The Orioles have claimed right-hander Scott McGough off waivers from the Marlins, the club announced (on Twitter). The 26-year-old McGough was designated for assignment yesterday after Miami claimed lefty Eric Jokisch from the Cubs.
The 2015 season marked McGough’s big league debut, during which he tallied 6 2/3 innings of work but allowed seven runs. Miami originally picked up McGough alongside right-hander Nathan Eovaldi in the 2012 trade that sent Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers. In addition to his brief MLB debut last season, McGough pitched across three different minor league levels in what was a return campaign from 2014 Tommy John surgery. Splitting time between Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A, he posted a 1.93 ERA with 5.3 K/9, 3.9 BB/9 and a 50.8 percent ground-ball rate in 37 1/3 innings of work. McGough has made just one start in the minors (plus two in the Arizona Fall League), so he’s presumably viewed strictly as bullpen depth by the Orioles, who now have 39 players on their 40-man roster.
Via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko, Orioles GM Dan Duquette offered the following take on his organization’s newest right-hander (Twitter link): “McGough is a good competitor and should be able to support our major league bullpen if needed this year.”
