San Francisco Giants Lose Promising Reliever to Orioles

A past pitching option for the San Francisco Giants is no longer available after he was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles.

Apr 6, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Nick Avila (58) throws a pitch against the San Diego Padres during the eighth inning at Oracle Park | Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants have been dealing with tons of injury issues to many of their star players this season that has caused them to not have the year many expected coming in.

Blake Snell has been a huge disappointment, drastically underperforming when he's been on the mound and not on the injured list like he currently is with another groin strain.

This has caused the Giants to call up many players from their minor league ranks to fill in while the veterans on this staff get healthy.

A player they no longer will be able to call upon is Nick Avila as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports he was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles following being designated for assignment over the weekend.

Originally a 26th round pick in the 2019 MLB draft, the 26-year-old put together a great season in the minors that caused the Chicago White Sox to select him in the Rule 5 draft, but after not making their Opening Day roster, he was returned to the Giants.

Avila made his Major League debut this year but struggled in his eight appearances to the tune of a 8.49 ERA, which caused his subsequent demotion.

However, those decisions open teams up to risk as the Orioles, an organization who is in search of arms as they are dealing with major injury issues of their own, decided they would take a flyer on the reliever who has a career minor league ERA of 3.59 across his 146 outings and 18 starts.

On the surface, this isn't a huge loss for San Francisco as they decided to give Spencer Bivens a shot in which he shined, but losing an arm is never something teams want.