Since being placed on waivers by the Red Sox in October, Kaleb Ort’s offseason has been quite busy.
Ort has now been on five clubs since the end of the previous season after being moved from the Phillies to the Orioles on Monday for financial considerations. On October 13, the Mariners claimed him when Boston waived him. On December 1, the Marlins claimed him off of Seattle’s waiver list. The Phillies signed him on February 13 but he was out of the game in less than a week. Ort will now travel to Baltimore in an attempt to battle for a job in the bullpen.
On the one hand, the fact Ort has been uprooted four times since October has to be difficult. But the fact he has been claimed or traded four times means there’s interest in him around the league. Each of the five teams he has been on has given him a 40-man roster spot.
Ort, who has 47 appearances in the majors over the last three seasons, was on Boston’s 60-day injured list after missing the last three months of the season with elbow inflammation. Throughout his time in Boston, Ort possessed intriguing fastball velocity (95.8 mph average in 2023) and got plenty of chances to prove himself in the majors under former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. Overall, he struggled to a 6.27 ERA in 47 games, allowing 36 earned runs and 63 hits in 51 ⅔ innings.
Ort, who turns 32 in February, is a former minor league Rule 5 selection who got an extended look as a big league reliever over the last two seasons. The Michigan native debuted in 2021 after saving 19 games for the WooSox, then split the 2022 season between Triple-A and the majors, logging a 6.35 ERA and 1.765 WHIP in 28 ⅓ MLB innings while pitching to a 2.88 ERA in Worcester. In 2023, Ort made the Opening Day roster before struggling to a 6.26 ERA and 1.565 WHIP in 23 big league innings; he owned a 1.54 ERA in 11 ⅔ frames at Triple-A.
