The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Burch Smith from Triple-A Norfolk. Fellow righty Dillon Tate was optioned to Norfolk in a corresponding move. Baltimore already had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so a 40-man move wasn’t necessary.
The 34-year-old Smith signed with the O’s on a minor league deal two weeks ago. He’s pitched a pair of shutout innings for the Tides during his brief Triple-A stint in the organization, fanning a pair and only allowing one hit along the way. He also tossed 29 2/3 innings out of the Marlins’ bullpen earlier this season and worked to a solid 4.25 ERA — albeit with a subpar 17% strikeout rate. However, Smith also walked only 6.7% of his opponents and kept the ball on the ground at a hearty 47% clip.
That marked Smith’s first big league work since 2021. He spent the 2022 season with the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and the 2023 season with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Hanwha Eagles. A former 11th-round pick, Smith has pitched in parts of six big league seasons between the Padres, A’s, Royals, Giants, Brewers and Marlins, logging a combined 5.79 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate.
As for Tate, he was a key member of the Baltimore bullpen in 2022, when he pitched 73 2/3 innings of 3.05 ERA ball for manager Brandon Hyde. He opened the 2023 season on the injured list due to a flexor strain, however, and when he’d progressed to the point that he was ready for a rehab assignment, he suffered a stress reaction in his elbow that led to a second shutdown. He wound up missing the entire 2023 season as a result of those two injuries.
Now healthy, Tate was enjoying a strong season up through mid-June before hitting a substantial rough patch. As recently as June 19, Tate was sitting on a sparkling 2.31 ERA. A poor 15.6% strikeout rate suggested he would have a hard time sustaining quite that level of success, but Tate sported an average walk rate and huge 56.3% grounder rate. Regression indeed came — and far more aggressively than anyone could’ve reasonably predicted. He’s been scored upon in three straight appearances and has given up runs in six of his past eight outings. Dating back to June 19, Tate has a 9.90 ERA (11 runs in 10 innings).
The move to option Tate comes not long before he’d have been granted the right to refuse such an assignment. The former No. 4 overall pick entered the season with 4.048 years of MLB service and has run that total up to 4.128 years. With just 44 more days on the active roster or injured list, he’d reach five years of service. At that point, he’d have to consent to being optioned.
So long as Tate gets 44 more days on the active roster or injured list between now and season’s end, he’ll remain on track to become a free agent following the 2025 season. If, however, he’s up for 43 or fewer days, he’ll finish the season with four-plus years instead of five-plus and have his path to free agency pushed back by a year.
I wish I was named after a tree. Maybe Hemlock would be okay. Or Juniper.
This is a joke I assume. It’s just a deal for a right handed ground baller. That’s the job, and Tate hasn’t been doing it late in a game lately, when you need a ground ball w men on base. He’s been letting those guys score recently. They’ve been in games that got out of hand, but he’s been a part of that.
I looked at his name and was wishing that the classic baseball nicknames came back. Burch “Stump” Smith. Hope, for his sake, this guy can actually help Baltimore and it isn’t the 1st step by the FO to give him a cup of coffee before a DFA.
That’s probably what it is a few games until he gets dfa’d for mayos call up
They can put Bradish off the roster any time they want to do that
The Orioles aren’t going with 12 pitchers.
Nobody can top Bob “Death to Flying Things” Ferguson.
You mean the attorney general of Washington running for governor?
I can’t stop seeing ads of him when watching mariners games
Infielder for the ’71 (1871, that is) Mutuals. Maybe the nickname meant something then. Perhaps he liked to swat mosquitoes.
I’m in the same boat I’m about to buy season tickets n move 4 hours west
A shame to see Tate struggling like he is. Dude was a first round pick for a reason…he’s got nasty stuff when he’s on but it’s been a rough road between injuries and inconsistencies.
agreed. Tate hasn’t been the same since the extended injury last yr the held him out. I was looking fwd to him being a trustworthy high lev guy but it’s Russian Roulette each night with the pen with a couple exceptions (incl thankfully Kimbrell as of late). With Povich and now Kramer’s soiling the bed… the pen doesn’t get more trustworthy when worked that much. thank goodness for the break (and Irvin soaking up some IP in Seattle), but first the Yanks.
Elias has a team of staff members who scour waiver wire and all sorts of sources inseason, that do nothing but look for value.
Majority of these never look sexy, but a few of them turn into hidden gems. Esp. If the deals are for basically nothing. Cano is the most obvious one of those that they found in recent years.folks here always make fun of these transactions, but if you tryout a 100 of these deals, and a handful of them become contributors to the major league team, that’s pretty solid return.
Son of a Burch