The Orioles announced that right-hander Houston Roth has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. He had been designated for assignment earlier this week when the O’s claimed Daniel Johnson and selected right-hander José Espada.
Roth, 27, was selected to Baltimore’s roster on July 29th. As part of their deadline selloff, the O’s had already sent out Gregory Soto and Seranthony Domínguez at that time. Andrew Kittredge was also traded a couple of days later.
That allowed Roth to stick on the big league roster for a few days but he was optioned back to the minors before getting into a game. A week after being optioned, he was bumped off the 40-man and no club grabbed him off waivers. This is his first outright and he has less than three years of service time, so he doesn’t have the right to reject the assignment.
In his minor league career, he has often been able to get strikeouts but has also given out walks at a notable pace. This year, he has thrown 39 innings between Double-A and Triple-A with 2.08 earned run average, 26.1% strikeout rate and 11.8% walk rate.
Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images