Brandon Hyde.

Orioles Re-Sign Chris Ellis To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Orioles announced that they have re-signed right-handed pitcher Chris Ellis to a minor league pact. It’s the team’s second minor league pitcher signing in three days, after signing right-handed pitcher Conner Greene to a deal on Monday.

The 29-year-old pitched part of last season with the Orioles after a mid-season claim out of the Rays’ DFA purgatory. Ellis started six games down the stretch for a rebuilding Baltimore team, posting a cool 2.49 ERA in 25 plus innings.

As the minor league deal indicates, there was trepidation around the league that Ellis was a pitcher who could be counted on to repeat last season’s performance with the Orioles. After all, the right-hander pitched to a 6.32 ERA at the Triple-A level with the Rays in 2021, a mark that’s only slightly higher than his career 6.09 ERA through 314 plus innings at the level.

A starter with consistently below average strikeout and groundball rates is unlikely to offer much upside moving forward, but if nothing else Ellis can serve as a source of bulk innings for a team with a shaky pitching core. A fastball with above average spin, plus a track record that includes looks from six different organizations suggests though that there may be more talent for Baltimore to tap into yet.

Orioles Sign Chris Owings To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Orioles announced Tuesday that they’ve signed veteran infielder/outfielder Chris Owings to a minor league pact and invited him to Major League camp.

Owings, 30, appeared in 21 games with the Rockies last season and turned in a huge .326/.420/.628 batting line in 43 plate appearances before a broken thumb required surgery and ended his season. He hit .268/.318/.439 in a similarly small sample with the Rox during 2020.

Solid as Owings’ output in Colorado was, he’s a career .243/.288/.372 hitter in just shy of 2400 plate appearances at the MLB level. Owings is plenty versatile, having logged at least 500 innings at both middle infield slots, in center field and in right field. He’s also tallied 181 frames at the hot corner.

The Orioles’ infield situation is more or less wide open. Rougned Odor is the favorite at second base after signing a Major League contract prior to the lockout, but Jahmai Jones and non-roster invitee Shed Long Jr. will get a look as well. Utilityman Ramon Urias and former top prospect Jorge Mateo are in the mix at shortstop, while former Nationals and Royals prospect Kelvin Gutierrez could get a look at third base. Infield prospect Rylan Bannon remains on the 40-man roster but had a rough showing in the minors last season that he’ll need to put behind him if he’s to force his way into the picture at second base or third base.

Orioles Notes: Infield, Rotation, Hall

By | at

Orioles general manager Mike Elias spoke to reporters today, including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, about the team and their future plans for roster construction. (Links from Twitter)

Broadly speaking, Elias said it’s unlikely that the club will be doling out any multi-year contracts. That’s hardly surprising given the state of the franchise. The club has had five straight miserable seasons, finishing in the AL East basement in four of those, only narrowly avoiding the same fate in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Last year, they finished 52-110, tied with the Diamondbacks for the worst record in baseball, while their four division rivals each each won at least 91 games. As the club has been firmly committed to the rebuilding process in recent years, they remarkably haven’t given out a multi-year deal since they signed Alex Cobb four years ago.

Moving from what they won’t do to what they might do, Elias said that the club is still looking to add to their shortstop competition. As the roster currently stands, Ramon Urias and Jorge Mateo would likely be the frontrunners for the position. However, each of them has only around 100 games of MLB experience, making it fairly sensible for the club to consider a more seasoned option. Leaving aside Carlos Correa and Trevor Story, some shortstop-capable options on the free agent market include Jonathan Villar, Matt Duffy and Ronald Torreyes.

Elias also added that they could add another pitcher to their starting rotation. The market for starters has been red hot for the entire offseason, both before and after the lockout, with some of the best remaining options being Tyler Anderson, Johnny Cueto and Michael Pineda. There would certainly be room for another arm of that caliber in Baltimore, given that John Means and Jordan Lyles are the only names currently on the depth chart with more than two years of MLB service time. Younger pitchers like Bruce Zimmermann, Keegan Akin, Zac Lowther and Dean Kremer will likely be competing for spots at the back end.

However, there is hope for the future of the rotation, as Elias had this to say about prospect D.L. Hall: “We may see him in the big leagues this year and we may see him quick.” The club’s first round selection in the 2017 draft, Hall has put up impressive numbers in the minors, though he was sidelined this year due to a stress reaction in his elbow, making his last appearance on June 12th. Despite that, he’s still highly regarded by prospect evaluators, being ranked the #72 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, #52 by Baseball America and #27 by FanGraphs. After throwing just 31 2/3 innings in Double-A last year, the fact that Elias is so bullish about his debut is surely encouraging news for Orioles fans.

Orioles To Sign Conner Greene To Minors Deal

By | at

The Orioles are signing right-handed pitcher Conner Greene to a minor league deal, per Robert Murray of FanSided. Greene will be a non-roster invitee in the Orioles’ spring camp.

Drafted by the Blue Jays in 2013, Greene started to garner some attention from prospect evaluators as he made his way up the minor league ranks. In 2016, Baseball America ranked him as the second-best prospect in Toronto’s system, though he fell to #5 and #16 in the next two seasons as he struggled to succeed in the upper levels of the minors.

In 2018, he was sent to the Cardinals as part of the Randal Grichuk trade, but was designated for assignment after just one season in the Cards’ system. He was claimed by the Royals but they, too, cut him loose after just one year.

The Orioles signed him to a minor league deal prior to the 2021 season. Greene eventually had his contract selected, got claimed off waivers by the Dodgers and re-claimed by the Orioles. In between those stints on the waiver wire, he managed to throw 25 1/3 MLB innings between the two clubs, putting up an ERA of 7.11, along with mediocre strikeout and walk rates of 21.5% and 9.9%. His numbers in 28 Triple-A innings were somehow worse, as he had a 7.39 ERA, 20.4% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate. The Orioles outrighted him at the end of the season.

Despite the lack of results, Greene continues to intrigue teams due to his stuff, with his fastball landing in the 86th percentile of MLB hurlers in terms of velocity and 70th percentile in terms of spin. He’s also still young (turning 27 in a few weeks), has less than a year of MLB service time and one option year remaining. For a team that seems destined for another year in the basement of the AL East, there’s little harm in taking a chance on Greene and seeing if he can harness his talents into better outcomes. If he succeeds, they could keep him around for years to come.

Details Of The Orioles' Deal With Jordan Lyles

By | at

After a few months in limbo, Jordan Lyles’ one-year contract with the Orioles finally became official today.  The righty reached an agreement with the O’s just hours before the lockout halted all offseason business, and thus Lyles wasn’t able to get a physical and fully finalize his new contract.  Lyles will receive $7MM in guaranteed money, which breaks down as a $500K signing bonus and a $5.5MM salary for 2022, as per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (Twitter link).  This would also mean that there is a $1MM buyout of Baltimore’s club option on Lyles for 2023, and Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports that the Orioles’ option is worth $11MM.

Orioles To Sign Robinson Chirinos

By | at

The Orioles have agreed to a deal with catcher Robinson Chirinos that will pay the veteran $900K in guaranteed money, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports.  Another $75K is available to Chirinos in incentives, and he’ll receive a $100K bonus if he is traded.  ESPN’s Marly Rivera (Twitter link) was the first to report that Chirinos and the O’s were close to a deal.

Having already acquired Anthony Bemboom and Jacob Nottingham this winter, the Orioles were still known to be on the lookout for an established catcher who could handle a more regular share of playing time.  Exactly how much playing time Chirinos will receive has yet to be determined, as it is widely expected that star prospect Adley Rutschman will be getting the bulk of work behind the plate in Baltimore this season, if perhaps not quite on Opening Day.

Given that the new collective bargaining agreement offers the promise of bonus draft picks to high finishers in Rookie Of The Year balloting, the O’s have some increased incentive to have Rutschman in the big leagues as soon as possible.  Regardless, Chirinos should be in line for a fair amount of work before or after Rutschman is promoted, and the trade bonus also addresses the distinct possibility that the rebuilding Orioles will look to flip Chirinos before the deadline.

Other than a dismal performance during the shortened 2020 season, Chirinos has quietly been a very solid offensive performer for much of the last eight years, hitting .232/.327/.438 with 90 home runs over 2147 PA with the start of the 2014 season.  Beyond just “good for a catcher,” this translates to a 102 OPS+ and 104 wRC+, making Chirinos a valuable member of the Rangers, Astros, and Cubs lineups, even if his relative struggles on defense limited his chances at being a true full-time starter.

Chirinos signed a minor league deal with the Yankees last offseason but suffered a fractured wrist during Spring Training, and eventually caught on with the Cubs in July after New York released him.  Chirinos bounced back from his rough 2020 with a respectable .227/.324/.454 slash line and five home runs over his 112 PA with Chicago.

Orioles Sign Three Players To Minor League Contracts

By | at

The Orioles announced a trio of minor league signings, as left-hander Buddy Baumann, right-hander Wes Robertson, and catcher Andres Angulo have all been added to the roster.  All three were minor league free agents, and thus eligible to be signed during the lockout.

Baumann is the only one of the group with MLB experience, as the southpaw posted a 5.58 ERA over 30 2/3 innings with the Padres and Mets from 2016-18.  Baumann gave up five homers and 18 walks in that small sample size, with a 25.2% strikeout rate.

This stint in the majors seemed to be the peak of Baumann’s 11 pro seasons, which began after he was a seventh-round pick for the Royals in the 2009 draft.  After pitching in independent baseball in 2019, Baumann actually retired from the sport, and worked as the pitching coach for the Angels’ rookie ball affiliate last season.  However, it seems like Baumann will make a comeback attempt at age 34 and see if he can land one more ticket to The Show.

Angulo has spent his entire career in the Giants farm system, after signing as an international prospect out of his native Colombia in 2015.  The catcher has a career .235/.308/.333 slash line over 848 plate appearances, making it as high as San Francisco’s Double-A affiliate last season.

Double-A also represents Robertson’s highest step on the minor league ladder, as he tossed 2 2/3 innings with the Reds’ Chattanooga affiliate in 2021.  Unfortunately, it was part of a rough year overall for Robertson, who compiled an 11.51 ERA over 22 2/3 combined frames in rookie ball, A-ball, and Double-A.  It was Robertson’s first season in the Reds organization after the undrafted righty spent his first three pro seasons (2017-19) pitching in the Rangers farm system.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top