Orioles sign Joey Gathright
By Wally Fish
According to Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com, the Baltimore Orioles have signed 28-year old outfielder Joey Gathright to a minor league contract. In six major league seasons he’s hit 0.263/.327/.303, has a career OPS+ of 68, and has stolen 80 bases with a 73% success rate. This is his second go-around in the Baltimore organization, having lasted only 3.5 months with the team’s AAA affiliate last season before he was traded to Boston for a PTBNL.
Lawrence Barreca, of our O’s site Birds Watcher had this to say about the signing,
"The Gathright move provides the O’s with one key thing: depth. With the Major League outfield currently stacked with the likes of Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Nolan Reimold, Felix Pie, and Luke Scott, the need for Gathright was simply to give Triple-A Norfolk someone to play the position. The only other major outfield prospect at Triple-A is Lou Montanez. As far as his chances for making the big league roster at some point, it would only happen due to a mass injury bug. Otherwise, he will be at Norfolk for all of 2010."
Joey G. signed with the Blue Jays back in December and seemed destined to earn a spot on Toronto’s bench. Then he went on to hit 0.167/.186/.167 in 42 spring at bats, was clearly outplayed by Jeremy Reed, and was released by the Jays on March 28th.
In addition to Toronto and Baltimore, Joey has also played for the Rays, Royals, Cubs, and Red Sox.