The Orioles made a pair of moves just ahead of the start of Monday’s game against the Yankees.
The number of Orioles on the injured list has grown yet again. The O’s added two guys to the IL at once right before Monday’s game against the Yankees. Infielder Jordan Westburg lands on the 10-day IL with what the team called a left hamstring strain, while catcher Gary Sánchez is down with right wrist inflammation.
This roster shuffle brings infielder Emmanuel Rivera up to the Orioles, as well as catcher Maverick Handley. Rivera appeared in 27 games with the O’s a year ago, hitting very well: .313/.370/.578 over 73 plate appearances. He’d been OPSing just .708 with the Tides before getting this call back to the majors. Rivera was not on the 40-man roster at the time of this callup.
Neither was Handley, an O’s draft pick in 2019 who will make his MLB debut the first time he appears in a game. He, at least, was hitting with Norfolk this year, batting .346/.433/.558 so far. Over parts of three seasons at the Triple-A level, he’s OPSed .684. I’m happy to see Handley get chances as the backup rather than Sánchez after what we’ve seen of Sánchez so far.
These moves meant further juggling to the 40-man roster. The Orioles handled this without getting rid of anyone: Colton Cowser and Grayson Rodriguez were each transferred to the 60-day injured list. Each of their injuries meant they’d be at least out for another month, so there’s nothing new going on there; changing their status is just a formality that clears a couple of 40-man spots for now.
One more 40-man move slipped in on Monday. The Orioles claimed lefty pitcher Walter Pennington off waivers from the Rangers. The 27-year-old Pennington pitched in 16 games between the Royals and Rangers a year ago, posting a 3.00 ERA over 18 innings. Pennington was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk upon arrival in the organization.
If Pennington doesn’t suck at Norfolk, we’ll probably see him in Baltimore. We might even see him even if he does suck. Earlier on Monday, the O’s recalled Kade Strowd from Norfolk. Strowd has an 8.10 ERA in his first eight outings with the Tides.
Because these players were placed on the injured list so close to the start of the game, there was no comment about them in any pregame media availability. We’d known for a couple of days that Westburg had an ailing hamstring, since that’s why he didn’t play the previous two days. Nothing has been said about Sánchez’s wrist before now.
There will likely be a comment about the severity of these situations after the game. Maybe reality will bear out the first provided estimate. If they follow the pattern of everything else that’s happened to the Orioles this year, Westburg and Sánchez will both miss longer than whatever is first said about them.