The Orioles have re-signed right-hander Matt Bowman to a minor league deal with an invite to big league spring training, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The righty will make $1.1MM if in the majors and will also have the chance to unlock incentives valued at $400K.
Bowman, 34 in May, just finished a nomadic season. He pitched for four clubs this year: the Twins, Diamondbacks, Mariners and Orioles, with Baltimore being his final stop. He signed a minor league deal with the O’s in August and was added to the roster shortly thereafter. He tossed 15 1/3 innings with Baltimore down the stretch, allowing 3.45 earned runs per nine. The O’s outrighted him off the roster at season’s end and Bowman elected free agency.
When combined with his other stops, he tallied 30 2/3 innings on the year with a 4.40 ERA, 18.2% strikeout rate, 9.8% walk rate and 44.1% ground ball rate. Keeping the ball on the ground has been Bowman’s best attribute in his career. Dating back to his 2016 debut, he has 216 big league innings with a 4.17 ERA. His 19% strikeout rate is a bit below average but his 8.3% walk rate is fine and he has kept the ball on the ground at a 54.6% clip.
The bulk of that came work from 2016 to 2019, before Bowman missed the 2020 to 2022 seasons due to injuries, with rehab from Tommy John surgery being the main culprit. He was healthy in 2023 but spent most of the year in Triple-A, getting into just three big league contests. As mentioned, he bounced around quite a bit this year but managed to get his largest chunk of big league work in quite a while.
He’ll give the O’s a bit of non-roster depth for their relief group. If he gets added to the roster at any point, he’ll make a salary a bit above league minimum, which will be $760K next year. He is out of options, which is part of the reason why he bounced around so much this past season. He has less than five years of service time, so he can theoretically be retained for 2026 via arbitration if he has a roster spot at season’s end.
Solid depth guy and he was fairly successful in his brief time as an Oriole.
Welcome back, Matt.
@cooper
that’s so true.
Cooper nailed it!
Cooper: speaks least, says most.
@Dumpster
idk why I didn’t think of that.
Welcome back, Matt indeed. Now they just need to find Mr. Kotter
Not the “re-sign” news we’re looking for.
Re-sign? More like resign. Amirite?
The ultimate dumpster diver was DDDD of the Orioles.
For a “ground ball pitcher,” he did nothing but give up homers as a Mariner. Not very good. And for some reason, players from around the league tear it up offensively at T-Mobile Park. The only one’s who can’t hit there are Mariners. Like literally, no one in the majors does bad at that stadium until they put on a Seattle uniform.
Why? Another piece of garbage , dumpster dive. Come on, get serious.
He’s a depth guy that has ZERO chance of breaking camp with the big league team unless there are a ridiculous number of injuries in ST.
Chill, dawg.
ZERO chance. As in playoff series wins?
You rang?
Judge speaks!
They let Coulombe (however you spell it) and Webb walk and resign this guy. Ah he cheaper then both of them, got it.
More crabcake in Dundalk!
He has one other thing neither of those pitchers would have and that is options. Elias loves that flexibility. Also, He only surrendered runs in 3 of 14 appearances for the O’s and he’s a Marylander.
RIP Hazewood.
We are the champions, my friends
Bowman- the new Jesse Chavez