This is the time of year when a handful of minor-leaguers are shopping for better opportunities than their old organizations seemed to promise them, and on Tuesday, a longtime Detroit Tigers farmhand bolted for greener pastures.
Left-handed pitcher Andrew Magno was the Tigers’ 15th-round pick out of Ohio State in 2017, and he wound up throwing 307 2/3 innings for Detroit’s various minor-league affiliates. He first reached Triple-A in 2022, but to date, he has still yet to make his major league debut.
Though such a debut is never promised, Magno hopes now that the path will be less obstructed as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.
On Tuesday, Magno signed a minor-league contract with the Orioles for the upcoming season, according to the transactions log on his official roster page. He previously elected free agency on Nov.6.
Magno, 27, generates an impressive number of strikeouts. He has punched out 376 minor leaguers in total, including 76 this year in his 66 1/3 innings of work for Double-A Erie. The fact that he didn’t advance to Triple-A this season, let alone the big leagues, likely prompted Magno to search for a new squad.
These deals are interesting to chronicle at this time of year because if Magno surprises most baseball fans by breaking out in the Orioles bullpen this season, we have something to document the moment when he closed the door on continuing with the Tigers, after the Detroit organization invested in him for nearly a decade.
Baltimore, meanwhile, has very little left-handed depth in its bullpen after workhorse Keegan Akin, so it wouldn’t be stunning to see Magno get a shot in the majors at some point this year.
More MLB: Blue Jays Predicted to Land Padres All-Star, Address World Series Downfall
