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The Orioles are selecting infielder Jeremiah Jackson’s contract from Triple-A Norfolk and will be short one reliever after trading left-hander Gregory Soto to the Mets.
Jackson, 25, is batting a combined .311/.340/.538 with 30 doubles, 15 home runs and 41 RBIs in 83 games between Norfolk and Double-A Chesapeake. He’s never played in the majors.
Interim manager Tony Mansolino said he won't have an update on closer Félix Bautista (shoulder) until next week.
The Orioles return to Camden Yards for a six-game homestand that begins with three against the Rockies.
Gunnar Henderson is on the bench. He’s leading the Orioles in hits, doubles and triples for the second straight season. Brooks Robinson was the last player in franchise history to do it in consecutive seasons from 1960-62, per STATS.
The Orioles today announced that they have acquired minor league right-handed pitchers WELLINGTON ARACENA and CAMERON FOSTER from the New York Mets in exchange for left-handed pitcher GREGORY SOTO.
Aracena, 20, is 1-1 with a 2.38 ERA (64.1 IP, 17 ER) and 38 hits, 35 walks, and 84 strikeouts in 17 games (8 GS) for Single-A St. Lucie. He is one of two pitchers in Minor League Baseball this season to have thrown at least 60.0 innings without surrendering a home run, joining Toronto right-hander Gage Stanifer. In four professional seasons, he’s 7-14 with a 4.53 ERA (87 ER/173.0 IP) and 214 strikeouts in 57 appearances (34 GS). Aracena is currently ranked New York’s No. 19 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 28 by Baseball America. The Mao, Dominican Republic native originally signed with the Mets as an international free agent on January 15, 2022.
Foster, 26, is 5-2 with two saves and a 2.97 ERA (10 ER/30.1 IP) with 24 hits (1 HR), eight walks, and 39 strikeouts in 21 games (1 GS) between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse this season. As a reliever, he’s posted a 1.21 ERA (4 ER/29.2 IP). In three professional seasons, he is 13-10 with a 3.78 ERA (77 ER/183.1 IP) with 192 strikeouts in 66 appearances (26 GS). The Houston, Texas native was originally selected by the Mets in the 14th round of the 2022 First-Year Player Draft out of McNeese State University (LA).
Soto, 30, is 1-3 with three saves and a 4.33 ERA (26 ER/54.0 IP) in 68 games across two seasons with Baltimore, including 0-2 with one save and a 3.96 ERA (16 ER/36.1 IP) in 45 appearances this year. He was acquired by the Orioles from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, 2024, in exchange for minor league right-handed pitchers Moisés Chace and Seth Johnson.
The Orioles acquired reliever Gregory Soto at last year’s trade deadline. Today, they’ve moved him to another team.
Soto is going to the Mets for a pair of pitching prospects, according to a source.
The left-hander is the second player moved after reliever Bryan Baker, traded to the Rays on July 10 for the 37th-overall pick in the draft. The Orioles will receive 20-year-old right-hander Wellington Aracena and 26-year-old right-hander Cameron Foster in exchange for Soto.
Aracena is the Mets’ No. 19 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. The Dominican native had a 2.38 ERA and 1.135 WHIP in 17 games (eight starts) with Single-A St. Lucie in the Florida State League. He didn’t surrender a home run in 64 1/3 innings and averaged 4.9 walks and 11.8 strikeouts.
Over four minor league seasons, Aracena has a 4.53 ERA and 1.497 WHIP in 57 games (34 starts) and has walked 123 batters and struck out 214 in 173 innings. He’s surrendered only six home runs.
Make it 26.
That’s how many different Orioles have gone on the injured list this season, two more than the total in 2021, seven more than in 2012 and 2008, and nine more than in 2024, 2018 and 2015. And we’re not taking into account the repeat visitors like Tyler O’Neill, Zach Eflin and Gary Sánchez.
Félix Bautista became the 26th yesterday, retroactive to Monday, with right shoulder discomfort. The only good news is that his surgically-repaired elbow is fine.
Trying to put a positive spin on 2025 can create shoulder and elbow pain. What else can possibly go wrong?
Don’t answer.
CLEVELAND – On Monday, the Orioles got out to a 3-0 lead before the Guardians even came to the plate. Ramón Laureano, a catalyst for the O’s all season, kickstarted the offense and drove in two of those runs.
Cleveland responded, though, pushing three runs of their own across in the bottom of the first. The Guardians went on to win that game 10-5, thanks in large part to a four-run seventh.
This afternoon, the Orioles got out to a 3-0 lead before the Guardians even came to the plate. Ramón Laureano, a catalyst for the O’s all season, kickstarted the offense and drove in two of those runs.
This time, the Orioles came out on top 4-3.
They did so behind an excellent start from Charlie Morton and a sharp bullpen, one that didn't feature the recently injured Félix Bautista.
The Orioles today signed center fielder SLATER DE BRUN, the No. 37 overall pick in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft.
De Brun, the Bend, Ore. native and Summit High School product, is the 14th of 24 Orioles draft picks to agree to terms. Baltimore has signed all players picked in the top 10 rounds. The deadline for MLB teams to sign their draft selections is Monday, July 28, at 5 p.m. ET.
The Orioles have signed all of their 2025 draft picks within the first 10 rounds.
The overall total grew to 14 out of 24 today with center fielder Slater de Brun, the 37th selection out of Summit High School in Oregon.
de Brun, 18, was the fourth of seven first-day picks for the Orioles, and his selection was lauded by the draft media experts. He batted .370/.586/.603 with nine doubles, one triple, two home runs, 26 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 29 games during his senior season.
The Oregon native is a left-handed hitter, 65-grade runner and 60-grade fielder, and the Corbin Carroll comps were prevalent leading up to the draft.
Only one of them can claim to be an aspiring musician who goes by Lil Slayyy” and has put out country singles like "Break My Heart" and "Find me a Bar.” de Brun can afford to buy a round for the house, but he isn’t old enough to partake.
CLEVELAND – It hasn’t been the best season for Orioles relievers.
Entering the final game of their four-game set in Cleveland, the O’s bullpen had the third-worst ERA in the American League at 4.80. This series hadn’t improved those numbers, with the ‘pen allowing 10 earned runs in the last three games.
Last night, though, the relief corps just allowed one. It was an RBI single off the bat of Steven Kwan in the eighth inning of a tie game. That’s not a spot where you’d normally expect to see Colin Selby, but he’s the Baltimore arm who surrendered the run that ultimately decided the game. It wasn’t the plan to pitch him in that spot.
Instead, interim manager Tony Mansolino had slated Seranthony Domínguez for that frame and Félix Bautista for the ninth.
But in the seventh inning, the bullpen relayed a message back to Mansolino that Bautista would not be available. The closer was in the process of getting ready to loosen up for potential game action, and something flared up. That changed the interim manager’s plans and, perhaps, the outcome of the game.
The Orioles couldn’t go more than a day with only 14 players on the injured list.
Félix Bautista joined it this morning for the first time this season. He’s on the 15-day IL with right shoulder discomfort.
Reliever Kade Strowd was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.
Bautista alerted the dugout in the seventh inning last night that he was unavailable. Interim manager Tony Mansolino told the assembled media later that “something didn’t feel right” and the club would have more information today.
Bautista threw a season-high 34 pitches Sunday in Tampa after going 10 days without appearing in a game. He earned the save but it was a struggle, with Bautista allowing a run and walking three batters.
The Orioles have made the following roster moves:
- Recalled RHP Kade Strowd from Triple-A Norfolk.
- Placed RHP Félix Bautista (right shoulder discomfort) on the 15-day Injured List, retroactive to July 21.
FRIDAY, JULY 25
- COL | 7:05 p.m. | Gates: 5:30 p.m. | MASN, MASN+
GIVEAWAY: Floppy Hat
The first 20,000 fans age 21 and over in attendance will receive a FLOPPY HAT, presented by Coors Light.
CITY CONNECT FRIDAY
City Connect Fridays are dedicated to Harlem Park Elementary Middle School. As part of the Orioles’ Adopt-A-School campaign, Harlem Park students and staff will attend batting practice and participate in pregame ceremonies, including yelling the ceremonial “play ball.” Tickets for students and faculty attending City Connect Fridays are provided by Wegmans, the exclusive grocery retail partner of the Adopt-A-School Program at Harlem Park Elementary Middle School.
Shortstop Wehiwa Aloy doesn’t possess a broad knowledge of the team that drafted him 31st overall earlier this month. He grew up in Hawaii and attended college at Sacramento State and Arkansas. He won’t nail a quiz on the Orioles, though he’s probably done some homework since hearing his name called.
Here’s what he does know, which he shared yesterday in a video call with the local media:
“Just the development of players that have come through here. Seen it for a long time now and it’s just getting better every day.”
That’s what the Orioles expect Aloy to do.
They were linked to him at No. 19 in some mocks, but he fell to their third pick of the evening. The first round wasn’t in doubt. The only mystery was where he’d land, and the answer came while he sat on a couch with his parents, grandmother and sister.
CLEVELAND – For the first seven innings of tonight’s ballgame, the Orioles had the momentum.
The Guards had mustered just two hits and two runs, a pair that scored on a weak single from Kyle Manzardo.
The O's had enough chances to win this game. Ultimately, the Birds' bats didn't come through in a 3-2 loss. Not having their best reliever available late in the contest certainly didn't help matters.
On Monday night, the Orioles and Guardians combined to score six runs in the first inning of play. Last night, there was only one, but it came on a José Ramírez solo shot.
Tonight, the first extra-base hit of the game didn’t come until the top of the third inning, courtesy of Cedric Mullins.
CLEVELAND – Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish, Albert Suárez, Cade Povich and Tyler Wells would form a pretty solid six-man rotation. Suárez could come out of the bullpen or be an option for a swing start here or there.
Unfortunately, all six were on the injured list until this afternoon.
The injured staff lost one of its front-line starters today, as Eflin was reinstated from the IL after missing some time with lower back discomfort, an injury that forced him to exit his June 28 outing against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Now, just shy of a month later, he returns to face a Guardians lineup composed entirely of either left-handed or switch-hitters. With the right-hander Eflin on the mound and just two left-handers in the O’s bullpen, it’s not a bad strategy to implement.
Lefties are hitting .347 with a .714 slugging percentage and an OPS over 1.000 this year against Eflin, so finding a rhythm in his return to the big league mound will certainly be a challenge.
Zach Eflin was reinstated from the injured list earlier today and is making tonight’s start in Cleveland, as the Orioles try to rebound from back-to-back losses to the Guardians. They’ve dropped six of their last seven games.
Brandon Young was optioned to make room for Eflin. Young has posted a 7.34 ERA and 1.761 WHIP in seven starts, and he failed to complete the fifth inning in six of them.
Catcher Maverick Handley was moved from the seven-day concussion injured list to the 10-day IL with a sprained right wrist. And left-hander Keegan Akin had his injury rehab assignment transferred from the Florida Complex League to Triple-A Norfolk.
Eflin hasn’t pitched for the Orioles since facing the Rays on June 28 and allowing four runs and five hits in one inning. He was tagged for six runs and 10 hits in three innings at Yankee Stadium in his previous start and for seven runs and 12 hits in five innings in Tampa on June 16.
Eflin has a career 7.71 ERA and 1.714 WHIP in two starts against the Guardians, with eight runs and 14 hits in 9 1/3 innings. But his lone start at Progressive Field resulted in two runs allowed in 6 1/3.
There are times when it must feel like manager Christian Frias and his players are operating under a cloak of anonymity.
The higher-level affiliates usually get the most attention as players inch closer to the major league roster. The Orioles have three teams in the state of Maryland with Double-A Chesapeake, High-A Aberdeen and Class A Delmarva, and Triple-A Norfolk is a relatively easy drive. But down in Sarasota, the Florida Complex League entry plays in intense heat and out of sight except for some locals.
The regular season is winding down, with only two games left and plenty of drama. The FCL Orioles split a doubleheader yesterday with the Twins, the team that they trail by two games for first place in the South Division and face two more times this week. They lead the FCL Blue Jays by one game for the Wild Card.
Developing players is the No. 1 priority, but victories also count in the minors, even on one of the lowest rungs of the organizational ladder.
“It’s development first, and if you happen to win while doing it, I mean, we’ll take it,” Frias said.
CLEVELAND – Every time the Orioles knocked on the door in Cleveland tonight, the Guardians answered. It resulted in the Guards taking Game 2 of this four-game series by a final score of 6-3.
"First half of the game didn’t go so well for us tonight and I thought we hung in there and the at-bats were good and we put up a couple runs as the game went on," interim manager Tony Mansolino said after the game. "Just, we have not gotten our bullpen kind of going to the same extent we probably had it going when we were playing our best ball a few weeks ago."
The O’s put up runs in innings five, six and seven. The Guardians did the same, plus some runs early with Baltimore starter Brandon Young on the mound.
There’s not a big enough major league sample size to be confident in what kind of Young outing you’ll get.
Thus far, his big league outings could be classified as solid, ones that aren't spectacular but keep you in most ballgames. In all but one start, his last, Young allowed four runs or fewer. A typical line could feature four innings of work and three earned runs.
Rarely do the Nationals make you wait to find out if it’s going to be a good night at the plate or a bad night at the plate. You usually know right away in the first or second inning if they’ve got an opposing starter figured out. If they do, great. If they don’t, it’s probably going to be a long night.
So consider what the Nats did tonight against Chase Burns an important step in the right direction. The Reds’ rookie phenom made them look silly for four innings with an upper-90s fastball and a low-90s slider that produced 10 strikeouts. And then they began to make some adjustments along the way and took him down in the fifth and sixth.
That later-than-usual offensive surge, combined with an impressive, all-hands-on-deck pitching performance from Brad Lord and a makeshift bullpen put the Nationals in position to celebrate a well-earned 6-1 victory over Cincinnati.
It’s only the Nats’ third series win in their last 14 attempts. And they’ll have a chance Wednesday afternoon to do something they haven’t done since mid-May in Baltimore: sweep a three-game series.
"It's always fun to win a series before the series is over, that's for sure," center fielder Jacob Young said. "The chance to sweep is awesome. But it feels great to win a series early like that and have a chance to sweep tomorrow and kind of get the second half going."
The Orioles have made the following roster moves:
- Recalled OF Dylan Carlson from Triple-A Norfolk.
- Optioned INF Luis Vázquez to Triple-A Norfolk.
Needing a fresh arm to help an overtaxed bullpen, the Nationals promoted left-hander Konnor Pilkington from Triple-A Rochester today, a move that led to the demotion of Mason Thompson and the transfer of Dylan Crews to the 60-day injured list.
With Brad Lord making his return to the rotation tonight against the Reds but likely to only throw three or four innings, the Nats knew they were going to need to lean on their bullpen to get through this game. That problem was only exacerbated when MacKenzie Gore failed to make it out of the third inning Sunday against the Padres and Jake Irvin didn’t make it out of the fourth inning in Monday night’s series opener against the Reds.
So the call was placed to Rochester, where Pilkington had been pitching well (2.59 ERA, 1.200 WHIP in 36 games) in a multi-inning relief role. The 27-year-old has 16 games of major league experience with the Guardians, including 11 starts in 2022, and he has a newfound appreciation for the significance of a return from Triple-A.
“You understand how much it actually means to get the call, being able to be in the big leagues,” he said. “That makes it extremely special this time, just as special as every other time. When I was with Cleveland, I got the opportunity to be in the big leagues with them. Moved on and signed with (the Nationals) this offseason, and the main goal is to help the team win. Whether that’s in the big leagues or in Triple-A, or wherever they need me, that’s the kind of guy I am, the kind of pitcher I am.”
Pilkington, who lasted pitched Sunday and said he’s available if needed tonight in relief of Lord, takes over the active roster spot previously held by Thompson, who had only recently returned from the second Tommy John surgery of his career.
