Orioles Claim Dom Keegan, Designate Kyle Nicolas

The Orioles announced that they have claimed catcher Dom Keegan off waivers from the Rays and optioned him to Double-A Chesapeake. In other moves, they designated right-hander Kyle Nicolas for assignment and reinstated lefty Cade Povich from the 15-day injured list. The Orioles optioned Povich to Triple-A Norfolk.

The 25-year-old Keegan entered the season as Baseball America‘s 19th-ranked Rays prospect, his third straight year in the organization’s top 20. He had been with the Rays since they took him in the fourth round of the 2022 draft, but they cut him earlier this week to make room for newly acquired righty Chris Roycroft. The Rays deemed Keegan expendable after he began 2026 hitting .191/.327/.303 (72 wRC+) with six home runs in 214 plate appearances with Triple-A Durham. Keegan walked at an impressive 14.5 percent clip, but a 36.9% strikeout rate offset that.

Since making his Triple-A debut last year, Keegan has hit a below-average .221/.315/.378 with 16 homers, 170 strikeouts and 55 walks in 511 trips to the plate. There are also questions regarding his ability to stick behind the plate, per BA, which pointed to below-average arm strength and inconsistent pitch framing in its preseason scouting report. Keegan will work to iron out his issues as he moves down to Double-A with his new organization, one that has backstops Samuel Basallo, Sam Huff and Chadwick Tromp at the big league level. Adley Rutschman has been on the concussion IL since June 20.

The addition of Keegan will cost Nicolas his 4o-man spot with the Orioles. This is the second time a team has designated Nicolas this year, as the Reds did so before trading him to the O’s in early June. Nicolas became a pro when the Pirates drafted him 61st overall in Competitive Balance Round B in 2020, but despite possessing a high-90s fastball, control issues have prevented him from establishing himself. Over 105 1/3 major league innings, Nicolas has walked 13.8 percent of hitters (with a 21.5% strikeout rate) en route to a 4.96 ERA.

Nicolas did not make it to the bigs with the Orioles before they designated him, but in 7 1/3 frames with the Reds, he gave up seven earned runs on eight hits and 13 walks. Nicolas’s results have not improved much with Norfolk, where he has yielded three earned runs on four hits and eight walks in 4 1/3 innings.

The Orioles will now have five days to trade Nicolas, place him on outright waivers or release him. The waiver process takes 48 hours, which means Nicolas could stay in limbo for up to a week.