The Orioles have optioned starting catcher Chance Sisco to Triple-A Norfolk, per a team announcement. In a corresponding move, the Orioles will recall fellow backstop Caleb Joseph from Norfolk, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweets.
Sisco last took the field for the Orioles on Friday, and manager Buck Showalter revealed after Sunday’s game that the player has had difficulty sleeping of late, which has affected his energy level (via Kubatko). It’s unclear whether or how much that played into the decision to send down Sisco, but in any case, it’s an unexpected demotion for the 23-year-old. At 20-50, the Orioles are well out of contention and in position to evaluate their young players at the major league level, but Sisco will nonetheless return to the minors for an undisclosed period of time. It’s worth noting that he entered 2018 with 31 days of service time, putting him 141 days shy of a full year of service. As of now, he’s not slated to reach arbitration until after the 2020 season or free agency until after the 2023 campaign.
Sisco came into 2018 with his rookie status intact, and for the most part, he looked as if he belonged in the majors prior to his demotion. Across 141 plate appearances this year, Sisco has hit .218/.340/.328 (good for a 92 wRC+), though he has posted a 35.5 percent strikeout rate and hasn’t offered much power (two home runs, .109 ISO). On the defensive side, Sisco has caught 28 percent of would-be base stealers – just beating out the 27 percent league average – but has struggled as a pitch framer, per both Baseball Prospectus and StatCorner.
Joseph, who racked up significant playing time in Baltimore from 2014-17 and has amassed 80 major league PAs this season, will pair with Austin Wynns as the club’s top two catchers. He’ll also team up with his brother, infielder Corban Joseph, whom the Orioles selected from Double-A on Friday.
Uhhh why? Get the kid at bats at the major league level. I realize 35% k rate is high but let him adjust against major league pitching and continue to tank to the #1 pick…. stupid decision imo.
Sisco is probably still our best option at catcher even putting those numbers up so I’m not sure this impacts our W/L record in the slightest. We’ll be as bad with or without him. If you think he needs refinement in the minors let him get it, I suppose.
Another O’s player coming up through the system who has nice upside. Take some pressure off him and let him work on pitch framing in the minors (bat is secondary and will indeed come along).
Not a stupid decision. His strikeout rates were never even close to this poor in the minors. His defense, which was never a strong suit, had been suffering. Having Sisco in the majors isn’t going to make the Orioles a contender, so better to let him go back and relieve the pressure, get back to doing the things that made the team put him on the roster in the first place.
Should just let him play. I suppose AAA abs wouldn’t hurt either but we have nothing to play for. Hopefully wynns gets the lionshare of ABS at the ML level because we know what Joseph gives us.
You have the number 1 pick in the draft to play for.
Why? Because the Orioles are a joke of an organization… that’s why. They’re so far out of it, there’s virtually zero chance of them even remotely sniffing the playoffs or even coming close to finishing at .500 for the year. Their farm system is garbage and their front office is awful. The fact that they STILL stay out of the international market is a complete joke and handicaps them tremendously. They should’ve torn it down and traded their top chips last year, but like always they sit on their hands and do nothing. If they had traded Britton, Brach, O’Day and Machado last year (at least) their farm system would be near the top of the league as opposed to the bottom.. and maybe they’d be closer to an organizational turnaround.
You should apply for the Gm position.
Agreed
Yeah, you sure sound like a gm—awesome.
Yeah, they didn’t listen to me, either. I’ve been saying this for a year, now.
Pretty much everyone around the game has been saying it for a year + now. This isn’t new news, just saying.
On other boards, commenters though I was nuts for even suggesting such blasphemy. I still think that, even as they now are entertaining trade talks involving Manny, they waiting a click or three too late.
Thanks for repeating what every Orioles fan has known for a while now. Take your Yankees Superiority Complex(TM) and stick it some place that might allow you to come up with an original thought,
Yankees superiority complex? What the hell are you talking about?
None of what I said had anything to do with the Yankees.
Unless there is something we’re missing (probably not), this doesn’t make much sense.
Someday, maybe 30-40 years from now, someone is going to excavate a property in Locus Point, and in the ground will be a chest. In that chest will be a handbook: Baltimore Orioles Operating Procedure Manual. The people remove and read this book. And there will a collective response of, “well now it all makes sense”
Because right now, nothing makes sense to almost anyone in baseball when it comes to the Orioles. Not to be mistaken with the Met’s who at least suffer from bad luck, the Orioles do this on purpose. As a fan of another team, please enlighten me why.
Orioles arent taking they have so much talent thats massively underperforming
Yes that’s what’s perplexing. Offense, admittedly, is one dimensional and behind the changing MLB landscape, but there’s a lot of talent in the organization.
Maybe the whole Oriole team is depressed that Machado will be gone soon.
It makes too much sense to trade Machado, and for that reason he’ll remain an Oriole for he rest of the season. All of Angelos’ decisions are ego based, and the good of the organization is not taken into account. Despite the fact that all BAL will get for Machado is a comp pick, Angelos will see keeping him as a win because doing so is a big F YOU to the rest of the league.
He got his chance!
Roch Kubatko? That dude is an idiot. He is a huge Angelos supporter, fails to criticize the team and the owner. But yet thinks he’s a big shot beat writer. #FireKubatko
I’m for the move. There is no point of having him up here with the losing environment all around him. With him struggling, the ab’s he’ll get aren’t helping him mentally. Send him back down and let him excel. Plus the Joseph’s will be playing together
Agree. Well said.
this is a temporary move, and is clearly only an attempt to get the Joseph brothers on the field together, as neither are long for Baltimore. Sisco will be back, with Cedric Mullins most likely, and the Joseph brothers will be back on the farm before you know it.
Mullins doesn’t deserve a call up. He’s struggling in AAA. Let him work it out first.
Promote Norfolk. Designate Baltimore for assignment.