Two weeks ago, Vinny Nittoli wasn’t even in the organization. Now he’s in the MLB bullpen.
The Orioles shuffled around the bullpen again ahead of Saturday’s name with a semi-surprise move, optioning last night’s starting pitcher, Cade Povich, to the minors while selecting the contract of reliever Vinny Nittoli from Norfolk. To make room on the 40-man roster, the O’s transferred Danny Coulombe to the 60-day injured list.
This is a move that’s probably more about min-maxing roster use than any kind of statement about Povich’s performance. Not that Povich’s Friday start was good, exactly, with five walks allowed in 5.1 innings. I thought he showed some promise in avoiding the disaster it looked like he was headed towards in early innings.
It’s a matter of scheduling instead. With Povich having pitched last night, the All-Star break running from Monday through Thursday, and the Orioles having an off day on the Monday after the break, they don’t need to have a fifth starter on the roster for a while, so they might as well plug an extra person into the bullpen. Tough luck for Povich’s paycheck and service time in the meantime. I think he’ll be back before the month is out.
The addition of Nittoli marks the second time in just a few days that the Orioles brought into the bullpen mix a journeyman reliever who hadn’t even been in the organization a couple of weeks ago. Nittoli is a 33-year-old right-hander who was drafted by the Mariners a decade ago. It took until 2021 for him to finally get his MLB debut, and since then he’s pitched a smattering of games in each season. Earlier in 2024, Nittoli was with the Athletics, posting a 2.25 ERA across seven games.
It’s not an inspiring way to try to build a bullpen, but then, the Orioles probably aren’t intending Nittoli to pitch high-leverage innings. Nittoli will likely be used similarly to Burch Smith, the other random recent addition, where he’s the first guy out of the bullpen in a game where the Orioles are trailing.
Minor league relievers who are already on the 40-man roster can’t feel too good about these jabronis coming out of nowhere to leapfrog them. The Orioles would likely rather one of their existing options be pitching well enough to not need the Nittolis and Smiths. That’s just not who’s in the minors right now. The oft-optioned Nick Vespi might be the only one worth calling up and the team probably doesn’t want to burn its final use of the option year on him by the end of this month.