1:23pm: Baltimore will option top outfield prospect Heston Kjerstad to Norfolk to make room for Stowers, tweets Ghiroli.
12:50pm: The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Corbin Martin off waivers from the Brewers. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. Baltimore’s 40-man roster had an open spot and is now at capacity. It seems as though this will be just one of multiple moves for Baltimore today, as Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic also reports that the O’s are calling up outfielder Kyle Stowers from Norfolk. The team has yet to announce that move or any corresponding transactions.
Martin, 28, was a second-round pick of the Astros in 2017 who went from Houston to Arizona as one of the headline pieces in 2019’s Zack Greinke blockbuster. His career trajectory has been impacted by injuries — Tommy John surgery most notably. Martin pitched in the big leagues in 2019, 2021 and 2022 but has just 57 2/3 MLB frames under his belt. He’s limped to a 6.71 earned run average in that time, fanning a well below-average 19% of his opponents against a weighty 13.6% walk rate.
Entering that 2019 season in which he was traded, Martin ranked 78th and 81st on the respective top-100 prospect lists published by Baseball America and MLB.com. He was touted as a high-probability mid-rotation arm, having just wrapped up a season that saw him toss 122 innings of 2.51 ERA ball with a 25.5% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate between High-A and Double-A. He underwent Tommy John surgery in early July and was included in the aforementioned Greinke trade just weeks later — a deal that was completed and filed just seconds before the deadline. Martin missed the entire 2020 season as a result and hasn’t looked the same in any of his post-surgery seasons.
In parts of three seasons since that ligament reconstruction, Martin has pitched to an ERA north of 6.00 in Triple-A. Hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League caveat notwithstanding, that type of performance simply doesn’t measure up to his prior promise. He was tagged for 21 runs in 16 big league innings with Arizona in 2021, posted a 6.08 ERA in 77 frames with the D-backs in 2022, and missed the entire 2023 season after suffering a torn tendon in his latissimus dorsi during spring training.
More concerning than the poor ERA marks was the evaporation of Martin’s command post-elbow surgery. The 7.3% walk rate he posted in 2018 feels like a distant memory. Martin issued a free pass to 11.4% of his opponents in 2021-22 (MLB and Triple-A combined). He walked a massive 13 of 50 opponents thus far in 2024 (26%).
All of those struggles aside, it’s not entirely surprising to see the Orioles claim Martin. Baltimore general manager Mike Elias was the Astros’ scouting director in 2017 when they selected Martin with the 56th overall pick in the draft and paid him a $1MM signing bonus. Elias is keenly familiar with Martin — both as the pitcher he was shaping up to be prior to his injuries and as a person.
As for Stowers, he’ll return to the big leagues for a third straight season. He hit fairly well in a small sample of 98 plate appearances in 2022 before floundering through a 2-for-30 stretch at the plate in the majors last season. The lefty-swinging 26-year-old is out to a .240/.315/.541 start in Norfolk this season and has already socked 11 home runs in 165 trips to the plate.
Contact remains something of an issue, as Stowers is still punching out in just shy of 27% of his plate appearances against a 7.9% walk rate. Nonetheless, he’ll add some left-handed pop to Baltimore’s outfield mix for the time being. Stowers has spent the bulk of his pro career in right field but has experience in all three spots and has spent more time in center this year (115 innings) than either right field (89) or left field (54).