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Terrin Vavra

Mariners Claim Terrin Vavra, Designate Duke Ellis

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The Mariners announced they’ve claimed infielder Terrin Vavra from the Orioles. Seattle designated outfielder Duke Ellis for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Vavra is a former Colorado draftee who went to Baltimore as a prospect in a trade that sent reliever Mychal Givens to the Rox. Vavra played briefly at the MLB level in 2022-23. The left-handed hitter combined for a .254/.331/.304 slash in 67 games. He showed decent plate discipline and contact skills with minimal power. That has been Vavra’s profile dating back to his college days at Minnesota.

Baltimore passed him through outright waivers last offseason. They reselected his contract around the trade deadline but didn’t get him into a game before optioning him back to Triple-A. Baltimore designated him for assignment earlier this week as the corresponding move to grab Emmanuel Rivera off waivers from Miami. Vavra has a .243/.350/.368 line in 178 Triple-A plate appearances this year. Primarily a second baseman, he also has a decent amount of experience at shortstop and in both corner outfield positions.

Ellis is a speed and defense outfielder who has bounced around this season. The Mets and Mariners successively claimed him after he was DFA by the White Sox in June. Ellis has barely played in the majors, picking up four at-bats in eight games with Chicago. The 26-year-old is hitting .235/.315/.336 in 273 minor league plate appearances on the year. He’ll land back on waivers in the coming days.

Orioles Claim Emmanuel Rivera, Designate Terrin Vavra

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The Orioles have claimed infielder Emmanuel Rivera off waivers from the Marlins, per announcements from both clubs. Rivera was designated for assignment by the Marlins a few days ago. The Orioles opened a 40-man spot by designating infielder Terrin Vavra for assignment.

Rivera, 28, is in his fourth major league season and he will now be joining his fourth major league club. He’s been in 314 big league games between the Royals, Marlins and Diamondbacks, largely serving as a light-hitting infielder with strong glovework.

In 969 plate appearances, he has hit .239/.302/.354 for a wRC+ of 81. That includes a line of .214/.294/.269 and a 61 wRC+ this year. He has logged just under 2,000 innings at third base in his career, racking up 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 5 Outs Above Average.

The Orioles had a surplus of position players not too long ago but it has been thinned out in recent weeks. Jordan Westburg, Jorge Mateo and Heston Kjerstad all landed on the injured list at the end of July. Austin Hays was traded to the Phillies and the club also traded Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers to the Marlins. Coincidentally, Norby’s promotion earlier this week nudged Rivera off that club’s roster.

The club recently gave Coby Mayo a shot at the hot corner with Westburg out, but sent Mayo back down after he got just one hit in his first 20 plate appearances, striking out 10 times. Ramón Urías is covering third now but his defensive metrics are oddly down this year. He has a strong reputation for his glovework but has -3 DRS and -7 OAA at third base in 2024.

Perhaps the O’s will try Rivera at third with Urías going back to being a multi-positional guy. Liván Soto is on the roster but he has options and could be sent down when Rivera reports to the club. Rivera is on pace to qualify for arbitration this winter and could be retained if he lasts on Baltimore’s roster through the season and they decide to tender him a contract.

Vavra, 27, was once a notable prospect but has struggled in recent seasons. A third-round pick of the Rockies in 2018, he went to the O’s in the August 2020 trade that sent Mychal Givens to Colorado. Vavra then slashed .275/.406/.449 across multiple levels in 2021 for a wRC+ of 138. Baltimore added him to their 40-man roster in November of that year to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

In 2022, he served as an up-and-down depth player for the O’s and performed well. He slashed .258/.340/.337 in his 40 major league games, exactly league average performance. He also had a strong slash of .324/.435/.451 in 45 Triple-A games. But in 2023, he missed time due to shoulder issues, eventually getting diagnosed with a torn labrum in his right shoulder that required surgery. He only played 43 games that year, majors and minors combined.

Outrighted off the roster in November, he got his spot back in July when Mateo hit the injured list but was optioned the next day. He has a line of .243/.350/.368 in Triple-A this year, which translates to a 92 wRC+.

Vavra is in his final option year and will be out of options next season, though he has less than a year of service time. The O’s will have to place him on waivers in the coming days since the trade deadline has passed. It’s been a rough couple of years but if any club is interested in his pre-surgery form, they could control him for many years to come. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, his previous outright gives him the right to elect free agency.

Orioles To Call Up Jackson Holliday

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The Orioles announced a flurry of roster moves in the aftermath of today’s trade deadline this evening. The club has selected the contract of second baseman Terrin Vavra and placed infielder Jorge Mateo on the 60-day injured list, while left-hander Matt Krook was designated for assignment. Perhaps most notable among this flurry of roster moves is a report from Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner that top prospect Jackson Holliday is set to join the team in Baltimore, although Kostka notes it’s not yet clear whether or not he’ll be formally added to the roster just yet.

Holliday, 20, was the first overall pick in the 2022 draft and entered the 2024 season as the consensus top prospect in baseball. He made his MLB debut back in April but looked overmatched in the majors at the time, slashing just .059/.111/.059 in 36 trips to the plate across ten games before returning to Triple-A. Holliday hit .252/.418/.429 over his next 40 games in his return to the minors, a solid overall slash line but a far cry from what Holliday had done in the past. His production in early June was especially troubling, as 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.

Fortunately, the young phenom returned to action after just two weeks and has looked more like himself at the plate, slashing an excellent .273/.426/.507 in 101 trips to the plate since coming off the shelf. Holliday was initially restricted to DH-only duties upon his return but has gradually begun to mix in time on the infield dirt in recent days, with six of his past nine games coming at either second base or shortstop. Even if the Orioles don’t yet feel Holliday is ready for everyday reps in the field, a deep mix of infield talent that also includes Ramon Urias and Vavra should allow them to offer Holliday as much rest as he needs while still allowing him to be their regular second baseman.

Should Holliday prove to be ready for the show upon his return to the club’s roster, it will help to assuage concerns regarding how the Orioles will make up for the losses of Mateo and Connor Norby, the latter of whom was shipped alongside Kyle Stowers to Miami in exchange for lefty Trevor Rogers earlier today. Mateo has been a serviceable but unspectacular second baseman for Baltimore this year, slashing .229/.267/.401 with an 86 wRC+ and middling defensive numbers and 13 stolen bases in 68 games for the club this year. A useful utility player with the ability to backup every spot on the diamond except for first base and catcher, the Orioles are sure to miss Mateo even as he was likely to be pushed out of the regular lineup by Holliday regardless of the left elbow subluxation that figures to keep him sidelined until at least late September.

Also helping to fill the void up the middle is Vavra, who missed most of the 2024 season due to a torn labrum in his right shoulder and was outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster back in November. He’s remained with the club in the minors since then and sports a respectable .269/.377/.423 slash line in 123 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level since returning from injury. Vavra struggled badly prior to his surgery last year but in 2022 posted a solid 99 wRC+ in 103 trips to the plate with the Orioles. Vavra offers the club an additional left-handed bat for their bench mix capable of playing both outfield corners as well as second and third base.

As for Krook, the lefty has pitched just one inning in the majors since the club acquired him from the Yankees back in February to act as optionable bullpen depth from the left side. That brief appearance did not go well, as he allowed three runs (two earned) on a walk and home run while striking out two in his lone appearance. Meanwhile, his results at Triple-A have been somewhat middling as he’s pitched to a 4.11 ERA in 35 innings at the level with a strong 27% strikeout rate that’s held back by his massive 16.4% walk rate. The Orioles will now have one week to attempt to pass Krook through waivers. If he goes unclaimed, the Orioles will have the opportunity to outright him to the minor leagues to act as non-roster depth.

AL East Notes: Cole, Springs, Vavra

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The Yankees have been without reigning AL Cy Young award winner Gerrit Cole for the entire season to this point as he works his way back from a bout of elbow inflammation, though that hasn’t stopped the club from storming out of the gate to an excellent 37-17 record. The club’s starting five of Nestor Cortes, Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman, Clarke Schmidt, and Luis Gil have all excelled in Cole’s absence, with Cortes’s 3.29 ERA (122 ERA+) standing as the weakest of the group.

Strong as the rotation has been without Cole, the Yankees are surely anxious to get their ace back into the fold. As one of the most dominant starting pitchers in the game today, Cole has posted a 3.08 ERA (136 ERA+) and 3.27 FIP in four seasons with the Yankees including an AL-best 2.63 ERA with a 3.16 FIP across 209 innings of work last year. Fortunately for the club, it seems Cole is making significant progress in his recovery. Erik Boland of Newsday reported yesterday that Cole threw all of his pitches during a 30-pitch bullpen session and touched the club-imposed velocity limit of 95 mph a few times throughout the session. Chris Kirschner of The Athletic added that Cole could begin a rehab assignment as soon as this coming week, depending on how he bounces back from yesterday’s outing.

That’s exciting news for the Yankees, although Cole would likely need a fairly lengthy rehab assignment in order to build up to a starter’s pitch count before he can return to the club. Cole’s return will give the Yankees something of a logjam in the starting rotation, as none of the club’s current options deserve to be removed from the mix based on their performance. It’s possible that Clarke Schmidt’s previous experience in the bullpen could make him a candidate to be moved out of the rotation in favor of Cole, though the club could also simply opt to utilize a six-man rotation for the time being.

More from around the AL East…

  • Rays left-hander Jeffrey Springs was pulled from a rehab start in the minor leagues yesterday due to left shoulder tightness, as noted by Kristie Ackert of the Tampa Bay Times. Springs underwent Tommy John surgery in April of 2023 and is just two appearances into his rehab in the Florida Complex League. It’s not yet clear if Springs’s shoulder issue is a particularly serious one, but a setback in his rehab would be an unfortunate turn of events for both player and club. The 31-year-old sports an incredible 2.34 ERA ERA in 28 starts for the Rays since the start of the 2022 season and figures to help anchor the club’s rotation once healthy. In the absence of Springs, Shane McClanahan, and Drew Rasmussen this season, Tampa has relied heavily on young, unproven arms such as Taj Bradley, Ryan Pepiot, and Zack Littell.
  • Orioles infielder Terrin Vavra missed most of the 2023 season due to what was at the time referred to as a shoulder strain, but Roch Kubatko of MASN relays that, per Vavra, his injury woes last season were much more serious than previously reported. Vavra was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his right shoulder back in September and underwent surgery on the issue later that month. Vavra’s shoulder woes last season could help to explain the 27-year-old’s struggles at the plate last year, when he slashed just .245/.315/.245 in 56 trips to the plate without recording an extra base hit despite a solid rookie performance in 2022. Vavra was outrighted off the Orioles’s 40-man roster during the offseason but remains in the organization as a potential depth option now that he’s healthy, though the club’s deep infield mix seemingly leaves him blocked at the big league level.

Orioles Outright Terrin Vavra, Tucker Davidson

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The Orioles announced that utilityman Terrin Vavra and left-hander Tucker Davidson have been outrighted off the 40-man roster and assigned to Triple-A.  The moves open up two more spots on Baltimore’s 40-man prior to today’s deadline for teams to set their rosters in advance of the Rule 5 Draft, leaving the O’s with 36 players on the roster and four openings to be filled.

There’s clearly some room to maneuver here for the Orioles, as Hudson Haskin is the only clear-cut candidate to be added to the 40-man today.  Of course, Baltimore’s farm system is so deep that even prospects outside their top 30 might be sought after by other clubs, and the O’s routinely make picks in the Rule 5 Draft themselves to add talent from other organizations.  Having extra roster space also allows Baltimore for potential additions of Major League players through trades and free agency.

Vavra made his MLB debut in 2022 and hit a respectable .258/.340/.337 over 103 plate appearances that season, playing primarily as a second baseman and left fielder with one appearance in right field.  He also saw a little bit of third base time this year, and even worked out at catcher in an attempt to further increase his versatility (and his chances of remaining on the big league roster).  However, health was unfortunately the story of Vavra’s 2023 campaign, as a shoulder strain kept Vavra on the injured list for much of the season.  His last MLB game was on May 31, and he played in only two minor league games after mid-June.

Davidson was claimed off waivers from the Royals a few weeks ago, and he signed a pre-arbitration contract solidifying his potential big league salary for the 2024 season.  The 27-year-old southpaw has a 5.98 ERA over 125 career innings with the Braves, Angels, and Royals, to date falling short of the potential he showed when coming up the ladder in Atlanta’s farm system.  Though he has some solid numbers at the Triple-A level, Davidson has had trouble limiting walks and recording strikeouts in the majors, and he became primarily a reliever this season after previously working as a starter with the Braves.

In order to move Davidson to Triple-A and off the 40-man roster, the Orioles had to first put him through waivers since Davidson is out of minor league options.  This could mean that he might face some regular turns through DFA limbo in the future should he return to Baltimore’s (or another team’s) 40-man roster.

Orioles Select Heston Kjerstad

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The Orioles announced a series of roster moves today, selecting the contract of outfielder Heston Kjerstad and recalling right-hander Bryan Baker from Triple-A Norfolk. To open active roster spots for those two, outfielder Ryan McKenna and left-hander Nick Vespi were optioned to Norfolk. To open a spot for Kjerstad on the 40-man, infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra was recalled from Norfolk and placed on the 60-day injured list with a strained right shoulder.

Of all the moves, the most significant is the promotion of Kjerstad, as it’s yet another instance of the O’s promoting a highly-touted prospect to their major league club. The past six years have seen the club endure a significant rebuild, finishing last in the American League East four times, losing 108 games or more in three of those. That’s allowed them to build a pipeline of young talent that has started to feed into for the big league team. Youngsters like Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Grayson Rodriguez and others have helped the club jump to a record of 91-54, the best such mark in the American League this year.

Kjerstad, 24, was taken with the second overall pick in 2020. His professional debut was delayed by myocarditis, which prevented him from taking part in any official game action in 2021. He split last year between Single-A and High-A, hitting a combined .309/.394/.457 between those two levels. This year, he’s gone through Double-A and Triple-A with a combined slash of .303/.376/.528, which translates to a wRC+ of 132.

The outfielder is currently considered the #44 prospect in the league by Baseball America, #24 by MLB Pipeline, #49 by ESPN and #56 by Keith Law of The Athletic. FanGraphs doesn’t currently provide specific rankings beyond the 50 Future Value guys on the 20-80 scouting scale, but Kjerstad is one of many unnumbered 45+ guys that are lumped together around the back half of the top 100. He’s considered a bat-first prospect, with his power his standout tool, but it’s expected he can be a fine corner outfielder from a defensive standpoint.

It was reported last night that a promotion of Kjerstad was possible, in conjunction with Ryan Mountcastle battling a shoulder injury. Mountcastle hasn’t landed on the injured list as of yet, but it seems Kjerstad will push into the mix regardless. Mountcastle has been the regular option at first base, but perhaps his injury means Ryan O’Hearn takes over that spot and spends less time in the outfield corners. That would perhaps leave Kjerstad, Anthony Santander, Aaron Hicks and Austin Hays splitting the duties of left field, right field and designated hitter. Kjerstad also played some first base in the minors and could be a factor there.

The O’s are about to begin what may be their most important series of the regular season. The Rays are just two games back in the East division and the two clubs are set to face off in a four-game series that starts tonight in Baltimore. Both teams are sure to make the postseason but the division winner will secure a bye through the first round, making the distinction significant. Kjerstad isn’t in the starting lineup tonight but should make his debut at some point in the next few weeks and might even secure himself a spot on the postseason roster.

With so little time left in the season, Kjerstad won’t be able to exhaust his rookie status and will therefore still be on prospect lists in the upcoming offseason. That means he will still be eligible for the “prospect promotion incentives” that are present in the current collective bargaining agreement. That could allow the O’s to recoup a bonus draft pick in the future, depending on how Kjerstad fares in awards voting going forward.

As for Vavra, he was with the big league club earlier this year but has been on optional assignment since early June. While in the minors, he missed over two months from mid-June to late August, when he began a rehab assignment. The club informed reporters last week, including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, that Vavra’s rehab was being shut down for further testing. There’s not much detail on his injury or timeline but it seems his season is over, based on today’s transfer.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Orioles’ Terrin Vavra Taking Catching Drills To Expand Versatility

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The Orioles recalled utility player Terrin Vavra from Triple-A Norfolk earlier in the week. Vavra has MLB experience at second base and in both corner outfield spots, so it was clear he’d add some defensive flexibility to the Baltimore bench, but he’s expanding his versatility in an interesting way.

As Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes, the Orioles have experimented with Vavra as a possible emergency catcher. He appeared behind the plate twice with Norolk during his most recent optional assignment, logging four combined innings. Vavra didn’t start any games — the Tides deployed him only in mop-up work — but it’s possible he eventually logs time behind the dish a little more frequently.

Kubatko notes the O’s have considered giving Vavra some catching time since last year. He did some work there in Spring Training drills and the Minnesota product tells Kubatko he’d caught some offseason bullpen sessions from Dodger reliever J.P. Feyereisen (who lives near Vavra over the winter). The four innings with the Tides marked his first game action behind the dish since high school, however.

The O’s aren’t going to throw Vavra into an important catching role out of the gate. Baltimore has one of the sport’s top backstops in Adley Rutschman, while veteran James McCann is on hand as the backup. The O’s don’t have any other catchers on the 40-man roster, though Luis Torrens is presently in DFA limbo. Manager Brandon Hyde confirmed it’d take an emergency situation, presumably injury substitutions from the top two backstops, for Vavra to log any MLB time there in the short term. The 25-year-old is clearly amenable to working on the position in an effort to increase his value off the bench over the longer haul.

A left-handed hitter, Vavra has tallied 31 MLB plate appearances this year. He’s up to 134 trips to the dish in his career, posting a .252/.333/.313 batting line with one home run. The former third round draftee has walked in a quality 11.2% of his plate appearances against a decent 20.1% strikeout rate.

Orioles Designate Luis Torrens For Assignment, Recall Drew Rom

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The Orioles announced a series of roster moves today, recalling left-hander Drew Rom, infielder/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn and infielder Terrin Vavra from Triple-A Norfolk. In corresponding moves, infielder Ramón Urías was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain, left-hander Keegan Akin was optioned to Norfolk and catcher Luis Torrens was designated for assignment.

Torrens, 27, was acquired from the Cubs less than a week ago and was a bit of a curious fit on Baltimore’s roster. They already had Adley Rutschman and James McCann forming their catching duo and Torrens was out of options, meaning he couldn’t be sent down to the minors. Now Torrens has been cut from the roster without even getting into a game as an Oriole, just a few days after Baltimore sent cash to Chicago in order to acquire him.

The Orioles are no strangers to acquiring veteran depth and almost immediately designating that player for assignment, in hopes of successfully passing him through waivers and retaining him in Triple-A. They’ve done this frequently over the past year, with the aforementioned O’Hearn a prime example. First baseman Lewin Diaz and catcher Anthony Bemboom have also fallen under this category, and the O’s tried to do the same with outfielder Jake Cave but lost him when the Phillies claimed him off waivers.

The 26-year-old Torrens is a career .227/.289/.352 hitter in 799 Major League plate appearances between the Padres, Mariners and Cubs. He’s connected on 19 home runs, fanned at a 26% clip and drawn a walk in 7.8% of those trips to the plate. He regularly made contact during his three-year run with Seattle, evidenced by a 91 mph average exit velocity and hefty 45.7% hard-hit rate, but that quality contact didn’t necessarily translate into production.

Defensively, Torrens has drawn below-average grades from Defensive Runs Saved and most pitch-framing metrics. He has a below-average 21.7% caught-stealing rate in his career but did throw out nine of 28 attempted thieves (32.1%) as recently as last season. The O’s will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through waivers, which seems like the more probable path they’ll tread, based on their history with this sort of move.

As for Rom, this is his first ascension to the Major League level. He’ll make his debut whenever he takes the mound for the first time. The 23-year-old southpaw, a fourth-round pick in 2018, has pitched exclusively out of the rotation so far in Norfolk, working 31 1/3 innings with a 2.87 ERA to go along with impressive strikeout (24.6%), walk (7.7%) and ground-ball (55.4%) rates on the year.

While Rom isn’t considered to be one of the Orioles’ top overall prospect, he is considered one of the best pitching prospects in a system that skews more toward position players than arms. MLB.com ranks Rom 19th among Baltimore prospects but sixth-best among the team’s minor league pitchers; it’s a similar story at Baseball America, where he’s 25th overall but ninth among their minor league hurlers. He doesn’t throw particularly hard, sitting in the low 90s with his heater, but has typically posted better-than-average strikeout and ground-ball rates. Rom has more than held his own against left-handed opponents in his minor league career but has been far more hittable when facing righties.

Orioles Promote Joey Ortiz

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The Orioles announced Thursday morning that they’ve recalled top infield prospect Joey Ortiz from Triple-A Norfolk and optioned infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra to Triple-A in his place. Ortiz — who currently ranks as the game’s No. 66 prospect at FanGraphs, No. 88 at Baseball America and No. 91 at MLB.com — will be making his Major League debut the first time he takes the field.

Ortiz, 24, was Baltimore’s fourth-round selection in the 2019 draft and was selected to the 40-man roster back in November, thus protecting him from selection in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. He’s gotten out to a torrid start in Triple-A this season, slashing .359/.389/.500 with five doubles, a pair of triples, a 6.9% walk rate and a 16.7% strikeout rate that’s considerably lower than average. It’s a strong early followup to a 2022 season in which Ortiz hit .284/.349/.477 with 19 home runs, 35 doubles, six triples and eight steals in a combined 600 plate appearances between Double-A (485) and Triple-A (115).

While he’s spent the vast majority of his professional career to date at shortstop, Ortiz has just shy of 300 innings at second base and another 51 frames of third base under his belt since being drafted. He’s not going to supplant Jorge Mateo at shortstop, given Mateo’s own brilliant start to the season, but Ortiz could see some time at the other two infield spots in the days ahead, with second base seeming particularly plausible.

As Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun points out (Twitter link), the O’s are slated to face left-handed starters in each of their next three games. The left-handed-hitting Vavra likely wouldn’t have gotten a start in any of those three contests, but Ortiz gives manager Brandon Hyde a righty bat off the bench or, speculatively speaking, at second base to start over the lefty-swinging Adam Frazier (who has struggled in general early this season).

It’s not clear just yet whether Ortiz will only be getting a brief call to the Majors or whether he might be earnestly auditioning for a larger role with the club right now. Frazier’s hitting just .208/.288/.333 through his first 80 plate appearances, though it’s unlikely that the Orioles would move on so soon after signing him to a one-year, $8MM deal over the winter. However, it’s at least feasible that Ortiz could spell Frazier against lefties while also seeing a start per week at shortstop, third base and designated hitter, perhaps accruing something close to regular playing time in the process. Injuries, of course, could always create additional opportunity.

Whether it’s just a brief cup of coffee or a more legitimate big league audition, Ortiz’s early promotion will give Baltimore fans a look at yet another promising young position player who could help form the core of the club for the next several years. He’ll join Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Ryan Mountcastle and Grayson Rodriguez as recent top-100 prospects to take the big league stage at Camden Yards over the past couple seasons, with several more waiting in the wings behind them.

AL East Notes: Hall, Vavra, White

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Baltimore’s opening day rotation picture is a little clearer now after manager Brandon Hyde revealed he doesn’t believe DL Hall will be stretched out enough to handle a starting workload to begin the season, per Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun. Hall had been a candidate to take a spot in a rotation that is very much up in the air behind Cole Irvin and Kyle Gibson but was experiencing lower back discomfort late in the off-season, which appears to have put him a bit behind schedule.

The question now for the Orioles is whether they option Hall to Triple-A to begin the season, or have him pitch out of the bullpen in the big leagues. Hall had a brief stint in the big leagues last season, working to a 5.93 ERA over 11 appearances (one start). That did come with a completely unsustainable .436 BABIP, and Hall did post a quality 29.7% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate to indicate he did pitch much better than the 5.93 ERA suggests.

Hall was competing for, presumably, one of three available rotation spots. Kyle Gibson and Cole Irvin look like certainties to take two spots, and Hall, Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish, Austin Voth and others were candidates to fill the remaining spots. With Hall now removed from that equation, it does increase the chances that top pitching prospect Rodriguez cracks the opening day rotation.

Here’s some more notes from around the AL East:

  • Sticking with the Orioles to begin with, and Ruiz reports that utilityman Terrin Vavra is day-to-day with left shoulder discomfort. According to Hyde, Vavra experienced soreness while taking pre-game batting practice. There doesn’t appear to be too much reason for concern given we’re still a little under a month away from the start of the regular season. Vavra slashed .258/.340/.337 across 103 plate appearances during his rookie year last season. He spent time in the infield and outfield, and projects as a useful versatile bench option for the Orioles going into the new season.
  • Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports that Mitch White is a few weeks behind schedule but is feeling good and threw a side session today as he builds back from a shoulder impingement suffered in January. White had been a contender for Toronto’s fifth rotation spot, and while there’s nothing definitive ruling him out of that, the fact he’s still a few weeks behind schedule would suggest it’s unlikely he’ll be stretched out enough to be in the rotation picture by opening day. That would mean Yusei Kikuchi, who lost his rotation spot last year, would be the favorite to join Alek Manoah, Chris Bassitt, Kevin Gausman and Jose Berrios in the Blue Jays’ rotation. White, acquired from the Dodgers last summer, struggled to a 7.74 ERA over 43 innings for Toronto last season. That came after a much more promising 56 innings of work with the Dodgers earlier in the season, whereby White worked to a 3.70 ERA. His peripherals were largely the same across both teams, and indeed his FIP for the Dodgers of 3.95 was actually worse than the 3.76 mark he had with the Blue Jays. White is out of minor league options.
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