This offseason, the Minnesota Twins designated Chris Parmelee for assignment. He cleared waivers during the season, and resurfaced with the big league club. This time around however, Parmelee once again cleared waivers, but decided to look for greener pastures. It appears he has now found his new home.
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After informing the Twins that he would not report to Triple-A Rochester, Parmelee instead decided to take the route of free agency. Today, the Baltimore Orioles inked the former first round pick to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite.
#Orioles have signed RHPs Steve Johnson and Dane De La Rosa and OF Chris Parmelee to minor league contracts with spring training invitations
— Rich DubroffMLB (@RichDubroffMLB) January 26, 2015
Positional flexibility will be an asset for Parmelee, but there doesn’t appear to be any immediate opening for him. The Orioles already have former Twins Delmon Young and Steve Pearce slated for their active roster. Parmelee will be trying to carve out time against those two, as well as Chris Davis, Alejandro De Aza, and David Lough.
The Twins definitely didn’t have room for Parmelee to contribute in the outfield, and he failed to hit consistently at the major league level. He could have been a potential option at first base, but he had failed to gain any traction when given the opportunity previously.
It will be interesting to see what the change of scenery does for Parmelee. Should he in fact crack the opening day roster for the Orioles, he will have had to do so behind an impressive spring. It always appeared that Chris Parmelee had the frame and tools to compete at the major league level, but he was never able to consistently put it all together.
For the Orioles, they look to have gotten a respectable player to tryout through Spring Training out of the deal. Considering the low-risk, this is a good move for them.
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