The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Tom Eshelman from Triple-A Norfolk. Lefty Josh Rogers, who is sidelined with a UCL injury, was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The Orioles have listed Eshelman as their probable starter tonight.
Baltimore acquired the 25-year-old Eshelman from the Phillies back on June 10 in exchange for international bonus allocations that the Phils used to sign Australian pitching prospect Josh Gessner. In 20 innings since being acquired by Baltimore, Eshelman has a 4.05 ERA with 11 strikeouts and six walks. Eshelman was originally drafted by the Astros when Mike Elias, now the Orioles’ general manager, was the scouting director in Houston. In all, the righty has pitched to a 4.46 ERA with 7.2 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in 74 2/3 minor league innings this season.
The Orioles have gotten disastrous results out of the final two spots in their rotation this season, with each of Dan Straily, Davis Hess and Alex Cobb throwing poorly in their time with the club. All-Star John Means and righties Andrew Cashner and Dylan Bundy have ranged from surprisingly excellent (Means) to generally serviceable (Bundy), but there are questions beyond that trio. Given the uncertain state of the rotation, Eshelman would seem to have a chance to carve out a long-term spot for himself if he can impress his new organization.
Welp, It isn’t easy following a team that is designed to finish w the first round pick in the Amateur Draft for the second straight year.
But we are beginning to see the bigger picture after this most recent excellent Draft Class.
Truth is; the Orioles should have started their tear-down a couple of years ago when The Old Man was in-charge, but his ego prevented that from happening.
So, true. Should have at least torn it down after the choke job of ’17.
If waiting meant getting Elias/Sig I’m ok with it.
Got that right
That way of looking at it makes me almost find it worth it
It wasn’t Angelos’ ego that prevented a rebuild. It was his belief that a rebuild would look like the team wasn’t trying and he refused to ever let the team not look like that despite how desperately they needed to do it. He truly felt as if he owed it to the fans of Baltimore to always try to win every year, even when it was obvious the talent wasn’t there. In the end it was rather insulting to us as fans, because it felt like he didn’t believe that we would understand why the team was doing it.
Good luck, he’s the best of the AAA bunch and hopefully his ability to minimize walks translates well to the bigs.
hope he doesnt get shelled in Baltimore. It would hurt to see him outperform VV and Pivetta, (which is very likely) but he’s a nice guy and I gotta wish him the best.
I always liked him, I was hopeful he could do well in Philly. But, hopefully he can figure it out in Baltimore.
If he can go 5 innings and pitch reasonably well he’ll have a long leash in this rotation.