The Orioles announced Thursday morning that right-hander Roansy Contreras has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster goes to righty Shawn Dubin, who has now been added to the roster after being claimed off waivers out of the Astros organization.
It’ll be a one-and-done stop on the big league roster for Contreras, a former top prospect with the Yankees and Pirates who landed in Baltimore by way of the waiver wire this past offseason. He’s pitched well in Triple-A this season and gave the O’s 4 1/3 innings of scoreless long relief yesterday in his team debut. That lengthy appearance obviously renders him unavailable for the next few days, however, and Contreras is out of minor league options and thus couldn’t be sent down without first passing through waivers.
Some fans will bristle at the notion of a pitcher being called up, pitching as well as Contreras did, and then being removed from the 40-man roster. This type of transaction is common among today’s baseball operations departments, however, and Contreras’ camp likely knew it’d be a one-off appearance due to his lack of minor league options. The O’s could have subtracted Dietrich Enns instead, as he’s also out of options and unavailable for a few days after tossing 34 pitches yesterday, but Enns has pitched well overall in nine total outings with strong rate stats.
Designating Contreras leaves the Orioles with a mostly full slate of relief options, and based on his minimal MLB track record, there’s a good chance he’ll clear waivers and could thus stick around as a depth option despite the DFA. Contreras, after all, was on waivers five times this past offseason before the Orioles succeeded in passing him through at the end of spring training.
In 239 big league innings, Contreras has a 4.63 earned run average. He’s fanned 19.6% of his opponents against a 10% walk rate. He was effective in Triple-A Norfolk this year, tossing 91 2/3 innings of 3.73 ERA ball with a sub-par 17.8% strikeout rate but a solid 8.4% walk rate. That generally aligns with his career numbers in Triple-A (3.83 ERA in parts of four seasons). The O’s can hope to pass Contreras through waivers within the next couple of days, though he’ll be available to the other 29 teams and would have the right to reject an outright assignment even if he does clear.