The Orioles introduced Monday that they’ve designated outfielder Ryan McKenna for project. His spot on the roster will go to veteran Austin Hays, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured checklist after lacking about three weeks with a strained calf.
It’s the second little bit of outfield shuffling by the O’s Monday. Baltimore beforehand optioned
Heston Kjerstad to Triple-A Norfolk in favor of Kyle Stowers.
McKenna, 27, was solely chosen again to the 40-man roster for a second stint with the Orioles on April 26. He appeared in 9 video games and went 3-for-8 on the plate, popping a pair of dwelling runs in his temporary look with the membership. Regardless of that productive cup of espresso, he received’t stick round on the massive league roster. McKenna is out of minor league choices, so the O’s had little selection however to designate him for project as soon as issues reached some extent the place they wanted to open his roster spot again up. In all probability, McKenna knew it’d be a brief keep on the lively roster.
A fourth-round choice by the O’s within the 2015 draft, McKenna has now appeared in elements of 4 seasons with the MLB membership. Regardless of the massive displaying on this 12 months’s tiny pattern, he struggled extensively from 2021-23, hitting simply .222/.299/.318 in 508 plate appearances throughout that three-year span. He owns a productive .261/.359/.561 output in 274 Triple-A plate appearances but in addition a .234/.327/.357 slash in a a lot bigger pattern of 817 Double-A plate appearances.
Baltimore is stacked with outfield expertise — and with place gamers normally — leaving little room for McKenna to wrest on a regular basis at-bats from the workforce’s different outfield choices. Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander and the now-reinstated Hays are all within the combine for at-bats, as is the aforementioned Stowers, who’s becoming a member of the membership 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 droop of late, and Hays struggled an excellent bit earlier than touchdown on the injured checklist himself. Nonetheless, each veterans have prolonged observe information of manufacturing that date again a number of years. Neither was going to be displaced due to a short scorching streak from McKenna.
The Orioles have per week to commerce McKenna or else place him on outright waivers or launch waivers. He went unclaimed on outright waivers on the finish of March, and in doing so gained the proper to reject any further outright assignments for the rest of his profession. As such, if he clears waivers, he’ll have the proper to reject a minor league project in favor of free company. Given the glut of outfield expertise on the Baltimore roster, it’s doable he’d desire to latch on with one other group that has far much less depth and thus a greater alternative for him to get an earnest have a look at the massive league degree.
