Lou Trivino Elects Free Agency

Veteran righty Lou Trivino is back on the free agent market. The Orioles announced that the reliever elected free agency after clearing outright waivers on Tuesday. Baltimore designated him for assignment on Sunday.

Trivino had a very brief stint with the O’s. They signed him to a major league contract last Monday, a few days after he’d opted out of a minor league deal with Philadelphia. Trivino was rocked for six runs on four hits and three walks without completing a full inning against the Yankees in his O’s debut. He rebounded with 2 1/3 scoreless frames with three strikeouts against the A’s on Saturday.

After tossing 31 pitches in that outing, Trivino would’ve been unavailable for a day or two. The O’s swapped him out for a fresh arm, which required a DFA since Trivino has well above the five years of MLB service to refuse a minor league assignment.

While the small sample numbers in Baltimore were ugly, Trivino pitched well in Triple-A for the Phils last month. The 34-year-old righty struck out 20 of 56 batters faced (36%) while issuing four walks. He surrendered 15 hits and 10 runs, though only four of those were earned. Trivino’s sinker and four-seam fastball each sat in the 94-95 mph range and he used three other pitches — cutter, slider and changeup — with regularity. The fastballs were up to 96 during his MLB work.

That was Trivino’s second stint with the Philly organization. He signed a minor league deal last August and was selected onto the MLB roster at the end of the month. He worked nine innings of three-run ball to close the season. Trivino pitched for three different clubs overall and tallied a 3.97 earned run average across 47 2/3 MLB innings a year ago. It was first big league action in three seasons, as he’d missed most of 2023-24 due to Tommy John surgery.