Earlier this month, the Orioles chose to part ways with one of their best relievers. They did so again Friday.
The Orioles are planning to nontender reliever Jacob Webb, two sources with direct knowledge confirmed to The Baltimore Sun ahead of Friday’s 8 p.m. arbitration tender deadline. The move makes Webb, who posted a 3.09 ERA in 78 2/3 innings in two seasons with Baltimore, a free agent.
The decision comes a few weeks after the ballclub declined reliever Danny Coulombe’s $4 million team option for 2025. In 81 innings over the past two years, Coulombe posted a 2.56 ERA and a sparkling 0.951 WHIP.
Webb, 31, joined the Orioles as a waiver claim in 2023 and experienced immediate success. Despite struggling in the 2023 postseason, he won a roster spot out of spring training in 2024 and was a consistent performer out of the bullpen despite missing six weeks with an elbow injury late in the year. Webb was entering his second season of arbitration and was projected by MLB Trade Rumors for a modest pay raise from $1 million in 2024 to $1.7 million in 2025. Instead, the Orioles are choosing to go in a different direction.
Webb and Coulombe both missed time with elbow injuries in 2024 but managed to put up perhaps career-best performances on the mound. Manager Brandon Hyde frequently used both relievers because both pitchers have platoon-neutral profiles that allow them to succeed versus both right- and left-handed hitters.
The pair of relievers combined for a 2.71 ERA and 1.00 WHIP this past season. The Orioles’ bullpen ranked 23rd in MLB with a 4.22 ERA in 2024. Remove Webb and Coulombe’s innings, and Baltimore’s relievers would have ranked 27th out of 30 MLB teams with a 4.50 ERA. The only teams that posted a worse bullpen ERA were the Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Colorado Rockies — three clubs that finished last in their respective divisions.
The Orioles still have to decide on their 12 other arbitration-eligible players ahead of Friday’s deadline. The club will need to tender contracts to the following players to keep them for 2025: outfielder Cedric Mullins; first baseman Ryan Mountcastle; catcher Adley Rutschman; infielders Jorge Mateo, Ramón Urías and Emmanuel Rivera; right-handers Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells; and left-handers Gregory Soto, Trevor Rogers and Keegan Akin.
Arbitration is a pay raise system for players who have established themselves as big leaguers but have yet to spend enough time in the major leagues to become free agents. Eligible players have at least three years of MLB service time but fewer than the six necessary to hit free agency. The only exceptions are for players who already have a set salary through a guaranteed contract, such as left-handed reliever Cionel Pérez, whose $2.2 million team option was picked up by the club earlier this month.
Tendering a contract to an arbitration-eligible player does not mean the sides have agreed to a 2025 salary yet, but rather the club has decided to keep the player under contract for the upcoming season. Nontendered players such as Webb become free agents. The main reason a player is nontendered is because the salary they’d garner through arbitration is higher than what the club wants to pay them, and the sides couldn’t agree before the deadline.
After Friday’s deadline, teams and their tendered players have until Jan. 9 to agree on a 2025 salary. If they’re unable to do so, the sides will exchange proposed salary figures for the player. If the team and player remain at an impasse, a panel of arbitrators will hold a hearing and pick one of the two suggested salary figures. No other contract value can be chosen by the arbitrators. Hearings typically take place in February.
Baltimore’s bullpen survived in 2024 without closer Félix Bautista, but it worsened as the season progressed. Bautista is expected back for the start of 2025, and setup men Yennier Cano, Seranthony Domínguez and Pérez will return as well to round out the back end of Hyde’s bullpen. Soto and Akin are also expected to return, though it’s yet to be announced whether the Orioles will tender them contracts ahead of the deadline.
The absences of Coulombe and Webb, though, do leave holes in the heart of the bullpen. They could be filled internally by pitchers like Bryan Baker or Colin Selby; or executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias could dip into the free-agent market to bolster his bullpen.
“We do have a good bullpen to start the offseason with,” Elias said during a news conference last week. “You look at the returning guys and names and there’s a lot of above average relievers in there. I thought Seranthony Domínguez, who is coming back, did a great job after the deadline pitching at the end of games for us. It’s really nice to have him back. Cano’s been a mainstay and a rock out there, and we have the lefties. So we have a good start.”
The Baltimore Banner was first to report the club is planning to nontender Webb.
This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 667-942-3337 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.