The Baltimore Orioles have officially made the long-awaited move in shifting Ubaldo Jimenez to the bullpen effective immediately. The news was announced by Orioles' manager Buck Showalter, who said this before Tuesday's game against the Chicago White Sox
Ubaldo Jimenez has been mostly a disappointment after signing a pricy four-year, $50 million deal in the offseason. Jimenez has had major problems on the mound throughout the whole season, so far recording a 4-9 record to go along with a less than stellar 4.83 ERA in 110 innings.
The thirty-year-old right-hander experienced a disabled list stint earlier this season after rolling his ankle while getting out of a car. Instead of feeling sympathetic to the Dominican-born starter, Orioles' fans mostly hoped that he wouldn't come back. That's how atrocious his performance has been this season.
Jimenez has also managed to somehow walk 66 batters in 110 innings pitched. If you are in possession of a calculator, you can calculate that he has a 5.4 BB/9 rate, which exceeds the (already) ridiculous rate of 4.0 BB/9 that he had before the 2014 campaign. The league average for pitchers in the majors is a 2.94 BB/9 this season.
This was not the ideal outcome that the Orioles had in mind when they signed him to a four-year deal this winter. Now, with Jimenez out of the rotation, the Orioles "starting five" lines up as follows, starting with Tuesday's game in Chicago: Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, Kevin Gausman, Bud Norris and Miguel Gonzalez, who replaces him in the rotation.
Baltimore has just begun an 11-game homestand which will run through into the beginning of September. They have already taken two wins from Tampa Bay with two games remaining in that series.
The Orioles will host the Minnesota Twins in a four-game series before the Cincinnati Reds come to Camden Yards for a three-game set. They do not face a team with a winning record at the time this article was published until September 12th when the New York Yankees visit for a massive four-game series.