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Reds Claim Liván Soto From Orioles

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The Reds have claimed infielder Liván Soto off waivers from the Orioles, per announcements from both clubs. The O’s had recently designated him for assignment. The Reds transferred Tejay Antone to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move and optioned Soto to Triple-A Louisville. The O’s also announced that catcher David Bañuelos, also recently designated for assignment, has cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk.

Soto, 24 in June, has been riding the roster carousel all year. He began the year with the Angels but went to the Orioles via waivers in February. The Angels claimed him right back shortly thereafter but the O’s claimed him a second time last week. But when Tyler Wells suddenly developed some elbow inflammation earlier this week and the O’s didn’t have time to get a fresh arm from the minors, they added Bañuelos, who was already on hand as part of the taxi squad. But doing so required bumping Soto off his roster spot yet again.

He continues to garner interest based on his speed and defensive versatility. He has racked up a decent number of steals in the minors while playing the three infield positions to the left of first base, as well as a very brief stint in the outfield.

Offensively, he’s hit .375/.414/.531 in his major league career, though in a tiny sample of 71 plate appearances. His larger body of work in the minors hasn’t been as impressive, as he’s hit .246/.340/.355 for a wRC+ of 86 in 1,505 plate appearances since the start of 2021. Nonetheless, the defense and speed are attractive, especially since he has two options and doesn’t require an active roster spot.

The Reds came into this year with a surplus of infield talent, so much so that Spencer Steer and Jonathan India were seemingly ticketed for either outfield work or multi-positional roles. However, Noelvi Marté was given an 80-game PED suspension and then Matt McLain required shoulder surgery, subtracting two of their planned everyday options. The club acquired Santiago Espinal for a bit of extra infield depth and now Soto can give them a bit more.

The Reds effectively had a roster spot to burn since Antone required season-ending surgery last week. That made him destined to be transferred to the 60-day IL at some point, which has now come to pass and allowed the club to add Soto to the system.

As for Bañuelos, as mentioned, he was hastily added to the O’s roster when they had an open spot and he was already with the club. They put him into the game late, allowing him to make his major league debut when he hit for Colton Cowser and flied out. Bañuelos described it as “one of the coolest moments of my life,” though the O’s designated him for assignment the next day. Now that he’s cleared waivers, he will return to his previous role, providing the O’s with non-roster depth in the catching position.

Orioles Designate David Bañuelos, Select Albert Suarez

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8:42am: The Orioles have now announced the morning’s roster moves. Bañuelos has indeed been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster and on the active roster will go to righty Albert Suarez, whose contract has been selected from Norfolk.

Suarez, 34, has pitched in parts of two big league seasons — both with the Giants — but hasn’t been on a major league mound since 2017. He posted a 4.51 ERA in 115 2/3 innings with San Francisco in 2016-17, spent the 2018 season with the D-backs’ Triple-A club, and has been pitching in Japan and South Korea in the five-year interim.

Suarez spent the 2019-21 campaigns with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, logging a collective 3.00 ERA, 19.4% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate in 162 frames. He’s spent the past two seasons with the KBO’s Samsung Lions, recording a 3.04 ERA in 281 2/3 innings over the life of 48 starts. In 15 1/3 innings to begin his 2024 season with the Tides, Suarez has posted an ugly 5.87 ERA but a very intriguing 17-to-1 K/BB ratio.

It could be a short stay on the 40-man roster for him as well, depending on how the team’s rotation plans play out. Suarez is out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent back down to Norfolk without first clearing waivers. Regardless, it’ll be a rewarding and gratifying moment for a 34-year-old righty who has undoubtedly wondered at times whether he’d ever return to the majors.

8:36am: The Orioles will announce today that they’ve designated catcher David Bañuelos for assignment, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. He’ll be the corresponding roster move for the promotion of today’s starting pitcher. Righty Tyler Wells had been slated to take the ball, but he hit the injured list last night with an elbow injury.

Bañuelos was already with the Orioles on their taxi squad as an emergency third catcher. Multiple O’s beat writers last night suggested that his addition to the 40-man roster was primarily due to him already being with the club and the team not having sufficient time to add another arm with Wells hitting the 15-day IL rather suddenly.

The O’s did right by Bañuelos, plugging the 27-year-old minor league veteran into the game as a pinch-hitter to at least give him a brief big league debut after a six-year grind in the minors. Bañuelos likely knew from the jump that his stint on the 40-man would be quite brief, and even though he merely flew out in place of Colton Cowser, he nonetheless said after the game that the lone at-bat was “honestly one of the coolest moments of my life” (X link via Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun).

Baltimore will now have a week to trade Bañuelos, pass him through outright waivers or release him. He joined the O’s over the winter on a minor league deal and has opened the season with a 2-for-11 showing in Triple-A Norfolk. One of those two knocks left the yard. Bañuelos was a fifth-round pick by the Mariners in 2017 who was traded to the Twins for international bonus space a year later. He spent six seasons in Minnesota’s minor league ranks and is regarded as a strong defender with average power and a well below-average hit tool. In 307 career Triple-A plate appearances, Bañuelos is a .209/.268/.394 hitter with a 31.9% strikeout rate.

Orioles Place Tyler Wells On Injured List Due To Elbow Inflammation

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8:49pm: Manager Brandon Hyde said after tonight’s win that the IL placement for Wells is precautionary (X link via Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun). The club is hopeful he’ll only be out of action for a couple weeks.

6:10pm: The Orioles announced that they have placed right-hander Tyler Wells on the 15-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation, retroactive to April 13. They selected the contract of catcher David Bañuelos to take his place on the active roster. To open a 40-man spot for Banuelos, they designated Liván Soto for assignment.

There is some evidence to suggest that this injury cropped up unexpectedly. Wells started for the O’s on Friday, tossing 90 pitches over four innings, and was scheduled to start tomorrow’s game. The news of this transaction dropped just minutes before tonight’s contest started and reporters such as Jake Rill of MLB.com and Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner point out that Bañuelos was already with the club on the taxi squad as an emergency third catcher.

The O’s already have two catchers on the roster in Adley Rutschman and James McCann. There’s been nothing to suggest that anything is wrong with either of them, so it appears that Bañuelos was added because he was around and there wasn’t enough time to call up another arm from one of Baltimore’s minor league clubs.

Regardless of when it went down, the injury to Wells is notable. Since the move was made so close to game time, the club hasn’t relayed to reporters if they consider the injury severe or expect a lengthy absence, but it’s always at least a bit concerning when a pitcher’s throwing elbow is involved. Wells underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019 while in the minor leagues with the Twins. He was later selected by the Orioles in the 2020 Rule 5 draft and has a 4.06 earned run average over 294 2/3 innings for the O’s since then.

The O’s already have Kyle Bradish and John Means on the injured list, so Wells now makes it three starters on the shelf. Both Bradish and Means have started rehab assignments and could be back in a couple of weeks but it’s still going to be a tricky situation for the O’s to navigate for a time.

Corbin Burnes, Cole Irvin, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer currently occupy four spots in the Baltimore rotation but the club will need someone to replace Wells in the meantime. Bruce Zimmermann is already on the 40-man roster and last pitched in the minors on Thursday, so he is perhaps the most logical choice. Prospects like Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott are also in Triple-A but not currently on the 40-man roster.

Bañuelos, 27, will be making his major league debut if he can get into a game. He has spent most of his career in the Twins’ system, spending time in Triple-A in 2021 and 2022. He was kept in Double-A last year but performed well, hitting .270/.369/.526. That led to a minor league deal with the O’s and he played two Triple-A games this year but the last was on April 3 as he has seemingly been travelling with the big league club.

Soto, 24 in June, has been the unfortunate centerpiece of a game of hot potato between the Angels and Orioles in recent months. The O’s claimed him off waivers from the Halos in February but the Angels claimed him back a few weeks later. Last week, the O’s claimed him yet again.

The young infielder has a strong .375/.414/.531 batting line in the majors, though in a tiny sample size of 71 plate appearances. In a larger sample size of 1,505 PAs in the minors since the start of 2021, he’s hit .246/.340/.355 for a wRC+ of 86. But he’s capable of stealing a few bases and has bounced around the diamond, playing the three infield spots to the left of first base and even a brief stint in center field.  Since he still has a couple of option years remaining, Soto appears to be attractive as a versatile depth piece. The Orioles will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers.

Orioles Reassign Jackson Holliday, Option Heston Kjerstad And Kyle Stowers

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The Orioles announced that they have optioned outfielders Heston Kjerstad and Kyle Stowers while catcher David Bañuelos, infielders Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo, infielder/outfielder Connor Norby and right-hander Albert Suárez have been reassigned to minor league camp.

Holliday not making the club registers as a surprise, despite his youth. He just turned 20 in December but has seemed to be on a beeline for the majors. Last year, he went through Single-A, High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, succeeding at every stop. He came into this year as the consensus top prospect in the league and was invited to big league camp. He could hardly have done much more to earn a spot, as he slashed .311/.354/.600 here in the spring, but it seems that wasn’t enough for the Orioles to add him to their major league roster.

Instead, he’ll go to Triple-A and await his debut. The move could have repercussions for his path to free agency and arbitration, depending on how long it takes him to get the call. A major league season lasts 187 days but it takes 172 for a player to earn a full year of service time. That means Holliday could still get to the one-year mark if he’s called up in the first couple of weeks of the season, though the O’s may be motivated to not let that happen. If he can’t get to one year in 2024, then he won’t be on track to get to six years and free agency by the end of 2029.

The latest collective bargaining agreement contains measures to incentivize teams to add top prospects to their roster and discourage service time manipulation. A player can still earn a full year of service time, even if not called up early enough, if he finishes in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting. Additionally, teams that carry a prospect on the roster long enough to get a traditional full year of service time can net themselves an extra draft pick if the player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes top three in the voting for Most Valuable Player or Cy Young during their pre-arbitration seasons. To qualify for these measures, a player has to be on at least two of the top 100 prospect lists at MLB.com, ESPN or Baseball America.

As mentioned, Holliday is the consensus number one prospect in the league and all of that is therefore in play. The Orioles already saw this play out in 2022 when Adley Rutschman was injured for the start of the year and was slated to come up shy of one year of service, but finished second in ROY voting and earned that full year anyway.

It seems neither the incentives nor the disincentives swayed the Orioles much and they will keep Holliday in the minors for now. That seemingly leaves Gunnar Henderson as the everyday shortstop while Jordan Westburg and Ramón Urías handle second and third base. That could perhaps leave a bench spot open for Kolten Wong, who triggered his opt-out today, giving the O’s 48 hours to decide about him.

It’s also somewhat surprising that Kjerstad and Stowers got sent down, but perhaps less so. The O’s have a full outfield consisting of Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays and Anthony Santander, with Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn sharing first base and the designated hitter spot. Colton Cowser is also around and should be in the mix.

Stowers has hit just .207/.267/.331 in the majors but has much better numbers in the minors and is having a great spring. He has seven homers in Grapefruit League play and a line of .256/.267/.744, but he’ll have to serve as depth for the time being. Kjerstad didn’t show as much this spring, hitting just .265/.294/.286, but he made a nice debut in the bigs late last year. Regardless, he will also have to wait for his next major league opportunity.

The Orioles figure to have one of the most talented Triple-A teams this year, at least to begin the season. As injuries crop up throughout the year, as they do for all clubs, they are the one best positioned to find suitable replacements waiting in the wings.

Orioles Sign Michael Perez, Albert Suarez To Minor League Deals

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The Orioles announced seven minor league deals this afternoon, with catcher Michael Perez and right-hander Albert Suarez standing out as the only two with previous major league experience.

Perez, was a fifth-round pick by the Diamondbacks in the 2011 draft but didn’t make his major league debut until 2018 as a member of the Rays. Perez spent three seasons in Tampa backing up Wilson Ramos and, later, Mike Zunino. Those three seasons saw Perez get into just 84 games total, where he slashed a meager .221/.286/.314 in 228 trips to the plate. That weak performance eventually led the club to designate Perez for assignment as they sought to revamp their catching corps following their AL pennant-winning 2020 season.

Perez then returned to the NL to serve as the backup to Jacob Stallings in Pittsburgh for the 2021 season after being claimed off waivers from the Rays. While Perez appeared in a career-high 70 games for the Pirates in 2021, he only managed an anemic .143/.221/.290 slash line in 231 plate appearances. Despite that weak performance, Perez remained with Pittsburgh to start the 2022 season before eventually being traded to the Mets just before the trade deadline that summer.

The Mets eventually designated Perez for assignment in October before reuniting with him on a minor league deal later in the offseason. Perez then managed to secure a spot on the 40-man roster back in May following the placements of Omar Narvaez and Tomas Nido on the injured list, but the veteran journeyman appeared in just three games for the Mets throughout the year, as he spent most of his 2023 campaign at the Triple-A level. The Mets ultimately outrighted Perez off the roster when the offseason arrived, and he departed for minor league free agency.

Now in Baltimore, Perez figures to act as non-roster depth for the Orioles behind the club’s catching tandem of Adley Rutschman and James McCann alongside fellow minor league signing David Banuelos, who has no major league experience but slashed an impressive .270/.369/.526 at the Double-A level for the Twins last year.

As for Suarez, the 34-year-old right-hander last appeared in the major leagues in 2017 as a member of the Giants. For his career, the righty sports a 4.51 ERA and 4.40 FIP across 115 2/3 innings of work in the majors. Since then, Suarez briefly appeared with the Diamondbacks at the Triple-A level before trying his luck overseas. The righty managed a 3.00 ERA in 162 innings of work in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball before moving on to the Korea Baseball Organization, where he pitched for the Samsung Lions for two years. In that time, Suarez appeared in 49 games for the Lions, 48 of them starts. The righty struck out 19.4% of batters faced while posting a 3.04 ERA in 281 2/3 innings of work for the Lions before ultimately being released to make room for right-hander Taylor Widener back in August.

After half a decade overseas, Suarez is now returning to stateside ball as a member of the Orioles organization, where he figures to serve as non-roster pitching depth who could pitch both out of the rotation or in the bullpen. It’s a role he shares with Tucker Davidson, who the club outrighted to the minor leagues earlier this offseason. Suarez figures to compete alongside the likes of Davidson, Mike Baumann, and Bruce Zimmermann for a role on the big league club this spring.

Outrights: Godoy, Bazardo, Adolfo

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Twins catcher Jose Godoy has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A. The 27-year-old made his Major League debut last season with the Mariners, stepping to the plate 40 times and posting a .162/.225/.189 line. Of course, a catcher’s contribution to a club can hardly to counted solely through a batting line. Gary Sanchez and Ryan Jeffers figure to handle the bulk of the catching responsibilities in Minnesota, but Godoy will compete with Chance Sisco, David Banuelos, and Stevie Berman to be the first call-up. Elsewhere around the sport…

  • Micker Adolfo has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Charlotte, per the White Sox. It’s just a little surprising that Adolfo wasn’t claimed, as there was thought to be some interest in the powerful righty bat. Adolfo displayed his typical power swing last year, slashing .245/.311/.520 in 405 plate appearances between Double-and-Triple-A. Health has been a bugaboo for Aldofo, so he will aim to stay in the lineup this year in Triple-A while awaiting an opportunity with the big league club.
  • Eduard Bazardo has cleared waivers after being outrighted to Triple-A, per the Red Sox. The 26-year-old appeared in two games for the Red Sox last season, and he’ll head to Triple-A to serve as bullpen depth. Like Adolfo, Bazardo has been stung with the injury bug in recent years, dealing with a lat strain that shut him down for much of last season.

Twins Acquire David Banuelos From Mariners In Exchange For International Bonus Money

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The Mariners announced that they’ve traded catching prospect David Banuelos to the Twins in exchange for international bonus money. Minnesota has also announced the deal, revealing that they’re sending $1MM of their $3.245MM pool to Seattle in the deal.

For the Mariners, the money added in tonight’s deal will allow them to pad their offer to Shohei Ohtani. Seattle’s international pool now sits at $2.5575MM, which still leaves them shy of the Rangers’ leading pool of $3.535MM but nonetheless allows them to sweeten their offer. Money, of course, isn’t thought to be the deciding factor when it comes to choosing a landing spot for Ohtani, but those of the seven finalists that are allowed to offer him more than $300K unsurprisingly appear to be putting forth their best effort to maximize their spending capacity. The Angels, for instance, are also set to reel in $1MM in bonus money from the Twins in a trade of their own.

The Twins will pick up a prospect that ranked 10th in a weak Mariners farm system, per MLB.com’s organizational rankings. Banuelos, 21, will give the Twins an intriguing prospect at what had been a relatively thin position in the organization. Seattle selected him in the fifth round of the 2017 draft out of Cal State Long Beach, and he went on to bat .236/.331/.394 with four homers and eight doubles in in short-season Class-A this summer. Banuelos, who threw out 38 percent of would-be base thieves, draws praise from MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo for his plus arm behind the plate and strong plate discipline/on-base skills.

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