Orioles Roster Moves: Trevor Rogers, Cole Irvin, Emmanuel Rivera

it was a tough day in Birdland as the Orioles were shut out by the Astros in a pretty lifeless performance and just a couple of weeks after the trade deadline they have sent one of their starting pitching Acquisitions down to triaa I'll break down the loss and all the roster moves from Thursday coming up on this episode of the locked on Orioles [Music] podcast you are locked on Orioles your daily Baltimore or or's podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hey there Orioles fans today is Friday August 23rd 2024 and welcome back in to the locked on Orioles podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day as always I'm your host Connor Nukem and coming up on today's episode we are going to recap the orial 6 nothing loss to the Houston Astros on Thursday night get you the five things you need to know from that one including another tough start from Corbin Burns a lifeless outing from the Orioles offense and a nice debut from right-hander Matt Bowman then speaking of Matt Bowman we'll get to all the roster moves the Orioles made over the past couple of days they made a flurry of them to switch up the bullpen a little bit on Thursday also brought Cole Irvin back and at least for now he is going to stay with Trevor Rogers being sent down to triaa gonna break it all down what it means for the O's right now and moving forward in 2024 coming up on this episode of the locked on Orioles podcast which is brought to you by Supply housee supplyhouse.com is the reliable way to get parts fast shop for your next Plumbing HVAC or electrical job and get fast shipping from coast to coast at supplyhouse.com so did want to apologize no episode on Thursday sometimes you do a daily podcast life gets in the way unable to record it happens it's happened before it'll probably happen again a little bit but we are back here with a Friday pod to f finish out the week I will talk at least a little bit about the Orioles walk-off loss to the Mets on Wednesday the Jesse Winker walk-off Homer officer Anthony Dominguez in the bottom of the ninth game that felt a lot like the Monday loss to the Mets as well but if you listen to Tuesday's episode you got the gist to the MonDay loss the Wednesday loss went fairly similar to that one but I will talk a little bit about Cole Irvin's performance because he is sticking around but first we talk about the O's loss on Thursday the Orioles have now lost five of their last seven games as they they put up a I mean I said it already but a pretty lifeless performance six nothing lost to the Houston Astros at orial park on Thursday night in game one of a four game set I was in the ballpark for that one wasn't a great performance from the O's out on the field and the Orioles now 74 and 55 first time in a long time they have been less than 20 games over 500 again they've lost five of seven and also the first time in a while that the Yankees and the orol have been separated by more than one game they've basically been at one game away or closer for what feels like a month at this point and uh with the Yankees beating the Guardians 6 nothing on Thursday afternoon and taking two of three from Cleveland in that series after they blew him out on Wednesday night as well the Yankees have opened up a game and a half lead on the Orioles yet not like it's any kind of gigantic lead it is still the smallest division lead in all of baseball but for the first time in a while the O's even when in second place aren't in a spot where tomorrow they could immediately be back in first like it's going to take a a little bit of a climb one again but people have have come back from one and a half game deficits in five weeks luckily even though the Yankees just won a series they're not playing their best baseball either and before I do jump into the five things you need to know from the Oriol loss I think that's kind of where I'm at with this Orioles team like it's been a little bit of a rough stretch losing five out of seven they could have easily won either of the games they lost in New York I mean two walk-off losses in the night that could have been a sweep of the Mets and even with a loss Thursday you're feeling a lot different about the O's right now they're sitting in first place but John mioli I think had a good story about this in the Baltimore Banner earlier this week it's just it's hard to know how to feel about this o team because they're certainly not playing their best baseball I mean they've basically been a 500 team for almost two months at this point like they're they're pretty much evenly 500 you look back the last like 30 40 50 I think close to 60 games at this point that they're basically a 500 team and you know it's it's kind of like winning and losing every other night but they built up you know such a great start when they were 20 plus games over 500 and that's why they can still be this close to first place when they've been playing not bad baseball because 500 baseball is not bad baseball and they've had some some really good performances but more so average baseball the past few weeks to a couple of months the good thing is and I mentioned this on Wednesday's episode the last time I was with you is that this is kind of happening to everybody like there is currently no team on Pace to win a 100 games it would be the first time since 2014 that no team in major league BAS won 100 games you're looking at the Yankees those are battling it out with they've got plenty of issues kind of similar to what the Orioles issues are right now you look at the Dodgers they've gone through their peaks and valleys they have a lot of injuries over there the Phillies look like the dominant team then they like fell apart right around the trade deadline they're starting to pull it back together a little bit but they haven't looked great the Guardians have been falling apart a bit recently their starting pitching is is really catching up with them Houston we know how bad they were to start the season they've been much better lately but still haven't been any kind of dominant team the Brewers have their issues over there in first place I mean it's there's no real great elite team and and my feeling on the Orioles right now is they are super injured now a lot of teams are injured but especially the Orioles pitching staff we know they have an entire fiveman rotation on the injured list right now this is kind of my current feeling about the O's and unless things either get really really good or really really bad in the final five weeks or so of the season if they just kind of stay like this they continue to play around five 00 ball and you know they they even if they do that they're most likely going to get themselves at least into the playoffs might be hard to win the division but get themselves into the playoffs I'm kind of at the point where it's like just get healthy for the postseason because you just get hot at the right time you can win this thing the Rangers were a disaster for the final six weeks of last year blew a pretty nice division lead and had to go through the wild card and then won the World Series the Diamond Backs were terrible down the stretch last year they won what 84 games they went to the World Series so it's just about who's getting hot at the right time and if the O's can get healthy by the end of September going to the playoffs that could be their shot now I'm not saying don't go for the division because they should certainly go for the division you get those extra four days off that can be huge for a team that is this injured and is waiting for guys to get back near the end of the regular season but until they show me something different that's that's that's kind of how I'm looking at this O's team and let's get into it the five things you need to know from the Orioles six nothing lost to the Astros on Thursday first thing you need to know is Corbin Burns was just he was just not good again now he was don't get me wrong easily was better than whatever that disastrous start was against the Red Sox on Friday night but he still was not good final line for Burns in this one five and twoth thirds Innings five earn runs six runs total eight hits two KS two walks 94 pitches 10 hard hit Balls by the Houston Astros Burns in four starts in August has an 8.71 erra after eight earned runs in his last start the worst of his career it has not been good now now the stuff generally was better tonight overall like he he cruised through a couple of innings which is nice to see we did not see that in the last start Boston he was pretty close to getting himself through six I I still don't know why he threw that ball on the bunt in the sixth inning with two outs if he just holds on to it you get Bases Loaded the runner stays at third with two down you got a chance to get the next hitter get out of it like keep it a three nothing game keep your team in it he throws the ball away and the inning just spirals on him and the Astros get four runs off Burns and they they chase him in the six just a bad decision and obviously he had a chance to get him the throw was terrible to first base that's why he didn't but just not a good decision to throw that ball to First and now the good things from Corbin burns on Thursday he was still much better than he was Friday it's more about how big of a disaster Friday was but although there were 10 hard hit balls like only two of them came in that four run six it was some dinking and dunking the bunt the error there was some blue pits he only walked two batters and it wasn't the running game that threw him off remember the Red Sox just ran all over him and and know the running game has been an issue for Corbin Burns he didn't allow stolen base in this game which was nice to see the only running game issue was where he threw over the maximum amount of times to try and get Altuve and didn't pick him off and so it got called a bulk in the fourth inning and Altuve got to go from first to second that was the only running game issue that came up so that was good to see it wasn't like that got to him like it it seemed like it did on Friday night but the bad is he's he's just not missing bats six whiffs and two strikeouts both season low for any start for burns this year I mean the Astros in general this season and for a while do a good job of not striking out so that it's already Theo of this Houston offense but still like he got some whiffs early got some strikeouts and then he just couldn't get one even when he would get to two strikes he just could not get the strikeout and this has been Corbin Burns's plan in 2024 like he said it the results have shown it he has hunted the strikeouts less to try and Pitch more Innings and be more of a Workhorse and generally really up until August it worked out really well you could pencil him in for six to seven Innings one or two runs every time out there and he was on well on his way to 200 Innings of you know a 26 ra and it was going to be an amazing season he at one point was a sa young front runner at worst he was top three in the AL sa young probably for most of the year and then it's just kind of gone downhill in this nightmare August and you know the the less missing bats can work when you're making more quality pitches but he's just been making less quality pitches over the last few starts and when you're not having those big strikeouts that can bail you out like has happened in the past for Burns and you're pitching more to contact it's becoming an issue and I'm not sure if he's going to want to go back to the old Corbin Burns where you know you might only get five innings out of him because he throws a 100 pitches but he strikes out 11 and gives up only one run like I don't know if he wants to go back to that version he still certainly has the velocity and the raw stuff to to be that if he wants to but I don't know if he want to make that change in a division race with five weeks left in the season I mean he had those struggles in the first half last year with the Brewers and he tweaked some things he added the sweeper and that made him really successful in the second half hasn't brought back that sweeper yet in 2024 with Baltimore maybe that's a change he can make I just I don't know what it is I mean it's a little it's a little worse cutter command than he has usually had that's that's number one because that is his pitch the cutter he still got the best cutter at least among starters in Major League Baseball but the command's been a little off I talked about in his start against the Red Sox like the one good thing was how good his change up was and I said watch out for him to throw it a lot next start well maybe it wasn't the start to do it because the Astros have so many righties but only threw three change UPS Something's Gonna Have To Change here's the thing Burns has been through bad months before he's been through bad stretches before he's won a sa Young Award he is a top 10 starting picture no question about it in Major League Baseball if anybody's going to figure it out it's going to be Corbin Burns and hopefully it happens at the right time down the stretch here in September second thing you need to know from this one the offense not much better pretty I mean I'm not going to get even too far into this just a lifeless performance from the Orioles offense I mean Spencer arti has been pretty solid lately for Houston he gives him six scoreless they don't score against the bullpen they did draw four walks which is nice but they only had three hits they they scattered some hard hit balls had a little bit of bad luck in this game but I mean besides gunar Henderson who has continued to hit and and did have a double in this game like would it be an insane thing to say right now if I said at this current moment Austin Slater looks like the second best hitter in the Orioles lineup behind gunar Henderson it's kind of how it looks at times right now he's taking some really good at bats since the Orioles brought him over it's it's been a struggle and they have the talent certainly to to break out of it again they've done it in the past and they're not in like a full big slump they've had some big offensive games recently but they're kind of waxing and waning game to game right now which is a little odd to watch but it's it's better than like a six game stretch where scoring two runs a game just yeah really really really nothing coming from the orial offense third thing you need to know from this loss Matt Bowman made his Orioles debut it looked pretty good in his O's debut out of the bullpen for the right-hander who was called up on Thursday we'll talk about his roster move a little bit later but hey four up four down with a strikeout he threw some nasty sweepers that he was throwing a lot harder in an oral uniform than he has with other teams he made he put Jose Altuve in hell with a couple those sweepers which were fun to watch in the seventh inning and hey you know it's it's one appearance but maybe the O's found another diamond in the rough for their Bullpen that would certainly be nice fourth thing you need to know is Gregory stto thr a scoreless inning was it in low leverage yes it was has Gregory stto thrown multiple scoreless Innings as an Oro and low leverage yes he absolutely has it was a six nothing game in the top of the eighth inning so you don't want to take too too much from it and yes he did walk a batter and yes he did hit a batter but he also struck out two and the stuff looked better and he was throwing some strikes at least early so again has another zero and low leverage here's the thing with stto he's got to do it and not necessarily High leverage but even medium leverage even a a somewhat important inning has to be a zero out of the bullpen for stto before the O's can trust him and they're going to give him spots to do it because you can't just have him sit at the back end of that Bullpen and do nothing his stuff is too good I'm hoping one of these low-leverage zeros turns into a high leverage when it hasn't happened yet but it might work for us it might work the next time and the fifth and final thing you need to know from the Oriol six nothing lost to the Astros on Thursday is that Nick vasby came back and thrw a scoreless inning as well now I'll talk about it later it's more than likely vby gets option right back to Triple A either today or tomorrow but you know what it's nice that he came up got the game threw a scoreless top of the ninth inning stuff looked good he's just been in a tough spot in this Oreo Bullpen the last couple of years his days might be numbered as an Oreo there's a good chance he's gone this off season but this could even maybe be his last game I mean I would not be surprised if that right there was the last time we saw Nick vasby pitch as an Oro it's certainly been a roller coaster ride for him up and down between Baltimore and Triple A but good to see him put up a zero there and and again it doesn't have to be but could be his final outing with the O's but yeah not a good performance on Thursday night from Baltimore and that was after they made a whole lot of roster moves this week coming up next first we're going to start with the roster moves that were made before Wednesday's game with Cole Irving coming up not pitching poorly on Wednesday and actually at least for now holding a roster and rot spot chat about that coming up next but first this episode of the lockon Orioles podcast is brought to you by liquid Ivy when you're taking in America's pastime don't forget to hydrate with liquid IV's popsicle firecracker flavor a Surefire summer hit get hydrated with electrolytes essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients from the number one powdered hydration brand in America because baseball and summer well they go together like liquid IV and indulgent hydration now I'm a pretty hydrated person I 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Orioles 4-3 walk-off loss to the Mets in Queens and it started with Cole Irvin being called up to make Wednesday's spot start now the Orioles needed a starter for Wednesday Zack effin was put on the 15-day injured list with a shoulder issue now the good news is got reports from effin on Thursday that the shoulder feeling good I think he said it feels 100 times better than it did a couple of days ago he doesn't expect to have to go on a rehab stint he expected to just be the minimum 15 days on the I and then he is back right around the beginning of September so that is very very good news on the guy that has been the orio's best starting pitcher since they acquired him from the Rays at the deadline but without effin and and kind of nobody being on the on the right amount of rest the Orioles needed to call somebody up for a spot start and I broke it down on Wednesday's episode and basically was like look the Orioles ended up with two options option one was Cole Irvin option two was a bullpen game and the spot the bullpen in right now I think you're going to go with an actual starter even though he did struggle for a while and get DFA they called Cole Irvin back up to make Wednesday spot start now he was not on the 40-man roster so they had to clear a roster spot they actually DFA right-handed pitcher Nick Aila off the 40 man to make room for Irvin ail was claimed by the Orioles from the Giants off waivers in June at the time he was on the minor league injured list with the shoulder impingement wasn't really sure like how much he would pitch this year did Pitch about 12 innings for the Giants in the big leagues this year before the injury but he came back from the injury pitched for a while and aine then went up to norfol and it was not good three appearances for the norfol tides for AO one in the third Innings 10 runs nine hits two KS and three walks looks like he just might still not be fully healthy from that shoulder thing now for that point he probably won't end up getting claims the Orioles may be able to hold on to him in the minor league system without him being on the 40 man and there's clearly something they liked in Nic Aila to claim him while he had a shoulder injury and give him a 40 Man spot so I'm sure the O's hope that he will clear waivers and then to make room for Irvin on the roster they optioned Dylan Tate to tripa now Tate had just come up the day before as Keegan Aken had gone on the paternity list Tate did not get into a game and unfortunately for him went right back down to Triple A now Tate had been pitching really well in norfol and he earned that call up but it was going to be a short live stint anyway because Aken was only going to be gone you know two three four days before he returned for Tate it just went down a little bit sooner but for Irvin you know he came up and I I didn't know what to expect like he had had his his really good stretches this year as an orial starter he had had some really really tough stretches and it it wasn't now he was working on things but it wasn't going great in the two starts in Triple A and I just wasn't really sure and he went out there he kept the Orioles in the ball game like it wasn't the greatest start in the world it was four and a third two runs five hits two KS two walks in a homer but he out four hard hit balls if the oras were able to turn a double play in the fifth When Irvin left the game it would have been four and a third with only one run there was a chance for it to to go that way he was he was not bad and he came out there he was he was throwing that curveball that curveball has by far been his best pitch and he threw it more than anything else 29 curveballs out of 83 pitches he he threw the Sinker the vo was was down down like it was averaging 90 he was throwing sinkers at 88 the cutter vo was way down it looks like he he messed with that that pitch a little bit like all the velocities for the fast balls were down and and he only got three whiffs like he didn't miss any bats but he was getting fairly soft contact and I think if he had been in the rotation for longer Brandon High probably doesn't pull him there but knowing the spot he was in knowing it was a spot start the O were trying to stay in the game and it was the right move to pull him right Colin Selby came in and got himself a double play or almost a double play but got out of the inning gave the o a chance to come back they ultimately lost in the bottom of the ninth but it was good enough to at least keep the o in the game now he pitched better than I thought he would the surprising part was Irvin at least for now kept his job and that is what surprised me the most we'll talk about coming up next in the next segment the roster moves that uh came in on Thursday but the big ones were that Irvin at least for now is in the Orioles rotation and this could completely change as we move forward in the next couple of days as it even gets to his next spot in the rotation but right now it's Burns Kramer Suarez pervic and and Irvin because Rogers went down and we'll talk about that coming up next but we'll see the Orioles could skip his next scheduled start the O do have an off day on Monday which could allow them to just go back to you know the essentially the next guy after Irvin and go maybe back to Corbin burns on Tuesday against the Dodgers so maybe that plays a factor and and eventually I also think the big thing with Irvin here is the Orioles they got him through waivers once they weren't going to be able to hold on to him if they did it again because a they're still probably scared he would get claimed and B once you get DFA twice you have the ability to refuse the assignment to Triple A if you clear waivers again and you can just make yourself a free agent there's a good chance Irvin would have done that to try and find a a better spot where have a better track to get back into a major league rotation and then I wouldn't have blamed him at all had he done that so I think the O wanted to hold on to him for a few more days and and see what he can do here but in general like it wasn't amazing for Irvin but as a spot start you keep him in the keep you in the game you'll take that and here's the thing like that was better than the average start the Orioles were getting from Trevor Rogers and that is where we will get to next to finish off the Pod because the made a lot of roster moves on Thursday and the big one was Trevor r who they acquired at the trade deadline is now in triaa norfol so where do they go from here with Rogers and what were those other moves get to them to finish off the Pod coming up next but first this episode of the locked on Orioles podcast is also brought to you by tonel for those of us who Thrive off getting stuff done and including workouts every minute counts that's why you need tonal the smart strength training system that takes the guesswork out of working so you can make sure you're making the most of 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I talked about it already vespie probably just here for maybe one more day he's just a replacement until Keegan Aken gets back from his paternity list and rejoins the or ation and hopefully or Bullpen I should say and hopefully can help out this Bullpen for Nick vasby I believe he can be optioned one more time this year before he hits his limit for 2024 I I don't know if he though as I mentioned will even be up again with this Orioles Bullpen but for Trevor Rogers it's been a struggle since the orders acquired him from the Marlins at the trade deadline and I talked about it at the time like has he been good not really could he help the O's this year yes is he more of a long-term project because he has two more years of control yes it hasn't been great it's um he's really had one good start I would say out of his four 19 Innings I mean a 711 ra 15 earned runs 25 hits 12 KS to 10 walks and two homers that does not play especially in a division race and the orol sent him down I mean they they weren't playing around they got four starts and remember with Jack FL last year they gave him some starts and said all right let's move him to the bullpen well flare didn't have options and Rogers does that makes it a little different but the or were just like no we are sending you to Triple A to try and get you right and it's more than likely that Rogers will be back in The Bigs with the Orioles at some point this season trying to help this team but there's a chance that we don't see him pitch for the Orioles again until 2025 like that is a realistic possibility for a trade deadline acquisition I think the Orioles knew they weren't getting you know Ace type Trevor Rogers when he had that amazing rookie season in 2021 at least not now when they dealt for him at the deadline but they were certainly hoping for better than this and even though he was bad had at times in Miami this year this is close to the worst stretch he's had even counting the bad starts with the Marlins like he had a four something ra he's got over a seven RA in these four starts the change Up's been good but everything else just no command middle of the plate and getting hit hard and so he'll miss two to three starts he's got to be down there for at least 15 days the Oz will use that time to work on things like I mean maybe he'll make like one start for norfol but probably generally throw more bullpens and and work on things and try and change stuff and get that velocity back and I don't know what it's going to be EUR have a lot of great pitching coaches down there that are going to help him out but I mean you can't argue that he that he didn't need a reset he he needed something and he o a bit of a drastic measure it's not the most surprising thing in the world the way he was pitching and the fact that he has options but he is down in Triple A and that why again at least for now Cole Irvin still holds a roster spot now watch out for Brandon young it's been great in Triple A could get a start here at some point but essentially we shall see like the or rotation right now is in is in we shall see mode with these injuries and the ineffectiveness from some of these guys so yeah Cole Irvin remains in the rotation Brandon young maybe right Chase mcdermitt's hurt Kade Povich is already here you're running out of guys and Bruce Zimmerman was df8 Orioles needed to make some 40-man room on Thursday as well and Zimmerman who's been on the 40 man for a while hasn't really pitched a lot the last couple of years didn't really contribute at all hasn't been been in the big leagues at all this year 66 Innings 464 erra for norfol dealt with multiple injuries the last couple of Seasons after he had that great run early in 2022 where he was just dominating out of the Orioles rotation kind of hasn't been the same pitcher since then has Bruce Zimmerman and it's unfortunate local guy went to Loyola you know O's fan it's been awesome that for him to be in this organization but I think the one thing is more than likely he'll clear waivers and probably remain in tripa norfol just off the 40-man roster in the O will still have him as depth but always a chance probably not going to happen because remember no one claimed Cole Irvin I don't think anyone's claiming Bruce Zimmerman possible but hope is that he does stay in the O's rotation at least as depth so then the other pitcher move the reason why you had to DFA Bruce serman is that you had to get a 40-man spot open for Matt Bowman who we saw the right-handed pitcher go four up four down in his Orioles debut on Thursday he was called up and Colin Selby was optioned down to Triple A now Bowman was recently signed to a minor league by the Orioles he had pitched with three different teams in the big leagues this year out of the pen and been really good in norfol in his three appearances with the tides three Innings sixk one walk and no runs allowed in norfol and you're wondering okay why did Bowman come up and especially why did Colin Selby go down because Selby came up earlier this week and he was Nails in those two relief outings pitched in in kind of multi- inning stints in games one and three against the Mets and and Selby was awesome in those two games out of the pen wicked stuff put up some big time zeros in the middle of the game to kind of bridge it to the back end of the bullpen one reason was Selby probably wasn't going to be available either Thursday or Friday because the amount he pitched earlier in the week but the other one is there's not many guys with options left in the Orioles Bullpen right now I mean there's barely any and Selby was one of the last guys I think for Selby like if there's an injury he'll be the first one back up if not he will stay down those exact 15 days and come right back to this o bullpen in September because that stuff was nasty but the Matt Bowman situation was the Orioles clearly like Matt Bowman and I talked about this last Friday make sure to go back and check out that episode that gives you a fuller breakdown on kind of who Bowman is as a pitcher what a stuff looks like what he can bring on the mound but I mentioned on that episode that in the minor league deal he signed with the Orioles he had an opt out clause that was kind of an interesting opt out wrinkle for August 22nd which was yesterday basically if the Oriol hadn't called up Bowman to the big leagues by the 22nd they had to offer him up to every other team in major league baseball and if any other team said yes we would like to take Bowman that now they'd have to guarantee him a spot on the big league roster but they'd say yes we want Matt Bowman the Orioles would either have to trade him to that team or call him up to the big leagues and so clearly we got to that date and clearly one of the other 29 teams said yes we will give a big league spot to Matt Bowman right now and the Oriol said whoa whoa whoa we like him too much we're going to keep him and so to do that they were forced to call him up and that kind of put them in this spot to put him on the roster now he looked good I don't love the move because I think the Orioles this is crazy to say after two appearances but kind of feels like they need Colin Selby right now so basically Bowman has to be for this move to work out as good as Colin Selby was for the next two weeks now so far first outing check one four up four down that's what Selby was doing that's a great start he's got to do that for two more weeks until Selby can come up as well then it will end up being a good move if he struggles not going to be a great decision but we will see how this all plays out and and to do that move with the way Selby was pitching the Orioles clearly wanted Bowman on this team and did not want to lose him now the other move that was made was a position player move this is the last one to get to a Manuel Rivera was activated and Levon stto was optioned to Triple A now you might say Levon stto he was on this Orioles team oh yeah he's been here since Kobe Mayo was sent down but stto did not appear in a game at at all we knew he was here and I basically said it look there's a chance he doesn't play in any games he's just here to be like an emergency utility infielder who can play all over the diamond if you absolutely need to now Emanuel Rivera who is a right-handed hitter who's 28 years old was with the Diamond Backs this year or excuse me was with the Marlins this year hadn't been great 61 WRC plus and 229 play appearances that's not very good had been DFA by the Marlins and on Wednesday he was claimed off waivers by the Orioles Taran VAV was DFA off the 40-man roster to make room for Rivera and now Rivera is added to the roster because he had to be he was out of options couldn't be sent to triaa so when they claimed him you knew he had to join the Orioles at some point now he's been in the big league since 2021 with three different teams was with the Royals and then the Diamondbacks last year actually was on that team as not a big contributor but was on that playoff roster as they went to the World Series last year and then was with the Marlins this season and he's never been a great hitter has about an 81 career WRC plus and about a thousand Big League plate appearances been better against lefties in his career but still not a great hitter by any stretch why is he on this team well he is a great defender at third base he has only played third base and first not just in the majors but in pro ball in general including the minor leagues but he's been a fantastic Third Base Defender his entire career so he basically fills right into the role that Levon stto had he may not start any games he might just be on your bench but then if you do want to pinch hit for Ramona Rus late you know that you can put Rivera in there and he'll give you really really good Third Base defense like honestly better than what Ramona Ras might give you at third base so that's nice to have off your bench until Jordan Westburg can get back for you only difference between Rivera and stto Rivera is a better player overall including a better hitter and there's more of a chance that he maybe gets a start or two at third base you know thrown in there once a week maybe before Westberg comes back they trust him a little bit more than maybe starting a guy like Levon stto but a move that's not going to completely move the needle for the Orioles he will mostly uh help them out from the bench but that'll do it that's a whole lot of roster moves to get to and in Orioles loss as well you know I like breaking down roster moves and why they were made on this podcast if you made it all the way to the end you are a real one you are an everyday you are a legit locked on Orioles fan and I thank you for that whether you are the everyday who's here to the end or you know you just decided on a whim to listen to the end today and you're like why does he keep talking about these roster moves that won't matter that much in the long run well they might and if not either way please give us a like a comment a subscribe on the lock oro's YouTube channel leave a festar rating and a review wherever you listen as well it really really helps out the podcast that'll do it for the week I will be back on Monday we will recap the final three games between the Orioles and the Astros hopefully the O's can turn it around later in the weekend and I'm back for that recap on Monday but until then I'm Conor Nukem and this has been the locked on Orioles podcast part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day