Orioles to move Ubaldo Jimenez to bullpen
In the midst of a disappointing inaugural season with the Baltimore Orioles, veteran right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez will be moved to the bullpen, manager Buck Showalter told MASN's Roch Kubatko on Tuesday.
"You've got your reasons," said Showalter. "He doesn't have to agree with them. He's been a great teammate and a good professional. He's got a good heart. He wants to do well. And it's not like he's pitched poorly all year. It's just that, with 39 games left, we'll see how [Miguel Gonzalez] does. We don't have any inning limitations now on anybody."
Jimenez signed a four-year, $50-million deal with the Orioles during the offseason, but has been an unequivocal disappointment thus far. The 30-year-old owns a 4.83 ERA across 20 starts this season, while battling serious control problems, as evidenced by his career-worst 13.6 percent walk rate.
Through parts of nine seasons in the majors, Jimenez has logged just one relief appearance - he threw a scoreless inning out of the bullpen in his big-league debut - but Showalter remains confident he can provide value as a reliever.
"There will be a need that Ubaldo can serve for this team. It could be as a starter and it could be as a reliever. Right now, the next five games, or six if you count [Chris] Tillman, we know where we're going."