The Orioles announced that they have claimed outfielder Daniel Johnson off waivers from the Giants. The latter club designated him for assignment last week. The O’s also selected the contract of right-hander José Espada and optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk. Their 40-man roster was at 39, meaning they needed to open one spot. They did so by designating righty Houston Roth for assignment.
The O’s clearly like Johnson. They signed him to a minor league deal ahead of the 2024 season. He was called up in September of last year but only got into one game before being optioned back down to the minors. He was outrighted off the roster at the end of the season and elected free agency. He signed a minor league deal with the Giants this year and got selected to the big league roster in June. He was designated for assignment a few days ago and the O’s have taken the opportunity to bring him back.
Johnson’s major league track record is still fairly limited. He has 126 plate appearances dating back to his 2020 debut with a .193/.238/.336 slash. The O’s are presumably more interested in his minor league track record. From the start of 2023 to the present, he has 1,236 minor league plate appearances with a combined .267/.333/.469 line and 107 wRC+. He also has 54 stolen bases in that time, though has been caught stealing 19 times in the process.
Ahead of the deadline, the O’s subtracted from their outfield by trading Cedric Mullins, Ramón Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn. Since then, they lost Colton Cowser and Tyler O’Neill to the injured list. That leaves them with a current outfield mix of Jeremiah Jackson, Dylan Carlson, Greg Allen, Jordyn Adams and Ryan Noda. Johnson could jump right into that group, though he’s also optionable for the rest of the year and could end up with Triple-A Norfolk.
As for Espada, he signed a minor league deal with the O’s a couple of weeks back. The fact that he has been added to the 40-man roster but optioned to the minors suggests that there was some kind of opt-out or upward mobility clause in the deal. The O’s seemingly don’t have an immediate big league roster spot for him but also didn’t want him to get away, so they’ve added him to the 40-man.
Since joining the O’s, he has tossed six Triple-A innings, allowing four earned runs via four hits and two walks while striking out eight. He has just one inning of big league experience, which came with the 2023 Padres. In the minors, he has generally been able to…
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