The Orioles continue to work the margins of the roster, claiming versatile utilityman Weston Wilson off waivers from the Phillies while designating left-hander José Suarez for assignment - a move that reflects Baltimore’s ongoing effort to build depth without sacrificing flexibility.
Let’s start with Wilson. The 31-year-old brings a right-handed bat and the kind of positional versatility teams covet in a bench piece.
He’s seen time all over the field - corner infield, corner outfield, and even some middle infield - but he’s primarily been deployed at the corners. That fits Baltimore’s current roster needs, especially with a group of young left-handed hitters that could use a righty complement.
Wilson’s bat, however, has been a bit of a rollercoaster. In limited big league action across the past three seasons, he’s slashed .242/.328/.428 with nine home runs in 245 plate appearances.
Most of that production came in 2023 and 2024, when he looked like a legitimate platoon threat against left-handed pitching. He crushed southpaws during that stretch, putting up a career .250/.359/.475 line against them - good for a 130 wRC+.
But 2025 was a different story. His production dipped to just .198/.282/.369 in a career-high 125 plate appearances, raising real questions about whether he can consistently contribute at the major league level.
Still, Wilson has a strong track record in Triple-A, where he’s posted a .247/.339/.462 slash line across nearly 1,700 plate appearances. That kind of sustained performance in the upper minors suggests he can still be a useful depth piece - especially if he rediscovers his stroke against lefties.
The challenge? He’s out of minor league options.
That means the Orioles can’t stash him in Triple-A unless he clears waivers again. So, unless he makes the Opening Day roster, Wilson could be right back on the waiver wire.
This move is classic Orioles. They’ve been one of the most active teams in the league when it comes to cycling through fringe roster options, often claiming players off waivers and then attempting to sneak them through outright waivers to build up organizational depth. It’s a strategy that’s worked for them before, and Wilson is just the latest name in that churn.
The flip side of the transaction is José Suarez, who now finds himself designated for assignment just a week after Baltimore claimed him from the Braves. Atlanta had signed the 28-year-old lefty to a $900,000 deal to avoid arbitration, but he didn’t stick there either.
Like Wilson, Suarez is out of options, meaning he can’t be sent to Triple-A without first clearing waivers. Baltimore will now try to do just that - sneak him through and keep him as depth in Norfolk.
There’s some intrigue with Suarez, even if his recent results have been uneven. Injuries limited him to just 19 1/3 innings last season, but he posted a shiny 1.86 ERA in that small sample. The underlying numbers were less impressive - a 16-to-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio isn’t exactly dominant - but it’s a reminder that when healthy, Suarez can still miss bats and keep runs off the board in short bursts.
Over his career, Suarez has logged 396 big league innings, mostly with the Angels, working as both a starter and reliever. His ERA sits at 5.30, but that number is skewed by some rough years in 2020, 2023, and 2024.
During the 2021-22 seasons, he was a reliable swingman, putting up a 3.86 ERA over 207 1/3 innings with a solid 21.5% strikeout rate and a manageable 7.9% walk rate. That version of Suarez - the one who can give you multiple innings and keep you in games - is still worth a look, especially for a team like Baltimore that values pitching depth.
Suarez has enough service time to reject an outright assignment, but doing so would mean walking away from the $900,000 salary he’s owed. That’s a tough call for any player, especially one coming off an injury-plagued season.
The Orioles have five days to trade Suarez or place him on outright waivers. Waivers themselves take 48 hours, so we’ll know by next Thursday afternoon whether he’s sticking around in the organization or moving on.
For now, this is just another savvy roster shuffle from a front office that’s made a habit of finding value in unexpected places. Whether Wilson or Suarez ends up making an impact in Baltimore remains to be seen, but these are the kinds of low-risk moves that can quietly pay dividends over the course of a long season.