The Orioles announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed first baseman/outfielder Chris Shaw off waivers from the Giants. Right-hander Thomas Eshelman was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Additionally, the O’s revealed that corner infielder/designated hitter Renato Nunez, whom they designated for assignment last Friday, went unclaimed on waivers and has been released.
Shaw, 26, long seemed like a change-of-scenery candidate for the Giants. The former No. 31 overall draft pick has a productive .280/.328/.538 slash in more than 1000 Triple-A plate appearances, but he’s also struck out in 30 percent of his plate appearances there. He made his big league debut in 2018 but still only has 82 plate appearances, as the new-look Giants front office never seemed as bullish on Shaw as the prior regime that drafted him. Shaw was initially omitted from San Francisco’s 60-man player pool this season, and although he was later added, he never got called up to the big leagues. With the O’s, his left-handed bat will get some looks at first base, in the outfield corners and at designated hitter.
The release of Nunez in many ways opens a spot for Shaw to get an opportunity in Baltimore. While Orioles fans were alarmed to see Nunez, who slugged 43 home runs in just over 800 plate appearances from 2019-20, designated for assignment last week, the move wasn’t necessarily a shock.
Nunez has struggled to get on base even while showing considerable power, and he’s a below-average defender at both infield corners. The market for OBP-challenged, defensively limited sluggers has dried up considerably in recent years, and Nunez was due a raise in arbitration. That he went unclaimed speaks to the fact that his one-dimensional skill set isn’t one that’s valued highly around the game at the moment.
As for the 26-year-old Eshelman, he gave the Orioles an aesthetically pleasing 3.89 ERA in 34 2/3 innings this past season, but that mark was likely misleading. Eshelman managed just 16 strikeouts in that time, and while many low-strikeout arms can mitigate damage by keeping the ball on the ground, his 35.9 percent grounder rate makes him a fairly extreme fly-ball pitcher.
Eshelman has just 38 strikeouts in 70 2/3 career innings, and he’s allowed 19 home runs in that time as well — a rate of 2.42 per nine innings pitched. He has a decent minor league track record, but that lack of missed bats and penchant for serving up the long ball has led to a career 5.22 ERA and even higher 6.56 FIP. The Orioles will have a week to trade Eshelman, run him through outright waivers or release him.
How was Nunez unclaimed on waivers?
I want to know why they think somehow Shaw will give them more value than Nunez. At least Nunez has proven himself in the bigs, unlike Shaw. And Shaws minor league numbers don’t really show him having much more patience at the plate than Nunez, which seemed to be the biggest gripe about him.
Shaw has insane power. In Camden hed probably hit 30 HRs no joke. He’d hit .150, but the HRs would probably still come.
How many Chris Davis’ do the O’s need?
Wow! That’s really an unnecessary shot. Shame on you, man.
True, but Nunez hit more than 30 HRs in 2019, and his 2020 pace was also for 30 HRs.
Nunez would’ve earned a couple million in arbitration and has no minor league options remaining. Shaw is pre-arb and has a minor league option.
… but what’s the best-case projection for Shaw? He’s replacing a hitter in Nunez who hit over 30 HRs in 2019, and was on pace to do the same in 2020 if there was a 162-game season. His 121 OPS+ last season is comfortably above league average for even a 1B/DH type.
I’m wondering if this was more about roster balancing. Mountcastle is probably better off playing more at 1B, and Trey Mancini is returning and will need ABs in the OF/1B/DH slots. Nunez’s ABs were about to dry up because of Mancini and the Orioles couldn’t see paying both Mancini and Nunez. Shaw probably doesn’t even make the roster, but as you noted they can manage him with a minor league option. He’s controllable depth with Mancini’s return. Still, no team claiming Nunez is perhaps a glimpse of what we’ll see at the non-tender deadline. Someone like Nunez may get a better dollar offer from teams in Asia.
Years of team control is the MAIN difference. One is in his arbitration years (Nunez) the other isn’t (Shaw).
Because he’s a one dimensional player
His OBP struggles mitigate his power in the eyes of most clubs, and his batted-ball profile in 2020 (25.8 percent hard-hit rate) doesn’t really suggest the power is overly sustainable. Add in a looming arbitration raise, a market that’ll be flooded with OBP-challenged, bat-first corner guys and his lack of defensive value, and I don’t find it all that surprising that teams pass.
It’s just not a skill set that is valued at a particularly high level in today’s game.
I wondered why the Orioles would let him go given that he had pretty good stats in the past 2 years. After some digging on fangraphs I think I it figured out. Everyone knows he’s a strikeout machine and not a good defender, but his underlying offensive numbers make his future projection very bleak.
Among players with at least 250 PA over the past 2 seasons (378), Nunez ranks…
– 272th in hard hit % (right between Orlando Arcia and Dawel Lugo
– 36th in soft hit % (Going from high to low with the leader being Billy Hamilton)
– 46th in o-swing & (Going from high to low)
Other stats show that he was about as good a baserunner as Pablo Sandoval and about as good a fielder as Justin Smoak. In other words, Lucky on offense power-wise, bad on everything else. That leads to a bad projection, which is what got him cut.
The Orioles and fans overvalue their players.
Big time. Matt Wieters was supposed to be the next Johnny Bench. Dylan Bundy was Walter Johnson. Kavin Gausman was Roger Clemens. And it goes back decades. Remember Rocky Coppinger? They had him marked as a Hall of Famer a month into his career.
Did you not read the article? As an O’s fan, I can tell you that the author was being nice. He has one tool (power) and even that is streaky.
More than half the teams rosters are full as they protect players from Rule 5 Draft. Still, Renato Nunez not getting picked up is puzzling.
Bluesky, I’m late to this. I had the same thought since Baseball Reference indicates Nunez still has one more pre-arb year left. That clearly must be wrong; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been released and he certainly would have been claimed if he was. Teams figure they can sign him for less than his arbitration projections. He could also look at Japan or the KBO if he doesn’t like the offers here. He’d crush it in either league, so it wouldn’t be a shock if he got a better offer to play internationally considering the glut of players who might be available post the tender deadline. Nevertheless, it’s still surprising to see a 26-year-old who put up a 121 OPS+ last season designated and not claimed. These are unusual times.
Ok. Rangers. There are two paths to take this off-season. Release/trade Odor, move IKF to 2nd, Elvis to SS, Guzman to 1b, and sign a stopgap at 3b… Or release/trade Odor, sign Kim for 2b, put IKF at 3b, Elvis at SS, and Guzman at 1b. If we go route number 1 (my least favorite of the two), Nunez wouldn’t be a bad option for the stopgap.
Btw, there is a third option of just standing pat and doing absolutely nothing… which is the Rangers motto, so I expect that lol.
Maybe we revisit the Odor for Eovaldi trade with BOS that reportedly was discussed before the deadline?
If we could somehow revisit that trade and do it… woah. I was thinking about Odor trades the other day, and I came up with an odd one: Odor and Tejeda for Jon Gray. We’d eat some of Odor’s money, Colorado would get a reclamation 2nd baseman (a seemingly position of need unless Rodgers still plays there), and the Rangers get a high upside pitcher. I like either of the deals mentioned, but I doubt something like that happens.
Sorry but no one is trading for that Odor contract in this market. Release him and eat the money. That’s the best you can hope for unless Texas is willing to take another bad contract back in return. Maybe they can get Chris Davis from Baltimore for him ;-).
Wait what? Nunez at 3B? FUNNIEEEEEE
More than mildly surprised that Nunez went unclaimed.
Phillies should bring back Eshelman
Only if Jamie Moyer imparts the secret to getting batters out without a major league fastball .
But he could be emergency depth at AAA.
Nunez going unclaimed seems to indicate the O’s were safe in moving on from him and not worrying about somebody quickly scooping him up. Certainly he’ll catch on with somebody before ’21 but it will most certainly be on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training and the MLB camp of a club looking to add cheap power knowing he’s a complete liability in the field.
Maybe, Nunez could be the tigers next JD Martinez 2.0??
I’ll be the first to admit how little I know about baseball stats outside the triple slash line, fielding %, and the basic pitching stats. But, Nunez seems like a worthy pick up for the Tigs.
The Tigers 40 man roster is full and they already have Miguel Cabrera at DH through 2023 no matter how bad he plays. Renato Nunez isn’t the type of player the Tigers said they would build for.
Maybe the Orioles think they can turn Shaw into Mike Yastrzemski.
Funny.
They couldn’t even turn Mike Yastrzemski into Mike Yastrzemski.
Nunez still hasn’t reached his ceiling yet, in my opinion.
Giants held onto shaw for too long
The Giants will probably pick up Nunez and turn him into a star.
Here’s something I don’t understand. The O’s are down to 39 on their 40 man. The O’s have 2 guys in the minors that are rule 5 eligible and unprotected because they aren’t on the 40 man. I know on Nov 21 there was a deadline for this so I don’t think these 2 guys can be added though the rule 5 draft hasn’t occurred yet. Can someone clarify the rule for me? They can’t be added to the 40 or the deadline wouldn’t have been significant, right?