The Orioles announced that right-hander Albert Suarez selected for assignment. Before tonight’s doubleheader with the Tigers, Baltimore has opened up a lefty Grant Wolfram from the 15-day IL to use him as the 27th man, and Wolfram will remain on the 26-man roster in place of Suarez.
This transaction will become routine for Suarez, who has now been DFA’ed three times by the Orioles in less than a month. The first draft saw Suarez apparently resign and opt for free agency, as an earlier disclosure on his resume allowed him to decline the Orioles’ direct assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. However, Suarez quickly re-signed with the O’s on a minor league contract, then was optioned back to the active roster, and DFA’ed again within five days.
This time, Suarez chose to accept the outright assignment, and he stayed a few weeks in Norfolk before the Orioles re-optioned his contract last Tuesday. Unless Suarez is waived, it seems likely that Suarez will end up staying with the O’s one way or another, either by accepting an outright assignment or another free agent trip that will lead to another new major league deal.
Suarez is off the minor league roster, so the O’s must designate him and expose him to the waiver wire whenever the club wants to remove him from the active roster. Suarez has some power in this back-and-forth situation given his ability to outright refuse assignments, but he may be content to stick to his familiar surroundings in the knowledge that he’ll likely get another official look in the near future.
Amidst all of this lineup slippage, Suarez has a 2.75 ERA over 19 2/3 major league innings this season, including four shutout frames in Game 2 of today’s doubleheader (a 4-1 loss to the Orioles). Suarez’s ability to eat up innings has made the former shortstop and starter a useful long man for Baltimore, though he has more strikeouts (10) than walks (nine) and has benefited from a minuscule .186 BABIP.
