The Orioles are signing infielder Vimael Machin to a minor league cope with an invite to spring coaching, studies ESPN’s Jorge Castillo. The previous A’s infielder spent the previous two seasons taking part in within the Mexican League and final appeared in a giant league sport throughout the 2022 season. Machin is a shopper of Usus Sports activities Administration.
Machin, 31, was the Athletics’ Rule 5 pick of the Cubs group again in 2019. He held a roster spot within the shortened 2020 season, tallying 74 plate appearances, and picked up one other 15 MLB plate appearances in 2021. Machin’s career-high workload within the majors got here in 2022, when Oakland plugged him into 73 video games and gave him 253 turns on the plate. He’s proven robust self-discipline within the majors, strolling at a ten% clip, however Machin is only a .208/.290/.261 hitter total.
That tepid manufacturing has are available in a pattern of 361 plate appearances throughout three seasons, however Machin has been a lot better within the higher minors. He’s a profession .291/.384/.439 hitter in components of 5 Triple-A campaigns and simply final yr posted a ridiculous-looking .401/.495/.579 slash in 85 video games with los Charros de Jalisco in Mexico. (As evidenced by that line, the Mexican League is an overwhelmingly hitter-friendly setting — much more so than the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.)
Machin has performed all 4 infield positions extensively. He’s spent probably the most time at third base (3810 innings) but additionally has greater than 2000 innings at second base, greater than 1000 at first base and one other 935 innings at shortstop. He’s a left-handed bat with glorious plate self-discipline (12.8% stroll price in Triple-A) and powerful bat-to-ball expertise (15.3% strikeout price in Triple-A; 18.6% within the majors).
Baltimore clearly has a crowded infield already, with Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo, Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Urias all mixing in at numerous spots. Machin provides some skilled depth to stash in Triple-A and an choice to compete for a roster spot if a mix of accidents and trades thins out Baltimore’s enviable stash of infielders in some unspecified time in the future.
