Every team passed on the opportunity to claim outfielder Jhonkensy Noel on waivers, which enabled the Orioles to outright him to Triple-A Norfolk on Wednesday. A relatively small roster move that kept \u201cBig Christmas\u201d in the organization.<\/p>\n
Is it a big deal?<\/p>\n
How he\u2019d fit on an Opening Day roster isn\u2019t apparent. It\u2019s downright confusing.<\/p>\n
A corner outfielder\/first baseman with a minus-1.4 bWAR last season doesn\u2019t necessarily fill a need. It\u2019s more about the intrigue that comes from his raw power and the organizational perception that he can be fixed after slashing .193\/.242\/.401 in 136 games with the Guardians and striking out 115 times.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a tremendous amount of trust in the hitting philosophies and instruction, and the Orioles added two new coaches in Dustin Lind and Brady North. We also can assume that new manager Craig Albernaz put in a good word after serving as Guardians bench coach for the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
Noel is only 24 but he\u2019s out of options. The Orioles succeeded in removing him from the 40-man roster, the best possible outcome. Work with him and have no obligations to carry him.<\/p>\n
They can invite Noel to spring training and see whether he\u2019s able to force his way onto the roster or provide more outfield depth. \u00a0<\/p>\n
His chances of being in the majors on March 26 might hinge on whether president of baseball operations\/general manager Mike Elias makes any trades that create room.<\/p>\n
Among the players on the 40-man roster are outfielders Taylor Ward, Colton Cowser, Tyler O\u2019Neill, Dylan Beavers, Leody Taveras, Heston Kjerstad and Reed Trimble, and infielder\/outfielder Jeremiah Jackson. Marco Luciano was designated for assignment yesterday.<\/p>\n
Will Robertson was outrighted to Norfolk this week and Enrique Bradfield Jr. is a former first-round draft pick who\u2019s ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 4 prospect in the system and made the climb to Triple-A last summer. His debut is nearing.<\/p>\n
Sixteen different players were used in the outfield in 2025. The Orioles needed a franchise-record 70 players to get through a last-place season.<\/p>\n
Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo are the only catchers on the 40-man roster, but yesterday\u2019s signing of Sam Huff to a minor league contract improves the depth that also includes Maverick Handley and Silas Ardoin in Norfolk.<\/p>\n
Huff is out of options and would have to clear waivers and be outrighted if the Orioles selected his contract and tried to send him down.<\/p>\n
Left-hander Jos\u00e9 Suarez was a waiver claim yesterday from the Braves and, yes, he\u2019s also out of options.<\/p>\n
The bullpen candidates don\u2019t provide much flexibility. Ryan Helsley, Andrew Kittredge, Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns, Rico Garcia, Albert Su\u00e1rez and Colin Selby can\u2019t be optioned. Su\u00e1rez signed a minor league deal.<\/p>\n
Yennier Cano, Kade Strowd, Grant Wolfram, Yaramil Hiraldo and Jose Espada have two options and shuttle potential. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
* Koby Perez, the Orioles\u2019 vice president of international scouting and operations, said yesterday that everything is \u201cbusiness as usual except that there\u2019s some uncertainty with what will happen\u201d following the U.S. military strike on Venezuela earlier this month and the capture of incumbent president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the concern we have with our staff and our players is uncertainty that we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. But as of now it\u2019s been business as usual,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already brought in Venezuelan players to the Dominican and the U.S. to get started on their year.\u201d<\/p>\n
* Perez was asked which of his international signings could be next to debut in the majors following Basallo in August. He singled out infielder Aron Estrada, 21, who\u2019s ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 22 prospect in the system, and left-hander Luis De Le\u00f3n, 22, who\u2019s ranked 18th.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel pretty good about a group of them,\u201d he said. \u201cAron Estrada is a player who, he\u2019s always performed, and every level he\u2019s performed in, he\u2019s been young for the level, but he\u2019s performed very good for the level. He got a taste of Double-A and performed, as he usually does.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou talk about a switch-hitting second baseman that has a lot of athleticism, can play different positions. That\u2019s a good bet.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the pitching side, Luis De Le\u00f3n is a left-handed starter who has shown a lot of good stuff and has all the ingredients to be a premium pitcher in the major leagues. And he did get a taste of Double-A, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think those two guys can be there quickly, even as soon as this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
* Perez also said the Orioles will continue to field two Dominican Summer League teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone in this organization thinks it\u2019s the best move,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we signed a lot of shortstops we hold over from the year before. We signed a lot of catchers, we signed a lot of center fielders. So a lot of times you want these kids to play the premium position and learn how to play the premium position, and that gives us the best opportunity to put the kids in the right places and give them repetitions at these places. And usually the cream will rise to the top, and that\u2019s the way it\u2019s gone for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every team passed on the opportunity to claim outfielder Jhonkensy Noel on waivers, which enabled the Orioles to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2374],"tags":[60191,143,47,2538,5,4577,69575,54000,4,125,579,578],"class_list":{"0":"post-524011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-aron-estrada","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-jhonkensy-noel","14":"tag-koby-perez","15":"tag-luis-de-leon","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-orioles","18":"tag-orioles-featured","19":"tag-roch-kubatko"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115906601950195180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}