Giants claim Hunter Harvey off waivers

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Philip said:

I think Mike is confident that having first crack at 29 sets of rejects will include multiple guys who are better than those we have cut loose.

He’s probably correct too.

So you drop guys when the waiver guy comes along.   There’s zero reason to do it in advance of need.   

[Philip]

29 minutes ago, Frobby said:

So you drop guys when the waiver guy comes along.   There’s zero reason to do it in advance of need.   

I don’t disagree with that, but Mike obviously had his reasons, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[wildcard]

Elias probably had a meeting with his staff and they projected how they expect the players to perform next season.  Harvey's projection was probably around 10 innings of pitching and a bunch of time on the IL.    They compared that to the other players and then put Harvey on waivers hoping he would pass through.   But he got claimed.

If Harvey does what the likely projection probably is.....the O's did not lose much.  And the player the fills Harvey spot will probably offer more benefit.

What is your projection on Hunter's stats next season?

[Dale]

They gave him multiple opportunities.

The Orioles have the #1 waiver claim; they'll have multiple opportunities to acquire other teams Harvey's.

With a limit on the number of pitchers possible next year, the Orioles may want to fill much of their bullpen with pitchers who have options remaining or ones who are likely to avoid injury when pitching on consecutive days. 

With teams adding 60-day DL players back to their rosters and adding potential MiL free agents to their 40 man rosters ahead of next week's deadline, there was a chance he might clear waivers.  Indeed he came close to clearing waivers.  If he had cleared waivers the Orioles would have had more roster flexibility both this winter and spring; for e.g., he could have been "held back" in warm Florida without the need for a phantom injury until the Orioles gave up on one of their Rule 5 picks. 

[Philip]

You know, the only reason we’re talking about this so much is because there’s no game on today. At the end of the day it doesn’t mean anything.

@DaleIs right, we’re going to have boundless opportunities to claim better guys between now and March. I agree it’s curious to let him go, but I also agree that he probably wouldn’t have made it all the way to the season anyway so whatever. Let’s go see how the football teams are doing.

[Philip]

How about this as a possible reason:

probably a lockout on December 1. If you DFA Harvey and outright him, he can continue to use facilities and get coaching and other rehab work during the lockout because he’s no longer on the 40-man.

So they took a gamble that he would pass through waivers and the Giants claimed him, the last team with the opportunity to do so.

Howzzat?

[Ruzious]

This is a complete guess on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's truth to it. They dumped him because of HHF - Hunter Harvey Fatigue.  After years and years of holding out hope for this dude and his ridiculously outdated mullet, that last interview with Roch was the tipping point - when he had the nerve to publicly blame their people for his 759th injury.  Enough was enough, and with him no longer looking like he had the significant upside to put up with him anymore, the O's said bye.  

[Sports Guy]

21 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

This is a complete guess on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's truth to it. They dumped him because of HHF - Hunter Harvey Fatigue.  After years and years of holding out hope for this dude and his ridiculously outdated mullet, that last interview with Roch was the tipping point - when he had the nerve to publicly blame their people for his 759th injury.  Enough was enough, and with him no longer looking like he had the significant upside to put up with him anymore, the O's said bye.  

Good thing they didn’t do this with Hays!

[Tony-OH]

56 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

This is a complete guess on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's truth to it. They dumped him because of HHF - Hunter Harvey Fatigue.  After years and years of holding out hope for this dude and his ridiculously outdated mullet, that last interview with Roch was the tipping point - when he had the nerve to publicly blame their people for his 759th injury.  Enough was enough, and with him no longer looking like he had the significant upside to put up with him anymore, the O's said bye.  

I don't think that helped him at all. This organization is very secretive and doesn't want anyone talking out of place about anything that's part of the process. Basically they can talk generically about "technology" helping them or a coach, and after reading the stuff that came from MASN from the instructs, it's apparent talking about how everyone is great and they're all best friends is highly encouraged, but don't talk bad about a rehab.

Saying that, breaking Hunter Harvey is probably not hard. If 75 pitchers are given a routine and Harvey is the one that breaks because of it, is it the routine, or the fragile player?

[Tony-OH]

38 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Good thing they didn’t do this with Hays!

But Hays hasn't missed nearly the time as Harvey has over his career. Hays actually showed he could stay healthy for most of the season after his early injury this year.

Saying that, he's gotta stay healthy for a couple of seasons before I'd feel confident about him. Hays reminds me of Jeffrey Hammonds. Lots of talent but has to prove he can stay on the field. 

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Tony-OH said:

But Hays hasn't missed nearly the time as Harvey has over his career. Hays actually showed he could stay healthy for most of the season after his early injury this year.

Saying that, he's gotta stay healthy for a couple of seasons before I'd feel confident about him. Hays reminds me of Jeffrey Hammonds. Lots of talent but has to prove he can stay on the field. 

Yea but up until this year, you could have said that and if they did have Hays injury fatigue and let him go foe next to nothing, it would have been a regrettable decision.

I guess my point is that I dont think this is a good reason to do it although I do agree it could have factored in.

[Tony-OH]

4 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea but up until this year, you could have said that and if they did have Hays injury fatigue and let him go foe next to nothing, it would have been a regrettable decision.

I guess my point is that I dont think this is a good reason to do it although I do agree it could have factored in.

I want to wait and see how the rest of the offseason goes before having too strongly of an opinion. I think those comments about his rehab may have had an affect as well as rumors of some questionable offseason work (lack of) that some may have thought contributed to his injuries.

I agree there are several arms that I would have DFA'd before Harvey, but I want to see how the rest of this off season goes. 

As a said before, Harvey is the kind of arm that the Orioles should be taking fliers on, but I do think the entire package is what had them DFA him.

They've jettisoned several pitchers who have ended up having roles in other organizations (Rogers/Phillips/LeBlanc) while the pitchers they tried this year mostly failed. Now, was that because they wanted that 1:1 or is it because they are not great at evaluating? 

That's the question that we want know until this team is trying to win, which hopefully starts in 2022.

[glenn__davis]

22 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

They've jettisoned several pitchers who have ended up having roles in other organizations (Rogers/Phillips/LeBlanc) while the pitchers they tried this year mostly failed. Now, was that because they wanted that 1:1 or is it because they are not great at evaluating? 

I personally have a very hard time believing that they would purposely acquire players that they thought were worse if the money was the same.  "Tanking" or operating under a minimal budget is one thing; actively seeking to sabotage your roster is another.  

Which is to say that so far, I don't believe this current administration has shown that they can effectively evaluate pitchers with the limited info we have.  Pretty much every scrap heap guy that they've brought in has been awful.  

[interloper]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

They've jettisoned several pitchers who have ended up having roles in other organizations (Rogers/Phillips/LeBlanc) while the pitchers they tried this year mostly failed. Now, was that because they wanted that 1:1 or is it because they are not great at evaluating? 

 

I think a lot of this you can chalk up to the AL East. Phillips I know you were extremely not a fan of, and I don't expect whatever success he found in LA to last very long. LeBlanc was old and busted and couldn't pitch in this league. He got healthy and got back in the NL and had a decent run. Rogers I never thought we should have let go, so I agree there. We never saw him at his healthiest, so I wanted to at least get a look at him since he was young. 

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

I think a lot of this you can chalk up to the AL East. Phillips I know you were extremely not a fan of, and I don't expect whatever success he found in LA to last very long. LeBlanc was old and busted and couldn't pitch in this league. He got healthy and got back in the NL and had a decent run. Rogers I never thought we should have let go, so I agree there. We never saw him at his healthiest, so I wanted to at least get a look at him since he was young. 

Rogers was never really given much of chance after coming back from Tommy John. While he never had great stuff, he seemed like the exact kind of guy to burn innings and see what you got. Overall he's probably going to regress and is probably no better than a swingman unless something has ticked up since he TJ, but he has a better changeup than bother Lowther and Wells and that is valuable to a left-hander.