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Scott Blewett

22 Players Elect Free Agency

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Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents.  Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.

To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back.  These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.

We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion.  These free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.

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Orioles Outright Scott Blewett

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The Orioles announced this afternoon that reliever Scott Blewett accepted an outright assignment to the team’s Florida complex. The righty went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week. Baltimore also activated Adley Rutschman from the injured list. Infielder Luis Vázquez was optioned to the complex in a corresponding move.

Baltimore acquired Blewett in a cash trade with Atlanta in June. He went down with an elbow injury a few weeks later and has spent the past two months on the 60-day injured list. The O’s decided not to put him back on the MLB roster once he returned to health last week. Blewett is out of options, so the Orioles needed to send him through waivers at that point.

The 29-year-old Blewett has been outrighted a few times in his career. He had the right to elect free agency but evidently preferred to spend the season’s final week at the O’s complex. He’ll qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season anyhow. Blewett has tossed a career-high 44 1/3 innings between three teams this season. He carries a 5.48 earned run average with an 18% strikeout rate. He’ll probably be looking at minor league offers this winter.

Orioles Designate Scott Blewett For Assignment

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The Orioles announced Friday that they’ve reinstated right-hander Scott Blewett from the 60-day injured list and, rather than adding him back to the roster, designated him for assignment. Baltimore also recalled righty José Espada from Triple-A Norfolk and placed right-hander Chayce McDermott on the bereavement list. The O’s added that infielder Emmanuel Rivera, who was designated for assignment earlier this week, cleared outright waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.

Blewett, 29, was acquired at the start of June. He had been pitching for Atlanta but that club designated him for assignment when they called up Craig Kimbrel and then flipped Blewett to Baltimore for cash.

After that deal, Blewett gave the O’s 16 1/3 innings over 11 appearances, allowing 5.51 earned runs per nine. Right elbow discomfort then put him on the 15-day injured list in the middle of July. He was transferred to the 60-day IL a few weeks ago when the O’s needed 40-man spots to claim Shawn Dubin and reinstate Kyle Bradish from the 60-day IL.

Blewett started a rehab assignment in early September but didn’t look sharp. In 6 1/3 Triple-A innings, he allowed six earned runs via 13 hits and one walk while striking out just three opponents. It seems the O’s didn’t have much interest in putting him back on the roster. Since he is out of options, he has been sent into DFA limbo.

With the trade deadline having passed a long time ago, the Orioles will have to place Blewett on waivers. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to elect free agency, since he has a previous career outright.

It’s theoretically possible he garners interest based on his previous results. Last year, he gave the Twins 20 1/3 innings with a 1.77 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 41.4% ground ball rate. Here in 2025, he got out to a good start. Through 24 innings to start the year, he had a 2.25 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 58.5% grounder rate. However, he allowed five earned runs in his final game with Atlanta, prompting them to move on. The O’s had interest in him at that time but the pairing didn’t work out. If Blewett is claimed, he is out of options but can be controlled for five seasons beyond this one and would be cheap since he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration.

As for Rivera, he and the O’s avoided arbitration in the offseason by agreeing to a $1MM salary. His service clock is between three and five years. That means he has the right to reject outright assignments but would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right.

Since he is out of options, he has followed a pattern of roster moves this year. The O’s have frequently bumped him off the roster and onto the waiver wire. Each time, he has gone unclaimed and then accepted an outright assignment. Each time, he has been selected back to the roster at a later date, only to repeat the cycle. This is his fourth outright of 2025.

Around the transactions, he has appeared in 43 big league games. In his 127 plate appearance, he has produced a tepid .250/.291/.283 batting line, which has presumably kept him from getting claimed by other clubs. He’s only owed about $50K of his $1MM at this late point in the season but he might as well report to Norfolk for a few more days to collect that. He can then elect free agency at season’s end if not added back to the roster.

Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Orioles Claim Shawn Dubin, Designate Matt Bowman For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that they have claimed right-hander Shawn Dubin off waivers. The Astros designated him for assignment earlier this week. The O’s also announced that righty Kyle Bradish has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, a move which was previously reported. To open 40-man spots for those two, the O’s transferred righty Scott Blewett to the 60-day injured list and designated righty Matt Bowman for assignment. Bowman’s DFA opens an active roster spot for Bradish. Dubin is out of options and will also need an active roster spot once he reports to the club.

Dubin, 29, isn’t having his best season but has shown promise in the past. He came into the year with 54 1/3 big league innings and a 4.64 earned run average. His 11.6% walk rate was a bit high but he had struck out 24.1% of batters faced and kept balls in play on the ground at a 45.5% clip.

Here in 2025, he has spent time on the IL due to shoulder inflammation and a forearm strain. Around those IL stints, he tossed 25 2/3 innings for the Astros with a 5.61 ERA. His 46.9% ground ball rate was still good and he dropped his walk rate to 7.2% but his strikeout rate also fell to 18.9%. Since he is out of options, he got nudged off Houston’s roster and onto the waiver wire.

He’s a sensible flier for the O’s. They are playing out the string on a lost season. Their bullpen has been stripped down a lot this year. They traded Seranthony Domínguez, Gregory Soto and Andrew Kittredge ahead of the deadline. Closer Félix Bautista recently underwent shoulder surgery and will be out of action well into 2026. That gives them a lot of roles to fill on the 2026 team.

They can use the remainder of this season to take chances on guys like Dubin to see what happens. He is out of options but could be a long-term piece if he bounces back. His service time is between one and two years, meaning he could be controlled for five seasons beyond this one if he continues to hold onto a roster spot. It’s also possible the O’s try to run him through waivers in the future in order to keep him as a non-roster depth piece.

As for Blewett, he was acquired from Atlanta in a June cash deal. He was placed on the 15-day IL July 13th due to elbow discomfort. This transfer is backdated to that initial IL placement, so he’ll be eligible for reinstatement in a couple of weeks. That gives him a window to pitch again this season but it’s unclear if that’s possible from a health perspective.

This was Bowman’s fourth stint of the season with the Orioles. He appeared in one game, pitching 1 1/3 innings but allowing a pair of runs. That ballooned his season-long earned run average to an ugly 6.20. Bowman has been solid in Triple-A Norfolk, tossing 26 1/3 innings for the Tides and posting a 4.10 ERA. He’s set down 21.8% of his opponents there on strikes and notched a 5.5% walk rate.

Bowman will be placed on outright waivers or release waivers within the next few days. He’s cleared waivers at multiple points this season and accepted an outright assignment to Norfolk each time, so it seems there’s a strong chance the O’s will hang onto him as a depth arm for the final month or so of the regular season.

Orioles Designate Matt Bowman For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that right-hander Matt Bowman has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up a roster spot for fellow righty Scott Blewett, who was acquired from the Braves in a cash deal two days ago.

Bowman is no stranger to the waiver wire, as this is the second time the Orioles have DFA’ed him this season, and he bounced around the league several times in 2024 and ended up pitching for four different teams at the MLB level.  His previous designation and outright back in May saw Bowman accept the outright assignment off the 40-man roster, though he has the right to reject any future outright in favor of free agency.

It remains to be seen if Bowman will again stay put if he clears waivers and is outrighted this time.  Bouncing up and down between Triple-A and the big leagues within one organization might carry more appeal for Bowman than his four-club experience in 2024, and since Bowman is out of minor league options, he isn’t likely to gain more roster security on other team.

In between the roster moves, Bowman has a 4.57 ERA over 21 2/3 innings and 18 relief appearances for Baltimore this season, posting a solid 5.3% walk rate but also an uninspiring 16.8% strikeout rate.  Bowman’s latest stint on the O’s roster ended on a high note, as he tossed 2 1/3 innings of hitless shutout ball in the Orioles’ 7-4 win over the Athletics yesterday.

Orioles Acquire Scott Blewett

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The Orioles announced that they have acquired right-hander Scott Blewett from the Braves in exchange for cash considerations. Outfielder Jordyn Adams has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot. Fellow outfielder Ramón Laureano has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and takes the active roster spot vacated by Adams. Blewett has not yet reported to the team and is therefore not on the active roster yet, so a spot will have to be opened for him when he does link up with the O’s.

It was reported yesterday that Atlanta was going to designate Blewett for assignment but it seems they lined up a trade before even getting around to that DFA. Blewett played a key role in yesterday’s heartbreaking loss in Atlanta. He entered the game in the top of the eighth, with Atlanta leading 9-3. He got through that inning while allowing one run, but Atlanta got that back in the bottom of the eighth. That left them with a 10-4 leading starting the ninth. Blewett stayed in and retired the first batter of that inning but the next four reached. Closer Raisel Iglesias was drawn into the 10-7 game and it quickly became 11-10 for the Diamondbacks.

Blewett was charged with five earned runs in an inning and a third. The sting of the loss seems to have prompted a bit of a shakeup, with Atlanta calling up Craig Kimbrel from the minors. That bumped Blewett off the roster but he’s actually been having a pretty decent season on the whole.

Even including yesterday’s unpleasantness, Blewett has a passable 3.91 earned run average in 2025. His 21.8% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate are close to average while his 56.3% ground ball rate is quite strong.

Blewett is out of options but is clearly valued around the league, as he keeps passing from club to club. He started this year with the Twins on a minor league deal. He was called up in April but designated for assignment a few days later. He was claimed by the Orioles but received another DFA a few days after that. He was sent to Atlanta in a cash deal, which led to him holding a roster spot for more than a month, though he’s now on the move again.

Adams, 25, signed a minor league deal with the O’s in the offseason. He was called up to the big leagues a week ago as the O’s were dealing with a number of position player injuries. He’s essentially been used as a defensive replacement since then, getting into five games but only making one plate appearance.

A former first-round pick of the Angels, Adams is considered an excellent athlete but he hasn’t been able to handle pitching since reaching the higher minor league levels. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has stepped to the plate almost 2,000 times on the farm with a .247/.326/.377 line and 84 wRC+. He has enough speed to steal 20 to 40 bases annually and run balls down in the outfield.

He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the O’s could take as long as five days to explore trade interest. He does have one option year remaining.

Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Braves Select Craig Kimbrel

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June 6th: Atlanta made it official today, announcing they have selected Kimbrel’s contract. They also recalled lefty Dylan Dodd, placed right-hander Daysbel Hernandez on the 15-day injured list with forearm inflammation and traded righty Scott Blewett to the Orioles.

June 5th: The Braves are planning to select the contract of right-hander Craig Kimbrel from Triple-A Gwinnett, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The full-circle promotion of the now-37-year-old former Atlanta closer, who’s been pitching well on a minor league deal in Gwinnett, comes less than an hour after the Braves’ bullpen melted down and squandered a six-run ninth-inning lead in an 11-10 loss to the Diamondbacks.

Kimbrel, of course, broke into the majors with Atlanta late in the 2010 season and immediately catapulted himself into stardom. He was the unanimous NL Rookie of the Year in 2011 — winning over teammate Freddie Freeman — after posting a 2.10 ERA with an NL-best 46 saves and a colossal 41.5% strikeout rate. He made the first of four straight All-Star teams that year — a remarkable run of four straight seasons that saw him lead the Senior Circuit in saves while garnering repeated Cy Young and MVP votes. From 2010-14, Kimbrel posted a comedic 1.43 ERA and 42.2% strikeout rate while racking up 186 saves. It’s arguably the best five-year from any reliever in the sport’s history.

Kimbrel has never quite recaptured that dominance, though he was still excellent from 2015-18 before running into some rough patches. He logged ERAs north of 5.00 in 2019-20 before bouncing back with a solid if tumultuous 2021-23 stint where he was often shakier than his surface-level numbers might initially suggest. His 2024 run with the Orioles started well — Kimbrel carried a 2.10 ERA into the All-Star break — but went off the rails in the season’s second half. From July 14 onward, Kimbrel was shredded for an 11.50 ERA in 18 innings before being released.

Now back in the Braves organization after signing a minor league deal, he’s looked terrific in Triple-A. Kimbrel carries flat 2.00 ERA in 18 innings. He’s set 33% of his opponents down on strikes, albeit against a 13% walk rate. He’s also working with a fastball that’s now sitting just 93.2 mph — nowhere near the sizzling 97-98 mph he averaged at his peak. Even as recently as 2023 with the Phillies, Kimbrel’s heater sat at 95.8 mph, but he’s now dropped nearly three ticks off that velocity.

Time will tell whether Kimbrel can get big league hitters out with such diminished power on his pitches and with command that’s clearly not up to par, but the bar to clear in Atlanta is low right now. Closer Raisel Iglesias saw his ERA balloon from 5.79 to 6.75 today. Scott Blewett, who’s been designated for assignment to make room on the roster for Kimbrel, yielded five runs on his way out the door. Daysbel Hernandez has a 2.22 ERA but has walked more than 19% of his opponents, so there’s no way he can continue at that pace. Trade acquisition Rafael Montero has a 5.29 ERA in 17 innings.

Atlanta has gotten good to great results from Pierce Johnson, Aaron Bummer, Enyel De Los Santos and Dylan Lee, but Iglesias has floundered all season and the final couple spots in the ’pen have been a revolving door. The hope will be that Kimbrel can help to solidify things, but recent seasons have shown that he’s susceptible to lengthy slumps not all that dissimilar from the one in which Iglesias is currently mired.

Braves To Designate Scott Blewett For Assignment

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The Braves are shaking up their bullpen after a heartbreaking loss. David O’Brien of The Athletic reports that the club is going to select right-hander Craig Kimbrel and recall left-hander Dylan Dodd. In corresponding moves, right-hander Daysbel Hernández will land on the 15-day injured list while righty Scott Blewett will be designated for assignment. The Kimbrel move was reported earlier today.

Blewett unfortunately lived up to his name today, leading to a deluge of social media jokes at his expense. Atlanta was leading this afternoon’s game against Arizona 9-3 through seven innings. Blewett was put into the game in the eight and allowed one run, making it 9-4. Atlanta got that run back in the bottom of the eighth, making it 10-4. Blewett was sent back out for the ninth with a six-run lead to protect and three outs to get. He struck out the first batter he faced but the next four reached. With the score having narrowed to 10-7, Atlanta went to closer Raisel Iglesias to get the final two outs. Unfortunately, he allowed Arizona to take an 11-10 lead before getting out of the inning. Atlanta couldn’t score in the bottom of the ninth to stay alive.

It was a heartbreaking loss in what has already been a rough stretch for the club. It was their fourth straight L and they are now 3-11 in their past 14 contests. Their overall record is 27-34, putting them behind all the other National League contenders in the standings. Blewett was charged with five earned runs in an inning and a third in today’s dagger.

Blewett, 29, is out of options. That’s led him to bounce around the league. He started the season with the Twins on a minor league deal and was added to that club’s roster for a few days in April before getting designated for assignment. He was then claimed off waivers by the Orioles, though that club also designated him for assignment a few days later. That led him to Atlanta on a cash deal.

He had a pretty decent run prior to today’s unpleasantness. Between those three clubs, he came into today with 24 innings and a 2.25 earned run average. His 22.8% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate were both around league average while his 58.5% ground ball rate was quite strong. The ERA climbed to 3.91 after today’s game but it’s been a solid season overall.

But since he’s out of options and the club is looking to shake things up by adding Kimbrel, a 40-man roster spot was needed, so Blewett heads into DFA limbo. That can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, meaning Atlanta could take as long as five days to explore trade interest. Though he’s out of options, he’s still in his pre-arbitration seasons, meaning he’s cheap. As mentioned, he’s been having a good year, today’s results notwithstanding.

As for Hernández, it’s unclear exactly what his injury is but he departed yesterday’s game and appeared to be in discomfort. More information should be revealed when he is officially placed on the injured list.

Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Braves Acquire Scott Blewett

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The Braves acquired right-hander Scott Blewett from the Orioles in a trade for cash considerations, as announced by both teams.  Blewett was designated for assignment by Baltimore yesterday.

This is the second time in less than a week that Blewett has changed teams after being designated for assignment.  Blewett began the season with the Twins and made two appearances before he was DFA’d and then claimed off waivers by the Orioles.  Two more appearances followed in an O’s uniform before Blewett was designated again.

The roster shuffling is nothing new for Blewett, who had been DFA’d and outrighted several times in his career even before this month’s transactions.  His chances of sticking with the Braves are complicated by the fact that he is out of minor league options, so the Twins and Orioles had no choice but to first designate the right-hander before trying to send him down to the farm.

All these moves belie the fact that Blewett has actually pitched pretty well during his relatively brief time in the big leagues.  Over parts of four seasons with the Royals, Twins, and Orioles, Blewett has a 1.93 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate, and 9.4% walk rate in 37 1/3 career relief innings.  His 2.16 SIERA is only a shade higher than his ERA, and an inflated 85.4% strand rate is countered by a .317 BABIP.

While Blewett isn’t a hard thrower and he gives up a lot of solid contact, there’s enough there that multiple teams keep showing interest in the 29-year-old’s services.  He’ll become the latest new face in a Braves bullpen that has been a bit of a revolving door, as the club brought several veterans to camp on minor league deals in a search for inexpensive relief depth, and both Rafael Montero and Jose Suarez were acquired in trades (from the Astros and Angels respectively) within the last month.

Orioles Designate Scott Blewett For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that right-hander Scott Blewett has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up a 26-man roster spot for Brandon Young, whose first promotion to the majors was reported on yesterday.

Blewett was only just claimed off waivers from the Twins earlier this week, and his brief time in the orange-and-black has seen the righty throw 4 1/3 scoreless innings over two relief appearances, striking out six of 19 batters faced.  Despite the impressive small sample, Blewett again finds himself in DFA limbo, likely owing to his lack of remaining minor league options.

It is a familiar story for Blewett, who has a 1.53 ERA in 29 1/3 big league innings with the Twins and Orioles over the last two seasons but is still looking to find a steady foothold for himself in the Show.  His secondary metrics (such as his hard-contact rates) aren’t particularly impressive, and likely hold a greater sway for front offices than Blewett’s strong bottom-line results.  Blewett also hasn’t stood out in the upper minors, posting a 6.93 ERA in 219 1/3 career innings at the Triple-A level.

Should Blewett clear waivers, he has the right to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk and opt into free agency, since he has previously been outrighted in his career.  One would imagine another team in need of bullpen help could have interest in claiming Blewett away from Baltimore and giving him a longer look against MLB hitters, just as the O’s plucked him off Minnesota’s roster a few days ago.

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