Orioles pull off a few surprising moves since final game

The Orioles can be predictable in many aspects of the operation, especially after years of covering the team, but they also possess the skills to go left when I'm shaded toward the right.

Stay bent at the knees and be prepared to pivot.

I've been burned in offseason coverage a few times. Here are a half-dozen 2021 examples off the top of my head:

Pitcher Chris Ellis outrighted
Pretty much every early bullpen projection for 2022 had Ellis in a bulk relief role if he wasn't starting. Which, of course, provided the latest warning against trying to predict rosters in November.

Ellis came from the Rays organization, which is a good place to search for available pitching. He posted a 2.49 ERA in six starts. The impression made seemed favorable.

Was he flawless? No. The 13 walks in 25 1/3 innings were a bit concerning. He didn't last more than five innings in any of his starts, though he was pulled after three scoreless and 46 pitches on Sept. 25 against the Rangers and went on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.

The right-hander didn't necessarily crush his audition, but he also didn't flub it.

Ellis turned 29 in September, so he isn't a kid by baseball standards. But he's still short of his 30th birthday and could be tapping into his potential.

Perhaps the Orioles try to re-sign him to a minor league deal since they remain in the market for pitching. Most business is frozen by the lockout. In the meantime, I just assumed that there were players more vulnerable on the 40-man.

You know what happens when you assume.

Pitcher Hunter Harvey outrighted and lost on waivers
On the same day that the club announced Ellis cleared outright waivers and elected free agency, news broke that the Giants claimed Harvey.

Stunning to me that Harvey was exposed to waivers. Surprising, too, that every team passed until the Giants grabbed him.

One more rejection and Harvey could have been outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk and remained in the organization.

Harvey's injuries are well-documented and it's understandable why the Orioles and others held doubts about his ability to be healthy through an entire season and earn the right to remain on the 40-man roster. The Orioles also had to clear a lot of space and some tough decisions were made.

That said, there again was an assumption that he'd report to the Sarasota, Fla., complex and try to break camp as a back end, high-leverage weapon with his upper 90s fastball. The velocity didn't disappear. Just the reliever.

The Tommy John surgery in 2016 was just a small chunk of the injury iceberg. Pitchers routinely come back from the procedure, but other ailments kept surfacing in such cruel fashion that it was hard to feel anything except empathy - though Twitter tried its hardest to go the other route.

Harvey began the 2021 season on the injured list with a strained left oblique, which occurred while he threw a pitch in an exhibition game, and he returned to it in late June after straining his right latissimus dorsi on his final warmup toss in Houston. He didn't pitch for the Orioles after June 28, his chances of a call-up destroyed by a strained right triceps at Norfolk.

The baseball gods just won't leave him alone, and they hold some sort of vendetta that can't really be explained.

I've heard the term "bad tissue guy" used to describe players who are prone to injuries. Harvey might only need to outrun the bad luck that's hounded him, without pulling a hamstring.

Catcher Pedro Severino outrighted
The chances of Severino playing for the Orioles in 2022 were so thin, they had only one side. But outrighted?

They had no interest in keeping a player whose salary would approach or exceed $3 million, as MLBTradeRumors.com projected via arbitration. I thought he'd be non-tendered at the deadline. I kept writing that he'd be non-tendered at the deadline. I kept saying on radio interviews that he'd be non-tendered at the deadline.

I told the cashier at my grocery store. The DoorDash guy nodded and raced back to his car.

I was that sure of it.

The Orioles didn't wait for the deadline. They put him on waivers, he cleared and the Brewers signed him for $1.9 million.

Too much money for the Orioles to spend on Adley Rutschman's eventual backup. And for a catcher whose defensive lapses became a source of frustration.

The exit was expected, but how he left threw me.

Infielder Lucius Fox here and gone
The Orioles claimed Fox off waivers from the Royals on Nov. 19, strengthening the bond between the teams. They like to do business together.

Eleven days later, the Nationals claimed him off waivers from the Orioles.

Fox was on the run again.

It's unusual but not unprecedented for a player to be claimed and then put back on waivers. The Orioles have done it during my years on the beat. They wanted Fox, of course, but hoped to outright him and make room on the 40-man roster.

Fox is a switch-hitting middle infielder with 142 stolen bases in five professional seasons. He was a big-time acquisition by the Giants out of the Bahamas during the 2015-16 international signing period, receiving a $6 million bonus. The Orioles later signed second baseman Rougned Odor, but won't be able to toss Fox, who still has a minor league option remaining, into the shortstop or utility competition in spring training.

Similar tools attracted the Orioles to Jorge Mateo and I assumed that Fox would get the same treatment, but he vanished before the local media had a chance to meet him.

I don't feel cheated, just a little surprised.

Jordan Lyles receiving a $7 million offer
This one stunned me, and not because it happened just before the lockout and during my first hour of sleep.

The Orioles weren't projected to spend that kind of money on a starting pitcher, or anyone besides Trey Mancini, who's poised for a nice raise in arbitration. The wallet wasn't expected to open that wide until the team moved closer to contention.

Then along came Lyles, and deals struck by other teams that seemed extravagant for mediocre pitching. Perhaps $7 million turns into a bargain by comparison.

A new CBA could force teams to shell out bigger amounts, but we don't know whether it influenced negotiations or the Orioles simply gave in to the cost of a durable starter in today's market.

The deal isn't official until Lyles passes a physical and signs his contract, which can't be done during the lockout.

Pitcher Logan Gillaspie protected in Rule 5 draft
What Rule 5 draft? The major league phase was postponed, but Gillaspie made it onto the 40-man roster.

We knew the locks: Pitchers DL Hall, Kyle Bradish and Kevin Smith, and infielder Terrin Vavra. Reliever Félix Bautista received mention as a possibility due to a fastball that's topped 100 mph, his 1.54 ERA this summer in 40 appearances and his 77 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings.

He was vulnerable to a selection. The Orioles wouldn't risk it.

Gillaspie doesn't possess quite the same velocity or stats, though his fastball touched 98 mph this season and again in the Arizona Fall League. However, as Double-A Bowie pitching coach Justin Ramsey recently told MASNsports.com, "It's one of those arms where, if he can hone in his command of the zone, you can't let that go and have a chance of him catching on somewhere else."

"You saw what the stuff looked like in the Fall League and a little bit with us," Ramsey said. "It's a real arm. He's got multiple pitches that, he's getting to the point where he can throw them any time."

It wasn't the wrong decision to reserve a spot for Gillaspie on the 40-man, just an unexpected one.

Notes: The Orioles have hired Brendan Fournie as their director of baseball strategy, as first reported by The Athletic.

Fournie served as the Astros' senior manager of player valuation and economics since 2019 and worked in their baseball operations department since 2016.

Former Orioles general manager Roland Hemond passed away Sunday night. He was 92.

The Rhode Island native earned a World Series ring as assistant scouting director of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves. He served as Orioles GM from 1988-95, heading the front office during the '89 "Why Not?" season and earning his second Executive of the Year award after engineering a 32 1/2-game improvement. He also oversaw the drafting of future Hall of Famer Mike Mussina in 1990 and helped to lead the transition from Memorial Stadium to Camden Yards in 1992.

Hemond is credited with the idea for the AFL to develop prospects in the offseason.