Tyler Nevin is back in the Orioles system but don’t expect to see him on the big league team
How he got here: Purchased from the Detroit Tigers on January 22, 2024.
Why is he back? Your guess is as good as mine.
You may remember Tyler Nevin. He first joined the Orioles in August 2020 when the team traded Mychal Givens to the Rockies. The return was Nevin and Terrin Vavra, two players who had stints with the Orioles but who weren’t able to stick. Vavra is still in the system but no longer on the 40-man and Nevin was claimed by the Tigers back in January 2023. He spent last season in their system where he wasn’t all that good. Now he is back.
Going back to the beginning, Nevin was a first-round draft pick of the Rockies in 2015. He’s a legacy player; his father is Phil Nevin who played in the majors from 1995-2006. He has lately been a coach in MLB, most recently as the manager of the Los Angeles Angels in 2023.
Tyler Nevin can play the corner infield and outfield positions but has mostly manned third base in his professional baseball career. He put up good offensive numbers his first few years in the minors in the Rockies’ system but hit just .251/.345/.399 at Double-A in 2019, the year before he was traded to the Orioles.
When he was traded in 2020, of course, the minor leagues were not being played due to COVID, so there aren’t any stats to go on there. But at the time of the trade he was ranked as the Rockies’ #14 prospect by MLB Pipeline. But the Rockies’ system isn’t the same as the Orioles, even back then. By 2021, the year Nevin made his major league debut, Nevin was at #25 on the list of O’s prospects. By pre-season 2022 he was at #29. That’s not the direction you want to be trending.
Throughout his minor league career, Nevin was able to get on base quite well. Unfortunately, his power numbers were never very impressive and that is something you need to see with a corner IF/OF/DH to boost value.
After six games in 2021, Nevin played in 55 games with the Orioles in 2022. They were not good. He hit just .197/.299/.261 in his limited time. Nevin was demoted back to triple-A Norfolk on August 31st, the same day the Orioles called up Gunnar Henderson. That was the nail in Nevin’s 2022 coffin.
With a crowded infield that didn’t have a place for Nevin, the Orioles designated him for assignment in December 2022. In January, the Orioles worked out a deal to send him to the Tigers for cash. In 41 games with the Tigers in 2023, Nevin had an OPS+ of just 72. He did excel with Triple-A Toledo, hitting .326/.400/.543 in 87 games. That wasn’t enough for the Tigers to want to keep him around and they too sent him packing. The Orioles claimed and ultimately acquired him just a few weeks before the start of spring training.
So how does Tyler Nevin fit in with the present-day Orioles? I honestly don’t see how he does. It was confusing to me when they claimed him and remains confusing to me now. He is an outfielder only in emergencies and the Orioles are already awash in outfielders. He slates in behind Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan O’Hearn, and probably even Ramón Urías at first base.
And at third base? Forget about it. The Orioles have Henderson, Urías, and Jordan Westburg all ready and able to play there as needed. And that’s to not even mention hotshot prospect Coby Mayo, who should make his major league debut sometime this year.
It’s hard to imagine Nevin breaking onto this team for any reason that doesn’t spell doom for the team overall. If Nevin shows up in the lineup, something has gone wrong.