Orioles’ personnel moves

Courtesy of Mitch Stringer-US PRESSWIRE

Within the last week the Baltimore Orioles made a few noteworthy moves. Headlined was the claiming (off of waivers of former Minnesota Twins second baseman Alexi Casilla. the question now becomes whether or not Casilla is in the mix for the starting second base job in 2013. Casilla is a career .250 hitter who only has an OBP of .305. For his career he’s also posted a fielding percentage of .975 – not really numbers that blow you away. However he would be an interesting guy to throw in the mix if Brian Roberts is unable to go out of spring training. My personal opinion is that Roberts will report to spring training in shape and be ready to go on Opening Day barring another injury. However Casilla is certainly an interesting signing to say the least.

Roberts, along with Stu Pomeranz, Tsuyoshi Wada, Nolan Reimold, and Oliver Drake, was activated off of the DL last week as well. This is welcome news for Orioles fans, as Roberts hasn’t reported healthy to spring training since 2009. He will be in the final year of his contract, one in which the Orioles will owe him $10 million. For those who are asking why he’s still on the roster, there are $10 million reasons why! Wada, along with Wei-Yin Chen was supposed to be a phenom coming out of the Japanese league, however didn’t play in 2012 due to injuries. And of course there’s Nolan Reimold, who was to be the team’s starting left fielder all season long but sat out much of the year with an injured shoulder. I think that many fans would rather see the Orioles bring back Nate McLouth for that position in 2013, and with good reason. However as that decision gets closer to being made, it’s something that we’ll talk about more and more here on Birds Watcher.