Baltimore Orioles Add Infielder Dilson Herrera On MiLB Deal

The Baltimore Orioles have infield help on their winter shopping list and elected to bring in Dilson Herrera to the organization today.

The Baltimore Orioles need middle infield depth and versatile players who can play multiple positions in 2020, it’s something that has been mentioned by general manager Mike Elias on multiple occasions this offseason.

On Thursday afternoon, MASN’s Roch Kubatko reported that the organization has added infielder Dilson Herrera on a minor league deal to bring in more depth and versatility to the upper-minors. Herrara brings major league experience to the organization and should compete for a major league job in spring training.

Herrera is a 25-year-old infielder who originally signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates back in 2010 out of Colombia. He was most recently with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets.

Herrera spent all of 2019 with the Syracuse Skycheifs, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets. He slashed .248/.330/.501 with 24 home runs, 64 RBI, 29 doubles, and a 107 wRC+. A former Gulf Coast League Player of the Year and two-time Futures Game selection, Herrera is a career .289 hitter in the minor leagues with 100 home runs and a .354 OBP in 819 games.

He last appeared in the major leagues in 2018 with the Cincinnati Reds. In 53 games, Herra hit .184 with a wRC+ of 80. Of his 16 total hits in 87 at-bats, five of them were home runs. He struck out 39 times.

Overall, Herrera has played in 102 major league games (between 2014-2018 with Cincinnati and New York) and owns a career slash line of .203/294/.394.

He was supposed to become a fixture at second base for the Mets back in 2016, but was traded to Cincinnati for Jay Bruce, proved unable to capitalize on his time in the major leagues, and returned to New York this year on a minor league deal. After not getting a September call-up, he opted out of his minor league deal and became a free agent.

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Previously considered one of the top second base prospects in all of baseball, Herrera has plenty of pop, but high strikeout numbers and not much success in the major leagues. He saw action at first base, second base, shortstop and in left and right field last year with Syracuse, showing that versatility around the field that Mike Elias has been so attracted to since taking the reigns in Baltimore.

With plenty of space on the 40-man roster available, ideally, another veteran middle infielder will be added, one with previous success at the major league level and/or an elite glove to help improve one of the league’s worst defenses last year.

For now, welcome to Birdland, Dilson Herrera.