Rich Dubroff

Orioles option Valaika to alternate site; Expected to activate Stewart

The Orioles have optioned infielder Pat Valaika to the alternate site at Bowie. Valaika has played in four games and is hitting 1-for-9 (.111).

No corresponding move was announced, but the club is expected to activate outfielder DJ Stewart for Saturday’s game against the Red Sox.

Valaika, who played in 52 games last season, hitting .277 with 8 home runs and 16 RBIs, has started one game at first and one at second base this season.

Stewart has been on the 10-day injured list because a strained left hamstring. He hasn’t played since March 5th when he injured the hamstring in a Grapefruit League game in Dunedin, Florida.

The Orioles put outfielder Austin Hayes on the 10-day injured list this week after he strained his right hamstring in last Sunday’s win over the Red Sox.

Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

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    • Uranus is from Mexican league Elias afraid of retribution from the cartel . Sorry I couldn’t help

    • I would guess Boog would have an out of this world comment for this spellcheck nightmare...go O’s...

    • Probably because Urias can play short and Valaika cannot. The Orioles have several players who can the OF, albeit poorly.

  • Send the most versatile player on the team down. That makes sense. Why keep Stewart he has shown anything? Send fry down or dfa Leblanc and why keep five outfielders with McKenna?

    • Exactly, he plays the infield and outfield and can hit instead they keep Urias. Can someone explain this move please

    • Yeah coming off the DL can’t you do a minor league rehab without triggering an option Year? I guess that’s assuming the “Bowie complex” qualifies as a minor league rehab locale?

    • 33rd, normally you have 20 days, 30 days for a pitcher, on a rehab assignment without triggering an option. No
      games until May 4, so no need for an official rehab.

    • Why keep Elias' mancrush Rio Ruiz? Elias gets a better third baseman so he moves his boy to 2nd base ???

  • Saw that the O's have fired their PA announcer, Ryan Wagner. According to one report, the firing is related to his twitter comments. Just took a quick look at his twitter page, and didn't see anything that seemed particularly controversial. Unless there are some twitter posts that Wagner deleted, not sure what this about. Rich, or anyone, have any further info?

  • Thanks, Rich. I agree. Unless he deleted something offensive, seems like there must be some other issue.

    • There can be only one answer, he said something, anything, that some nameless, faceless person took offense at. It’s the society we live in now.

    • How about the other issue being money? Let's see if the replacement comes cheaper. Or maybe the replacement will be for diversity's sake. Or both. It's always the little people who take the hits for the big people's grand schemes.

  • Has either Elias or Hyde said anything about how Hays is doing? I know he’s on 10 day IL but that means nothing. Also, if they think Stewart will come in and be an upgrade from Mountcastle defensively, well, I’m sure I’m not the only one that remembers him almost getting a concussion because of the pop fly he took off his head in 2019. To this day I can still see Richie Martin doing his best not to laugh at him after that play.

  • Hey what happened here? Who called off The Lord of the Flies treatment towards Mountcastle? Severino and Mountcastle now...Orioles are 4-3, that projects to 92 wins, but we must denigrate our players here. Oy!

    • Mounty plays a decent 1st Base and shows great potential at the plate. He's a major leaguer for sure (at least in this organization currently). Just not an outfielder.

      To note his OF deficiencies isn't picking on him needlessly. From my perspective it's more an indictment on the Orioles leadership anyway. Hell bent on trying to turn an IFer into an OFer

  • Well, I guess I'll jump in with my two cents worth since that is all it's worth.. With a team full of minor league infielders, why would you get rid of, easily, the best hitter in the group? It looks like my fellow posters that intimated "Tanking" weren't far off base.

  • Just what we need - another guy who has no position. Why is this guy still on the roster?

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