Rich Dubroff

Orioles avoid arbitration with Alberto, Givens, Mancini; Infielder Richard Urena acquired

On Friday, the Orioles reached agreements with their final three arbitration-eligible players: Hanser Alberto, Mychal Givens and Trey Mancini.

Alberto settled for $1.65 million, according to MLB.com. That figure was confirmed by an industry source. Givens’ 2020 contract is for $3.225 million, according to USA Today, and confirmed by an industry source. Mancini’s agreement was reported by MASNSports.com. Mancini will earn $4.75 million, according to MLB.com.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias has avoided arbitration in his two years here.

On Thursday, the Orioles reached agreement with right-hander Miguel Castro for $1.05 million plus incentives. MLB.com reported that deal, and it was confirmed by an industry source.

The Orioles began December with seven arbitration-eligible players. They traded infielder Jonathan Villar to Miami just before the deadline for offering contracts on December 2. Villar settled for $8.2 million, according to Jon Heyman.

Two days later, the Orioles traded starting pitcher Dylan Bundy to the Los Angeles Angels.

Left-handed reliever Richard Bleier reached an agreement on an $915,000 contract several hours before the deadline for offering contracts.

Orioles acquire Urena: The Orioles acquired infielder Richard Urena on waivers from Toronto. The 23-year-old switch-hitter hit .243 in 30 games for the Blue Jays last season.

In 91 games over the past three seasons, Urena has hit .253 with two home runs and 14 RBIs.

Urena can play shortstop and second base and will contend for a utllity job.

To make room for Urena on the 40-man roster, infielder Pat Valaika was designated for assignment.

Good news for Castro: Castro’s traumatic week came to a peaceful end when two of the three suspects in his armed robbery in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday were apprehended. Police posted a photo of Castro being reunited with his stolen necklaces on Twitter.

Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

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  • Mancini for under $5 mil?

    35 taters nets $4.75 in today's market? Should have taken the birds to arbitration. Me thinks he needs to find another agent.

  • Finally signing the few major league position players that the O's have, we can look forward to another disaster......NO PITCHING! If they are intent on keeping this same group , of course, with the additions from our "farm system" (waiver wire and rule 5) we can hope the O's ONLY lose 108 (No Villier and Bundy). We're only seeing "The TEAR DOWN".

    PS "When does the REBUILD start?"

  • Just have a question. Is Castro really a million-dollar+ pitcher? Kind of caught me by surprise and wonder what others think.

    • I think he has the potential, needs to ditch the gaudy chains, shocked when I heard they were stolen, who’d want them...go O’s...

    • Absolutely Castro is a millon $+ pitcher. He's 6'7" ... has great stuff and is just a whisker past 25 years old. Up until just this past year, his ERA was under 4.0, and considering he's pitching in this bandbox called Camden Yards, that's pretty dang good! I'm certainly willing to write off last years 4.6 ERA as simply a bad year ... and even at 4.6 ... it's not THAT terrible. Shoot ... Jake Arrieta WiSHES he had Castros ERA while in Baltimore.

      So it seems as though the mean salary for a major league starter is $5.2 million, while the mean for all pitchers is a bit under $3 million. Frankly, I wish they'd give the guy another look at being a starter.

      So .. YES ... I believe Castro really is a million $+ pitcher, and frankly at $1.05 million, he's a bargain. Chalk one up for Elias.

      And PS .. I agree with my pal CalsPals, that he should ditch the chains, and while he's at it, straighten up the hat.

  • One way to measure the meager progress in the O's Rebuild is to look at the anemic plate performance of Pat Valaika, the Waiver Wire Wonder released to make room for the newest Waiver Wire Wonder Urena. In his last two seasons with the Rockies, Valika hit .156 and .190 in 2018 and 2019 respectively. That's well under Urena's middling stats. Does anyone think that another team will emulate the Orioles in signing Valaika as a roster upgrade?

  • Here after the ravens loss. Reading about arbitration and realizing there is no hope for a competitive Baltimore team until next football season is a downer(plus it’s January and the holidays are over) . Even though it’s only yr 2 of the rebuild, the o’s haven’t been competitive since ‘16 so it feels like yr 4. It’s late but man is it a sad day to Baltimore sports. Feels like Nietzsche’s staring into the abyss quote. At least there are still the caps to root for!

    • Week off doesn’t help, I know the teams want it but I really don’t see a positive from sitting off two weeks (last game of regular season)...like losing in the wildcard round of baseball playoffs...go O’s...

      • The week off doesn't' look to be hurting the Chiefs all that much, Maybe Marlon Humphrey had it right after all...

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