Baltimore Orioles Cut Local Kid in Rare Roster Move This Spring
The Baltimore Orioles have a lot of decisions to be made before they get their roster down to the requisite number of 26 ahead of their opener against the Los Angeles Angels on March 28.
While everyone around baseball knew how loaded this farm system is, nobody probably foresaw the performances that many of the Orioles' star prospects have put together this spring.
That's a scary notion for the rest of the league, and one that makes the front office and coaching staff's lives much more difficult when making cuts.
Baltimore seems to be content with letting the remainder of the exhibition period play out before announcing a bevy of moves, something that is vastly different from how other organizations have operated across Major League Baseball.
However, they did decide to make one cut.
According to Roch Kubatko of MASN, the Orioles have optioned pitcher Bruce Zimmermann to their minor league camp.
"We need rotation depth and so he's going to be in the Norfolk rotation to start the year. It's going to take more than five guys. He threw the ball well this spring, but we're going to start the year with him in Triple-A and continue to build him up as a starter," manager Brandon Hyde said.
The 29-year-old Baltimore native was originally drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2017 before getting traded to his hometown team a year later.
Since then, he climbed his way up through the pipeline and made his Major League debut in 2020.
He's rotated between the MLB and minors, but does have 38 appearances and 27 starts under his belt with the Orioles.
Zimmermann was thought to be battling it out for a potential rotation spot to start the season because of the injuries to Kyle Bradish and John Means.
The left-hander appeared in three Spring Training games, allowing five runs, three of them earned, on 12 hits during his 7 2/3 innings of work.
Hyde hints that he'll be used in spots during the year, but he'll start out in the minors based on this decision.
