The Orioles claimed RHP Jeremy Guthrie off of waivers from the Cleveland Indians. To make room on the 40 man roster RHP Marino Salas was designated for assignment.
Guthrie: 0-0, 6.98 ERA, 19.1 IP, 2.02 WHIP, 6.52 K/9
Salas: 2-6, 2.92 ERA, 19 saves, 49.1 IP, 1.11 WHIP, 8.40 K/9 (AA)
Grade: C+
This is becoming a regular thing now for the Orioles. They started out by doing this with Brian Burress, who now has a shot of being an asset to the club. Guthrie will most likely spend this season with AAA Norfolk, but can give us more depth at reliever which is never bad. He was a 1st round pick in 2002, so he could still become something. I liked Salas as depth too, hopefully we can retain him as well. This wasn’t a very big deal, but it was worth a shot I guess.
February 2, 2007 at 5:00 pm |
Hey, I saw this link over at OriolesHangout — hilarious thread, by the way, as an Indians fan — and thought I’d offer some information.
Guthrie is out of options. He was signed to a major league deal starting in 2003, so the options started getting used up right there. A team will be granted an unusual fourth-year option on any minor leaguer who’s played in less than five full seasons but has used up three options. which is how the Indians got to send him to Triple-A in 2006.
In any event, the question is not whether he’s more worthy of a roster spot than Salas — not worth arguing about in my opinion — but whether he has any real shot at making the 25-man roster — which, by the way, Salas did not. If he doesn’t make the club, my guess is that they’ll DFA him and try to get him to Triple-A, just as the Indians did. And in March, it might work.
Guthrie is not considered a prospect, at his age, but neither is he considered totally untalented. Is there some Mazzone Fairy Dust that can make him a big leaguer? Maybe. Many guys do peak after 27, and after the Jaret Wright resurrection, I rule out nothing. Had the options clock not been ticking, he may have developed more smoothly, and if he’d had an option remaining, I believe the Indians clearly would have kept him around in Buffalo as our 7th starter at least.
Guthrie by the way will make at least 800K this season, not the minimum. He cannot be paid less than 80% of the AAV (average annual value) of his last contract, which was either $4 million or $4.5 million depending on the source, for four years, for an AAV of $1 million or $1.11 million, and a max-cut salary for 2007 of 800K or 900K.
February 2, 2007 at 7:44 pm |
Thank you for this information. It’s nice to have someone with more knowledge about other organization’s players comment on things like this. I hope Mazzone can do something with this guy. I would rather have him on the roster than Todd Williams at this point. Even better if we could get him past waivers for depth in the minor leagues. Thanks again, please feel free to comment as the season moves along. The more information the site can get out there, the better.
-Bob Phelan
February 2, 2007 at 7:45 pm |
By the way, I think the Indians are going to take the AL Central this year. Good luck.
February 12, 2007 at 7:44 pm |
Things like this are always worth a shot. He’s a cheap reliever. You can never have too many of those. In fact, the more you have, the greater your odds go up of having 1 of the bunch be a star.
Relievers hardly ever thrill anyone for more than a year, maybe two, at a stretch. So just because he’s got bad numbers from last year is no reason he might not thrive for a year in the Orioles’ system before burning out.
Relievers are a strange animal that way.
And if he stinks…so what? He didn’t cost much.