The Orioles announced their Opening Day roster today, noting that right-handers Roansy Contreras and Matt Bowman are no longer on the 40-man. Contreras has been designated for assignment. Bowman has already cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A.
Both pitchers are out of options. That meant they needed to stick on the active roster or else be removed from the 40-man entirely. In both cases, they didn’t make the Opening Day squad and have subsequently lost their 40-man spots.
Bowman, 34 in May, signed a minor league deal with the O’s in the winter. They selected his contract a few days ago, perhaps to stop him from triggering an opt-out in his contract. They’ve now quickly run him through waivers. He has at least three years of service time but less than five. That means he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, but in so doing would forfeit the money still owed to him on his contract.
It’s not known how much Bowman is owed but is seems he preferred to stick with his current deal, as opposed to looking for a new one. He’ll provide the O’s with some non-roster depth. In 216 career innings, he has a 4.17 earned run average, 19% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 54.6% ground ball rate.
Contreras, 25, has been bouncing around the league for a long time. That’s due to some enticing numbers and his out-of-options status. Dating back to May of last year, he has gone from the Pirates to the Angels, Rangers, Reds, Orioles, Yankees and then Orioles again via small trades or waiver claims. He has a 4.72 ERA, 19.7% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 39.3% ground ball rate in his 234 2/3 career innings.
He has less than three years of service time and doesn’t have a previous career outright, which means he would not have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers. The O’s will have a maximum of one week of DFA limbo time to figure out what’s next for Contreras. The waiver process can take 48 hours, so any trade talks would need to develop in the next five days.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images