The Ex-Os Report: Looking at the 2017 Orioles that are elsewhere — or nowhere — this season

While the Orioles’ scheduled game in Boston was rained out Monday, their regional rivals in Washington caught my eye. The Nationals’ starter was right-hander Jeremy Hellickson, who pitched 10 mostly disastrous games for the Orioles in 2017, going 2-6 with a 6.97 ERA.

Hellickson signed a minor league deal with the Nationals just 12 days before the start of the regular season and recently replaced A.J. Cole as the club’s fifth starter. In his Nationals’ debut Monday, Hellickson pitched 4 2/3 innings and was lucky to give up just two runs, considering he allowed eight baserunners.

That got me thinking. What have the other departed 2017 Orioles been up to this season?

Throughout the year, we’re going to run an occasional series checking in on last year’s Orioles who have flown the nest. Which players are excelling in their new homes? Which ones are struggling? Which ones haven’t found a new team at all?

Last season, 50 players made an appearance in an Orioles uniform. At the start of this season, 20 of those players, Hellickson included, were no longer in the Baltimore organization.

Four of those 2017 Orioles cracked the Opening Day roster of other MLB teams in 2018. Plenty of others are kicking around in the minors, overseas or elsewhere. Let’s take a closer look.

Welington Castillo, Chicago White Sox

Castillo was productive at the plate in his lone year with the Orioles, batting .282 with 20 homers, 53 RBIs and an .813 OPS in 96 games. Those solid stats convinced him to decline his $7 million option with the Orioles for 2018 and try his luck in free agency. Before the market collapsed, Castillo landed a two-year, $15 million contract with the White Sox on Dec. 1.

Castillo, a veteran presence on a rebuilding White Sox team, hasn’t hit for average (.226) or gotten on base (.273) so far, but he has popped two homers and is slugging .484 in 10 games. Behind the dish, Castillo has thrown out only two of nine attempted base stealers after nailing a league-best 49% for the Orioles last season.

Oliver Drake, Milwaukee Brewers

Did you forget that Drake ever played for the 2017 Orioles? I don’t blame you. He made the club’s Opening Day bullpen but was sent packing in April after just three appearances. He spent the rest of that year with Milwaukee, where he posted a 4.44 ERA in 61 games, and he started this season in the Brewers’ bullpen as well.

Drake is coming off a nightmarish outing against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, when he was torched for six runs and six hits in one inning. That inflated his season ERA to 7.00. He’s also issued eight walks in nine innings this year. Drake’s control problems were part of the reason he didn’t stick in Baltimore, and it seems he’s still plagued by wildness.

The Brewers, by the way, have made a habit of collecting former Orioles pitchers, young and old. Milwaukee’s bullpen also includes veteran righty Matt Albers, an Oriole from 2008-2010, and former O’s prospect (and Millersville, Md. native) Josh Hader. Their rotation is led by another ex-Orioles prospect, Zach Davies. And this past winter, the Brewers signed Baltimore castoff Wade Miley (discussed later in this piece) and 2016 Orioles righty Yovani Gallardo, the Brewers’ long-time ace. Gallardo was cut at the end of spring training, probably because the Brewers had exceeded the recommended limit of former Orioles. On Tuesday, they added another ex-Oriole on a waiver claim. More on that later.

Ryan Flaherty, Atlanta Braves

Flaherty attracted so much inexplicable attention in Baltimore for six years, you’d have thought he was a lost Kardashian sibling. Fans seemed to have surprisingly strong feelings one way or the other toward the utility infielder, declaring him either a star-in-waiting who would’ve broken out if he’d gotten more regular playing time, or a waste of a bench spot who had no business on a big league roster.

Even after he left the Orioles in free agency this winter, Flaherty still was the talk of the town. The Orioles, unexcited about their replacement utility infielder options this spring, kept a close eye on Flaherty’s status at Philadelphia Phillies camp, ready to pounce on him if he opted out of his deal. Flaherty did, in fact, opt out, but chose to sign with the Braves.

The early results have been fantastic. Flaherty is batting .364 with a .906 OPS in 13 games, tied for the second-best batting average in the NL. He’s been the Braves’ starter at third base for all but three games, filling in for the injured Johan Camargo. Flaherty even went 4-for-5 on March 31, out-hitting the entire Orioles’ team that day (they were three-hit by Minnesota).

Francisco Pena, St. Louis Cardinals

Pena, the son of longtime major league catcher Tony Pena, appeared in 19 games for the Orioles from 2016-2017, and had a two-homer game for Baltimore last May 13. The minor league free agent latched on with St. Louis over the offseason and won an Opening Day spot as a reserve catcher.

But backing up the durable Yadier Molina is as boring a job as the Maytag repairman from those old TV commercials. Pena didn’t get onto the field until the Cardinals’ 10th game of the season, and didn’t make his first start until their 12th. He has one hit in four at-bats this year.

The minor leaguers

Eight of last year’s Orioles — seven of them pitchers — opened the 2018 season with another MLB organization but not on a major league roster (including Hellickson). Perhaps the most high-profile is the previously mentioned Wade Miley, who signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in February. Miley hoped a return to the National League would help him rebound from his forgettable season-and-a-half with the Orioles, where he went 10-20 with a 5.75 ERA in 43 starts.

He hasn’t gotten the chance to find out. Competing for a rotation spot in spring training, Miley tore his left groin in his final start and is now recuperating. And it’s no sure thing that he’ll be added to the Brewers’ roster once he’s healthy.

Toiling in the Nationals’ system is journeyman righty Edwin Jackson, who last year made three lackluster relief appearances for the Orioles — his 12th major league team — before the Nats scooped him up and squeezed 13 starts out of him. Jackson is now at Triple-A Syracuse and has made two starts, allowing two runs in nine innings.

Remember Vidal Nuno or Richard Rodriguez? Pro tip: don’t look for their statues in the Camden Yards picnic area. Nuno was a frequent passenger on the Norfolk-Baltimore shuttle last year and had no success in the majors, allowing 33 baserunners and 17 runs in 12 games. He’s now in the Tampa Bay Rays’ system and has a 3.38 ERA in two starts for Triple-A Durham. Rodriguez, meanwhile, got a September call-up from the Orioles last season but lasted only five games, posting a 14.29 ERA. The Pirates signed him and assigned him to Triple-A Indianapolis this year, where he pitched five scoreless innings with nine strikeouts to earn a call-up to Pittsburgh on Friday.

The lone position player of this group, second baseman Johnny Giavotella, went 1-for-10 in a brief stint with the Orioles last year, then underwent right hip surgery after the club designated him for assignment. This spring, he was a non-roster invitee with the Miami Marlins, going 0-for-6 in Grapefruit League play. He hasn’t yet played for a Marlins’ minor league affiliate this season.

The two newest additions to this list are righties Alec Asher and Stefan Crichton, both of whom the Orioles designated for assignment on Opening Day to clear space on the 40-man roster. Asher, who pitched in 24 games (six starts) as a swingman last season, was claimed off waivers by the Los Angeles Dodgers initially, but then was waived by the Dodgers and claimed by the — you guessed it — Brewers on Tuesday and assigned to Triple-A Colorado Springs. At Triple-A Oklahoma City in the Dodgers’ organization, Asher allowed two runs in three innings in his first start.

Crichton, whom the Orioles recalled from Triple-A Norfolk on six separate occasions last year, was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 2. He’s off to a rough start at Triple-A Reno, allowing three earned runs in four innings so far.

The Korean/Independent Leaguers

Three members of the 2017 Orioles have found their way overseas to the Korean Baseball Organization. For one of them, it’s a return home. Hyun Soo Kim, who spent 10 years in the KBO before a two-year stint in MLB from 2016-2017, is back in his native country after signing a four-year contract with the LG Twins.

Kim’s MLB adventure was a mixed bag. He led the Orioles in batting average (.302) and on-base percentage (.382) in 2016, but struggled to marks of .232/.305 in 2017 while playing shaky defense, then was mostly buried on the bench with the Philadelphia Phillies after the Orioles traded him in July. But he hasn’t missed a beat in his KBO comeback, batting .303 with a .391 OBP in 19 games for the Twins.

Kim is reunited with right-hander Tyler Wilson, who relocated to Korea after his unremarkable three-year Orioles’ career came to an end in 2017. In four starts for LG, Wilson has more than held his own in an offense-heavy league. He has a 1-2 record and 2.88 ERA in four starts, striking out 33 batters in 25 innings.

Elsewhere in the KBO, right-hander Logan Verrett, who popped his head up for four appearances for the Orioles in 2017, is now a member of the NC Dinos. Like Wilson, he’s made four starts so far. He’s 1-2 with a 4.29 ERA.

Back in the States, first baseman David Washington has latched on with the independent Long Island Ducks. Washington set a dubious mark last year by joining the “0-fer-Orioles” club; he was the 33rd position player in Baltimore history to never get a hit for the team (in fact, he struck out in five of his six at-bats). The Ducks’ 2018 season begins April 27.

The unsigned veterans

The slow-developing free agent market this past winter left three Orioles in a deep freeze, still unsigned — but not officially retired — as of this writing. One of those players was a widely popular Oriole for much of his tenure. Another was, well, the exact opposite of that.

The former is shortstop J.J. Hardy, who spent seven years in Baltimore and seems a shoo-in for the Orioles Hall of Fame. Hardy racked up three Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger and an All-Star appearance during his stint with the club, locking down the shortstop position for three postseason clubs. His offense, though, fell off the table in his final years.

The last time Hardy was seen on a baseball field, he was “coaching” at the Brewers’ fantasy camp in January, along with retired former Brewers such as Prince Fielder, Corey Hart and Ben Sheets. Hardy insisted, though, that he hasn’t hung up his cleats just yet. He’s still working out at his home in Arizona in case the phone rings and the fit is particularly enticing.

An ex-Oriole not nearly as fondly remembered as Hardy is Ubaldo Jimenez, who hasn’t landed a job after his disastrous four-year, $50 million contract with the Orioles expired. During his Baltimore career from 2014-2017, Jimenez went 32-42 with a 5.22 ERA in 117 games. His final season was the worst. He led the majors in earned runs allowed (108) while posting a 6.81 ERA. It seems no team is willing to take a chance on the enigmatic Jimenez, even on a minor league deal.

The final unsigned Oriole is outfielder Seth Smith, which I find surprising. Smith had a perfectly fine season for the Orioles last year, delivering on his reputation as an on-base specialist by leading the team with a .340 OBP. He’s been a better than league-average hitter for nearly every season of his career, and while he’s not a defensive wizard, he’s not a butcher, either. You’d think his skill set would come in handy for some team in 2018 — including the Orioles, who haven’t yet found a right field solution this year.

The officially retired

One 2017 Oriole has happily moved on to his post-playing career: Paul Janish, who filled in as a reserve infielder from 2015-2017 (coincidentally, he played exactly 14 games in each of his three seasons with Baltimore). Janish informed the Orioles late in the 2017 season that he was retiring to accept an assistant coaching job at Rice University, his alma mater. He’s also taking classes to pursue an economics degree.