{"id":640599,"date":"2026-03-24T12:20:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/640599\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T12:20:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:20:28","slug":"thairo-estrada-opts-out-of-orioles-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/640599\/","title":{"rendered":"Thairo Estrada Opts Out Of Orioles Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran utilityman Thairo Estrada<\/a> has been granted his release, the team announced. He had an opt-out provision in his minor league contract with Baltimore and is once again a free agent. The O\u2019s also reassigned catcher Maverick Handley<\/a> and outfielder Jhonkensy Noel<\/a> to minor league camp. Both were non-roster invitees this spring.<\/p>\n

Estrada, 30, went just 2-for-25 with a pair of singles and nine strikeouts this spring. It wasn\u2019t the camp performance he was hoping for after a 2025 season in which he hit only .253\/.285\/.370 with the Rockies. Injuries limited Estrada to just 165 plate appearances a year ago. He missed time due to a broken wrist, a sprained thumb and a strained hamstring during a snakebit season.<\/p>\n

From 2021 to 2023, Estrada slashed .266\/.320\/.416 with the Giants (105 wRC+). He eventually found himself upgraded from a utility role to the team\u2019s starting second baseman. He combined that slightly above average bat with a strong glove to become a valuable player for San Francisco for a few years.<\/p>\n

Things began to turn the wrong direction in 2024 \u2014 a season in which a left wrist sprain limited Estrada to just 96 games. He hit a paltry .217\/.247\/.343 (68 wRC+) even when he was healthy enough to take the field. The Giants cut him loose, and a one-year deal with the Rockies didn\u2019t help him right the ship.<\/p>\n

With Estrada being cut loose, the Orioles\u2019 options for the final spot on Craig Albernaz\u2019s bench include Jeremiah Jackson<\/a>, Bryan Ramos<\/a> and Weston Wilson<\/a>. Jackson and Ramos are both on the 40-man roster. Jackson is hitting .333\/.353\/.545 in 34 spring plate appearances but has minor league options remaining. Ramos is hitting .297\/.366\/.459 in 41 plate appearances and is out of minor league options. Wilson has hit .241\/.405\/.448 and has the most outfield experience of the group.<\/p>\n

Non-roster invitee Luis V\u00e1zquez<\/a> had been in the running for a utility role as well, but Albernaz revealed this afternoon that V\u00e1zquez suffered a broken thumb yesterday when he was hit by a pitch (link via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner<\/a>). There\u2019s no timetable for his return, but the ill-timed injury obviously takes him out of the running for a roster spot. He\u2019ll stick with the O\u2019s as a depth option and rehab the injury in their system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran utilityman Thairo Estrada has been granted his release, the team announced. He had an opt-out provision in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,13096,13459,4577,13461,1128,156,15448],"class_list":["post-640599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-bryan-ramos","tag-jeremiah-jackson","tag-jhonkensy-noel","tag-luis-vazquez","tag-maverick-handley","tag-thairo-estrada","tag-weston-wilson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116284124607473277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640599","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=640599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}