Orioles Designate Cole Irvin For Assignment

The Orioles announced they’ve designated left-hander Cole Irvin for assignment. Baltimore recalled catcher Blake Hunt for his major league debut to take the vacated active roster spot.

Irvin, 30, was a fifth-round pick by the Phillies back in 2016 but struggled badly upon making his big league debut in 2019. He posted a 6.75 ERA and 5.09 FIP in 45 1/3 innings of work with the Phillies in parts of two seasons before being dealt to the A’s in a cash deal prior to the start of the 2021 season. Despite being used primarily out of the bullpen in Philadelphia, the A’s moved him to the rotation where he managed to fashion himself into a reliable, innings-eating back-of-the-rotation arm. Between his two seasons in Oakland, only 12 pitchers threw more innings than his 359 1/3 frames of work as he pitched to a 4.11 ERA (95 ERA+) with a 4.25 FIP across 62 starts for the A’s. Irvin posted a lackluster 16.8% strikeout rate during his time with the A’s but limited walks to a measly 5.2% clip.

That combination of volume and steady (if uninspiring) production made Irvin a fairly attractive trade candidate during the 2022-23 offseason as the A’s continued to tear down amid a rebuild that began the previous winter, particularly given that he was still set to make a league-minimum salary in 2023. Enter the Orioles, who were keeping payroll low as they cautiously stepped towards contention following a surprise 83-79 showing in 2022 and jumped at the chance to acquire the southpaw in a deal where they shipped infield prospect Darell Hernaiz to Oakland in exchange for Irvin and pitching prospect Kyle Virbitsky.

Unfortunately, Irvin has not been the steady source of innings the Orioles were surely hoping they’d be acquiring when they landed him. His career in Baltimore got off to a disastrous start as he pitched to a 10.66 ERA in three April starts before being optioned down to the Triple-A level. He was called back up to the big leagues in mid-June to take on a swing role, acting as a multi-inning reliever and spot starter for the remainder of the season after being squeezed out of the rotation picture by the emergence of youngsters like Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, and Tyler Wells. He performed solidly enough in that role, with a 3.22 ERA and 4.25 FIP in his final 64 1/3 innings of work last year, that the Orioles were willing to retain him through his first year of arbitration eligibility on a $2MM salary to act as rotation depth.

The decision to keep Irvin in the fold proved to be a prescient one as the Orioles saw their rotation depth immediately tested this year by early-season injuries to Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez that were further compounded by John Means’ continued rehab from Tommy John surgery. Irvin’s early season performance merited his spot in the rotation mix for the most part, as he pitched to a solid 2.84 ERA and 3.47 FIP in ten appearance (eight starts) over the season’s first two months. That changed when the calendar flipped to June, however, as Irvin struggled to a 6.30 ERA with a 5.22 FIP in six starts before getting demoted to the bullpen in early July. His struggles only deepened upon moving to a multi-inning relief role as he posted a sky-high ERA of 9.00 in 14 July innings.

Between Irvin’s rapidly deteriorating performance and the club’s acquisitions of starters Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers prior to today’s trade deadline, the Orioles evidently felt they had no spot for Irvin (who is out of options) on their active roster going forward. Now that he’s been designated for assignment, the club will have seven days to attempt to pass him through waivers. Any club could pick Irvin up for the price of paying the remainder of his contract once he’s on the waiver wire, and it’s certainly possible a club looking for innings in the aftermath of today’s deadline could do so. Should Irvin clear waivers, he’d have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment but would forgo the remainder of his salary in doing so, giving him strong incentive to accept and assignment to the minors and remain with the Orioles as non-roster depth in the event he clears waivers.

As for Hunt, the 25-year-old backstop was acquired by the Orioles in the trade that sent right-hander Mike Baumann to Seattle earlier this year. Hunt has struggled to a .149/.192/.297 slash line in 20 games at the Triple-A level for the club’s Norfolk affiliate since the trade but figures to offer the club additional catching depth after veteran backup catcher James McCann suffered a broken nose during a game against the Blue Jays yesterday. Hunt’s first appearance with the Orioles will be his major league debut.