The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve designated outfielder Ryan McKenna for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to veteran Austin Hays, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list after missing about three weeks with a strained calf. It’s the second bit of outfield shuffling by the O’s today. Baltimore previously optioned Heston Kjerstad to Triple-A Norfolk in favor of Kyle Stowers.
McKenna, 27, was only selected back to the 40-man roster for a second stint with the Orioles on April 26. He appeared in nine games and went 3-for-8 at the plate, popping a pair of home runs in his brief look with the club. Despite that productive cup of coffee, he won’t stick around on the big league roster. McKenna is out of minor league options, so the O’s had little choice but to designate him for assignment once things reached a point where they needed to open his roster spot back up. In all likelihood, McKenna knew it’d be a short stay on the active roster.
A fourth-round selection by the O’s in the 2015 draft, McKenna has now appeared in parts of four seasons with the MLB club. Despite the big showing in this year’s tiny sample, he struggled extensively from 2021-23, hitting just .222/.299/.318 in 508 plate appearances across that three-year span. He owns a productive .261/.359/.561 output in 274 Triple-A plate appearances but also a .234/.327/.357 slash in a much larger sample of 817 Double-A plate appearances.
Baltimore is stacked with outfield talent — and with position players in general — leaving little room for McKenna to wrest everyday at-bats from the team’s other outfield options. Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander and the now-reinstated Hays are all in the mix for at-bats, as is the aforementioned Stowers, who’s joining the club for his 2024 debut after smacking 11 Triple-A homers in his first 165 plate appearances there this season. Mullins has been in a deep slump of late, and Hays struggled a good bit before landing on the injured list himself. However, both veterans have lengthy track records of production that date back several years. Neither was going to be displaced because of a brief hot streak from McKenna.
The Orioles have a week to trade McKenna or else place him on outright waivers or release waivers. He went unclaimed on outright waivers at the end of March, and in doing so gained the right to reject any additional outright assignments for the remainder of his career. As such, if he clears waivers, he’ll have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency. Given the glut of outfield talent on the Baltimore roster, it’s possible he’d prefer to latch on with another organization that has far less depth and thus a better opportunity for him to get an earnest look at the big league level.
Well, I had just said he’s a DFA soon. Turns it out it was real soon!
Think he may get claimed this time around.
Yeah, the article came out about 20 min after you replied to me on the other post lol
Free Coby Mayo.
Before the season I thought a Mayo for Luzardo deal made a lot of sense. But Luzardos value isn’t what it was and Mayos is probably even greater since he’s playing so well at AAA. And the Orioles don’t really need Luzardo he would help but not a need.
Ewww, free mayo prolly means it got left in the sun and is about to go bad
Why not just let Heston play consistently? Has more of a shot to be a real piece than Stowers.
The problem is they don’t really have a place for him to play.
The Orioles are discovering that developing young talent while also trying to win is a difficult thing to do. These are good problems to have for sure. But there are reasons why contenders trade young talent away for proven players.
My guess is Stowers is a bench piece replacing McKenna. Hays is off the IL and probably slots back into LF where Kjerstad didn’t look overly comfortable. Hays hit very well on his rehab assignment. O’s can’t afford to have the 9th spot be occupied by hitters trying to figure out MLB pitching. At some point he’ll be back up, as will Holliday.
Kjerstad just isn’t better right now than Mountcastle, Santander, Cowser, or Ohearn. They play his positions—so he’s relegated to bench duty. It opens up next year for him when Santander is likely gone
I think Kyle Stowers may be getting a chance to, who knows, get hot at the major league level. Sometimes lightning strikes. At worst, he’s got a little more glove and contact rates than Kjerstad does.
If he were to gain more value, he could be packaged in a deal for a backend RP. I think if he were to gain some more value, him and Norby would be a solid package for a quality arm.
Heston is a Charlatan. He’s no Moses. More like a cranky crank foretelling imminent dystopia. “ITS PEOPLE!!!!”
Why don’t they trade a few of these guys for a super star?
do you have a trade proposal? packaging Stowers and Silent J for someone sounds great in theory but what would that net the O’s? I doubt a super star. I think that as the other article about a closer option might be the best we can get.
Sounds like the nuanced insight we’d expect from Oriole fans
Angels are calling him.
I would be down with that
Isn’t a little bit of a stretch to say that Hays has a “lengthy record of production that stretches back several years?”
He’s had 2 really good half seasons. One netted him an ASG appearance in 2023, the other led to 22 HR in 2021. His OPS+ of 105 over now 2000 PA is a representative figure for his body of work. He hits a lot of doubles and his defense is better than average, though he K’s a lot and has health issues pretty much every season. But certainly not someone who could never be displaced by better production, especially as a corner OF. I’d said last winter of the 3 OF starters he is the most likely to be traded, I’d say with Cowser, Kjerstad, and Stowers around if another team is really high on Hays to pull the trigger for always-needed pitching help.
Mullins I would say has a better track record of production, though his slump since last July has been deeper than Hays’.