The Baltimore Orioles have roster moves to make ahead of Rule 5 draft

We’re a little more than a month away from the Rule 5 draft and the Baltimore Orioles have at least a few 40-man roster decisions left to make. Who’ll stay on the roster, and who’ll go?

The Baltimore Orioles recently made a series of moves to create space on their 40-man roster for four players to return from the 60-day disabled list. With the 40-man now full, and the Rule 5 draft forthcoming, the Orioles will again have to adjust the roster if they want to protect their eligible players.

At the moment, it would appear obvious that the Orioles will aim to protect RHP Dillon Tate and catcher Martin Cervenka by adding them to the 40-man. They could also choose to protect LHP Luis Gonzalez, as Roch Kubatko suggested, however we won’t know for certain until it happens.

The Orioles could make this easy by non-tendering catcher Caleb Joseph and shortstop Tim Beckham, thereby creating the two necessary spots for Tate and Cervenka. We wrote about Joseph a couple weeks ago, and how it’s past time for the Orioles to part with him.

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Beckham is a different story, and I’ve made my thoughts about him known, but we won’t know how the new front office will feel about him until they’re in Baltimore. Beckham will be expensive, relative to his past performance; MLB Trade Rumors projects Beckham’s salary to increase to $4.3 million via the arbitration process this year.

Even if the Orioles non-tender Joseph, it’s likely that the Orioles remove catcher Andrew Susac from the 40-man. Susac spent the 2018 season between Baltimore and Norfolk before ending the season on the disabled list with a broken left wrist.

In five partial seasons in the majors with the Giants, Brewers and Orioles, Susac has hit .221/.283/.373 with little to no power. He’s run decent on-base percentages in the minors due to his ability to draw walks, but he possesses an average-to-below defensive skill-set. He’s certainly one of the top candidates for removal.

In addition to Susac, several names have been thrown around as roster casualties including pitchers Donnie Hart and Ryan Meisinger, outfielder and previous Rule 5 pick Anthony Santander and infielder Engelb Vielma.

However, the one guy nobody seems to be talking about here is Mike Wright. Camden Chat seemed to share this opinion, but it’s incredible that the Orioles continue to believe that Wright is a capable major league pitcher.

In almost 230 career innings at the major league level, Wright has a 17.3% strikeout rate, a 7.5% swinging strike rate, a 68.3% left on-base rate and a 5.21 FIP. The strikeout rate is below-average, the LOB% is dismal for a reliever; what are we missing, and what are the Orioles seeing? We’ve seen him pitch in high-leverage spots, and the results haven’t been encouraging.

I don’t mean to use this forum to bash players for their performance; I want to see Wright succeed as much as anybody. But if the Orioles aren’t considering placing Wright on outright waivers or cutting him, that’s a bad baseball decision. Whether because of poor player development on the Orioles part or lack of ability on Wright’s, this one isn’t working out.

Maybe the bigger point is that the Orioles have a slew of players on their 40-man who are more than eligible for demotion based on their performance. The Orioles have a long way to go before they’re a good baseball team again. It seems more likely than not that none of the players on the current roster will be on the next good one.

Maybe these decisions have little impact on the future of the franchise. But if the Orioles want to field a competitive team in 2019, it sure feels like they’ve got a long way to go.

We’re a little more than a month away from the Rule 5 draft and the Baltimore Orioles have at least a few 40-man roster decisions left to make. Who’ll stay on the roster, and who’ll go?

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