One thing you can never have too much of in the game of baseball is depth, especially when it comes to pitching.
It appears that this philosophy is one that the Orioles are utilizing, as they have signed former first baseman Ronald Guzmán to a minor league deal as a left-handed pitcher, according to MASN’s Roch Kubatko.
Guzmán, who spent most of his career with the Texas Rangers, also spent a season in the New York Yankees organization and a partial season with the San Francisco Giants organization last year.
As a first baseman signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2011, Guzmán made his big league debut and played 123 games for the Rangers in 2018, slashing .235/.306/.416, though he would hit 16 home runs while nearly 40% of his hits going for extra bases. He drove in 58 runs as well.
Over the next few seasons, the Dominican Republic native would bounce back and forth between the minors and majors before converting to a pitcher prior to the 2023 season.
Guzmán has slashed .273/.337/.424 across 749 minor league games throughout his pro career. He’s hit 73 career home runs while driving in 410 runs and collected a total 755 hits, including 161 doubles and 19 triples while scoring 375 runs.
Guzmán was signed by the Giants and assigned to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. Unfortunately, he would only appear in one game, pitching a third of an inning, collecting a hold. He struck out one and walked two while allowing one run.
Guzmán would be diagnosed with a pronator strain and missed the remaining part of the season. He would ultimately be released but would end up pitching in the Dominican Winter League.
The Orioles will now take a flyer on Guzmán as a pitcher. The 6’5″ 29-year-old possesses a four-seam fastball that can hit up to 98 mph and also mixes in a two-seamer, slider and changeup.
We would like to welcome Ronald Guzmán to Birdland and look forward to watching him develop as a pitcher.
What do you think of this signing?
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