Orioles Outright Ty Blach To Triple-A

The Orioles announced that Ty Blach has been outrighted to Triple-A, after the left-hander cleared waivers.  Blach was designated for assignment on Monday, clearing roster space for the O’s to claim Eric Hanhold away from the Mets.

Blach was himself a waiver claim for the Orioles back in August, though after coming from the Giants, Blach didn’t add much help to Baltimore’s rotation.  He posted an 11.32 ERA over five starts in an O’s uniform, surrendering six home runs over his 20 2/3 innings of work.  Between those struggles and a similarly rough performance in his brief time on the Giants’ big league roster in 2019, Blach has a cumulative 12.00 ERA over 27 total innings.

It marked a big step down for a pitcher who looked like a serviceable swingman in 2018, after he delivered a 4.25 ERA over 118 2/3 frames for San Francisco while starting 13 games and coming out of the bullpen on 34 other occasions.  Blach has never been a particularly hard thrower or a big strikeout pitcher (only a 4.91 career K/9), and while he had done a decent job of keeping the ball in the park in prior seasons, home runs became a larger issue for Blach both at the MLB and Triple-A levels in 2019.  He was far from the only pitcher to suffer through such a homer spike this season, though Blach’s pitch-to-contact arsenal made him particularly susceptible to the long ball.