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Ryan O'Rourke

Ryan O’Rourke Announces Retirement

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Former MLB southpaw Ryan O’Rourke announced last night on Twitter that he’s hanging up his spikes. MLBTR wishes him the best in his future endeavors.

O’Rourke made two appearances last year with the Mets before he was cut loose. He caught on with the Twins on a mid-season minors deal but never got the call to the MLB roster.

Most of O’Rourke’s experience at the highest level of the game came in his 2015-16 stint with the Twins. Over 47 frames in 54 appearances, he worked to a 4.98 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 4.8 BB/9.

O’Rourke, a Massachusetts native and former 13th round pick, did find quite a bit of success at the Triple-A level. Through an even one hundred appearances over five campaigns, he posted a cumulative 3.29 ERA.

Twins To Sign Ryan O’Rourke

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The Twins have struck a minors deal with lefty Ryan O’Rourke, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter). He had been with the Minnesota organization from 2010 through 2016.

O’Rourke appeared briefly in the majors earlier this year with the Mets, marking his first showing since the ’16 campaign. He has spent much of the year with the top affiliate of the New York organization, where he carries a 3.27 ERA with 9.6 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 over 44 innings.

It’s possible that O’Rourke could end up getting some MLB work in Minnesota, even if he has to wait until rosters expand in September. The club’s lone present southpaw reliever, Taylor Rogers, is its closer. There are four other lefties on the 40-man roster, but Martin Perez and Devin Smeltzer are working from the MLB rotation while Lewis Thorpe is starting at Triple-A. Stephen Gonsalves remains on the injured list in the minors.

Mets Notes: Trades, Nimmo, O’Rourke

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The latest on the Mets….

  • The Mets entered the day with a 44-51 record, they’re still only five games out of a wild card spot in the congested National League.  With this in mind, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman suggests that if the team isn’t going to really blow things up by dealing Noah Syndergaard or Jacob deGrom, they might as well hang onto other veteran trade chips like Zack Wheeler, Todd Frazier, and Jason Vargas (none of whom are likely to generate much in the way of a return at the deadline, with Wheeler’s value in question due to injury) to try and contend down the stretch.  With so much parity in the NL, “why not just play this out, rather than performing a fan-angering salary dump for minimal prospect return?” Sherman asks.
  • Brandon Nimmo is able to resume some baseball activities after the Mets shut him down last month, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports (Twitter link).  While Nimmo probably won’t start a rehab assignment “until August at the earliest,” it’s still a positive step forward given that Nimmo has been suffering from a bulging cervical disc in his neck.  It would seem like there’s at least some chance Nimmo gets back onto the field this season, though the Mets will obviously be careful with the outfielder given the delicate nature of the injury.
  • Ryan O’Rourke was designated for assignment by the Mets in late June, and learned about the move in unfortunate fashion, Syracuse.com’s Lindsay Kramer writes.  O’Rourke wasn’t told about the transaction by a coach or staff member, but rather via Twitter after a teammate showed him the news prior to a game.  The left-hander ended up remaining in the organization at Triple-A Syracuse after being outrighted off the 40-man roster in late June, though O’Rourke took advantage of his brief hiatus in a unique manner.  He ended up playing for Team Ireland in the qualifying rounds of the 2019 European Baseball Championship, appearing in two games for his grandfather’s home country.   “I was so happy. It was one of the better experiences in baseball of my entire life….I’m not representing myself, I’m representing my parents, my grandparents. I’m representing a country. I’ve never represented a country before when I played so it was really cool,” O’Rourke said.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/30/19

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Here are the latest minor moves from around the game, with the newer transactions at the top of the post…

  • The Phillies announced that righty Fernando Salas cleared waivers, and has been outrighted to Triple-A.  Salas signed a minors deal with the club earlier this month and was called to the big league roster for one game (with one inning pitched) before being designated for assignment on Friday.  This brief cameo marked Salas’ appearance in a tenth MLB season, following much longer stints with the Cardinals, Angels, and Mets throughout the decade.  The 34-year-old had a 4.50 ERA over 40 innings with the D’Backs in 2018, and after a brief stay in the Braves’ minor league system last year, didn’t land with a new team until his contract with Philadelphia.
  • The Mets have outrighted Ryan O’Rourke to Triple-A after the left-hander cleared waivers.  (MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo was among those to report the news.)  O’Rourke was designated for assignment last week.  After signing a minor league contract with New York over the winter, O’Rourke appeared in two games for the Mets, marking his first MLB action since 2016 when he was a member of the Twins’ bullpen.  Beyond his 48 1/3 career big league innings, O’Rourke has a 3.83 ERA, 9.3 K/9, and 3.46 K/BB rate over 404 1/3 innings as a minor leaguer for the Mets, Orioles, and Twins over nine pro seasons.

Mets To Select Chris Mazza, Designate Ryan O’Rourke

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2:57pm: The Mets will designate lefty Ryan O’Rourke for assignment to open up space for Mazza, Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News tweets. The 31-year-old O’Rourke signed a minor league contract with the Mets in the offseason. He threw 1 1/3 innings with the Mets earlier this year, and has mostly spent the season at the Triple-A level. O’Rourke has registered a 3.31 ERA/4.44 FIP with 9.09 K/9, 4.68 BB/9 and a 52.3 percent grounder rate in 32 2/3 innings with Syracuse.

2:04pm: The Mets plan to select right-hander Chris Mazza’s contract from Triple-A Syracuse, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets. They’ll need to create a 40-man spot for Mazza.

The 29-year-old Mazza will work out of the Mets’ bullpen when they promote him, per DiComo. Mazza hasn’t yet taken a major league mound since entering the pro ranks as a 27th-round pick of the Twins in 2011. He ascended to the Triple-A level for the first time last year as a member of the Marlins and has primarily pitched there this season with the Mets’ top affiliate.

Mazza has worked to a 3.67 ERA/4.06 FIP with 8.08 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 49 innings at Syracuse this season. Overall, he owns a 3.74 Triple-A ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 across 65 frames.

Mets Place Jeurys Familia On Injured List, Select Ryan O’Rourke

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The Mets are placing right-hander Jeurys Familia on the 10-day injured list due to a shoulder injury, the team announced to reporters today (Twitter links via Anthony Rieber of Newsday and Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). Familia has already received an injection in his ailing shoulder. In his place on the active roster, the Mets will select the contract of left-handed reliever Ryan O’Rourke. New York has an open 40-man spot, so an additional corresponding move will not be necessary.

Per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (Twitter link), Familia alerted the Mets to the discomfort in his shoulder this morning. He subsequently underwent an MRI that revealed a Bennett lesion/bone spur.

There’s no clear timetable on his return to the club at present, though the ailment helps to explain the rough start to the season for the 29-year-old. In 14 1/3 innings, Familia has been tagged for 11 runs (10 earned) on 16 hits and a sky-high 13 walks against 15 strikeouts. His current 95.5 mph average fastball is a career-low and down 0.7 mph from last season, and the extreme difficulty throwing strikes is out of character for the righty as well; over the past half decade prior to 2019, Familia had averaged 3.4 walks per nine innings pitched.

Familia signed the second-largest contract of any reliever this offseason at three years and a total of $30MM, but he’s clearly not off to the start he’d envisioned. With him on the shelf for a yet-undetermined period of time, it stands to reason that Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman will be tasked with serving as the primary right-handed setup men to closer Edwin Diaz. Gsellman leads Mets relievers with 18 2/3 innings pitched, though the Mets’ rigid use of their relievers could shoehorn him into a more limited eighth-inning role.

The 31-year-old O’Rourke will be returning to the Majors for the first time since the 2016 season. The southpaw saw 47 innings worth of action with the Twins in 2015-16, but Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2017 season and much of his 2018 campaign. O’Rourke spent last year in the Orioles organization but was only able to toss 14 1/3 innings of rehab work in the minors by season’s end. He landed with the Mets on a minor league deal early in the offseason.

So far in Syracuse, O’Rourke has pitched to a 4.61 ERA with a 14-to-6 K/BB ratio in 13 2/3 innings of work. Lefties are just 3-for-16 with a pair of walks and nine strikeouts in 18 plate appearances against him (.188/.278/.188), and that type of performance against same-handed opponents is rather characteristic of the 6’3″, 230-pound O’Rourke. In his two seasons with Minnesota, he dominated left-handed batters, limiting them to an embarrassing .134/.244/.239 slash in 80 plate appearances. Right-handed hitters, however, fared much better against O’Rourke, hitting him at a .250/.350/.390 clip.

Mets Assign Six NRI Veterans To Minor League Camp

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The Mets have cut several veterans at Spring Training on minor league contracts from their Major League camp.  Carlos Gomez, Adeiny Hechavarria, Rajai Davis, Hector Santiago, Ryan O’Rourke, and Devin Mesoraco are the non-roster invitees who have all been told they aren’t making the Opening Day roster.  (Tim Healey of Newsday was one of several reporters who passed on the news.)  Of note, Mesoraco didn’t have an opt-out clause in his contract, though the Mets said that the catcher is “reassessing his situation” with the organization.

Mesoraco, Hechavarria, and Davis each had upward mobility clauses in their contracts that went into effect last Wednesday, though there hasn’t been any word on whether any other teams had interest in any of the trio.  This doesn’t appear to have been the case for Mesoraco, as Mike Puma of the New York Post reports (Twitter link) that Mesoraco has informed the Mets that he won’t go to Triple-A, and wants to be released.  Mesoraco is even prepared to retire if he isn’t granted his release, according to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter).

Mesoraco’s situation is perhaps the most surprising, as indications were that he would serve as the backup catcher, since Travis d’Arnaud is likely to begin the season on the injured list.  This could mean that a change in d’Arnaud’s status, or that the Mets would simply instead prefer to use another internal candidate in Tomas Nido as Wilson Ramos’ backup.

The Mets’ outfield situation was already pretty crowded, so Gomez and Davis faced something of an uphill battle in winning jobs.  Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto have everyday jobs spoken for, while Jeff McNeil will get at least a share of the left field playing time, with Keon Broxton and Juan Lagares serving as backup outfielders.

O’Rourke pitched quite well in camp while Santiago struggled, though in the end, the Mets chose to take neither left-hander on their Opening Day roster.  This will leave Justin Wilson and Luis Avilan (another minor league signing who is likely to make the team) as the southpaw options out of New York’s bullpen.

The Hechavarria news bodes well for Luis Guillorme’s chances of winning the utility infield job.  McNeil will also see some time in the infield mix when he isn’t playing left field, and J.D. Davis looks to be the team’s top option at third base for the time being.  Of course, the Mets’ infield situation will be in flux once Todd Frazier and Jed Lowrie are healthy.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/16/18

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Mets announced yesterday that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Ryan O’Rourke to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training. The 30-year-old spent parts of the 2015-16 seasons with the Twins, pitching to a combined 4.98 ERA with 48 strikeouts and 25 walks in 47 innings of work. It’s a small sample (80 plate appearances), but O’Rourke has rendered opposing lefties utterly helpless in the Majors, yielding a .134/.244/.239 batting line. Right-handers have posted a less palatable .250/.350/.390 line against him in 118 PAs. O’Rourke spent the 2018 season in the Orioles organization but pitched just 14 1/3 innings across four minor league levels as he worked his way back from Tommy John surgery. Encouragingly, O’Rourke allowed just two earned runs with a 21-to-1 K/BB ratio in the Baltimore organization.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/16/17

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Here are the day’s minor moves:

  • The Orioles have added former Twins lefty Ryan O’Rourke, according ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (via Twitter). While the report doesn’t specify, it seems reasonable to presume that it’s a minors pact given that O’Rourke missed all of 2017 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The 27-year-old struggled with free passes in his first taste of the majors in 2015, but settled down upon returning in the following season. In 25 frames in the 2016 campaign, O’Rourke posted a 3.96 ERA with 24 strikeouts and six walks. It’s still a fairly minimal sample, but he has been pretty stingy against lefty hitters in the majors, holding them to a .134/.244/.239 slash through eighty total plate appearances.
  • Fellow former Minnesota southpaw Jason Wheeler is joining Korea’s Hanwha Eagles, as Yonhap News reports.  He’ll earn $575K to head to the KBO for the coming season. Wheeler, 27, has scant MLB time, with just two outings in the 2017 season. He spent most of the year in the upper minors, working to a 4.37 ERA over 94 2/3 innings with 6.9 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9.

Twins’ Ryan O’Rourke To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Twins left-hander Ryan O’Rourke, who has been on the disabled list all season, will undergo surgery to repair a tear in his left elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament, the team announced today. “We were all holding on to a little hope that he might get a couple options to how he should proceed instead of having to undergo the Tommy John procedure, but unfortunately didn’t get that news,” manager Paul Molitor told reporters (link via Dave Sessions of MLB.com).

O’Rourke, 28, has spent parts of each of the past two seasons with the Twins, appearing in 54 games out of the bullpen in total. His 2016 efforts resulted in a 3.96 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 and a 45.3 percent ground-ball rate. Though there didn’t appear to be an immediate spot in the Twins’ bullpen for O’Rourke, with Taylor Rogers and Craig Breslow already serving as lefty options for Molitor, though he could’ve emerged later in the season as a southpaw option if healthy. O’Rourke has held left-handed opponents to a .134/.244/.239 batting line through 80 plate appearances thus far in his Major League career.

O’Rourke did research Tommy John alternatives, including the “primary repair” procedure that Seth Maness underwent last August, according to Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. However, as Berardino notes, even that abbreviated seven-month recovery period would’ve sidelined O’Rourke until late November or early December.

The Twins already transferred O’Rourke to the 60-day disabled list yesterday as a means of clearing a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Nick Tepesch, whose contract was selected from Triple-A Rochester. O’Rourke will rack up a full year of big league service time while on the disabled list, though he’ll still finish the season with two years and six days of service time, leaving him short of arbitration eligibility. O’Rourke joins right-hander Trevor May as the second Twins hurler to undergo Tommy John surgery this season. The club’s 2016 first-round pick, outfielder Alex Kirilloff, has also gone down with a UCL tear that required Tommy John.

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