Orioles Claim Michael Siani, Designate Jose Espada

The Orioles claimed outfielder Michael Siani off waivers from the Dodgers and designated righty Jose Espada for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster. Siani has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.

Siani was designated for assignment by the Dodgers last week when they acquired fellow outfielder Alek Thomas in a trade with the D-backs. The 26-year-old Siani has spent the entire 2026 season with the Dodgers’ Triple-A club after coming over from the Yankees in a February waiver claim. That capped off a busy winter for Siani, who bounced from the Cardinals, to the Braves, to the Dodgers, to the Yankees and back to the Dodgers in a series of DFAs and waiver claims.

In 107 plate appearances with the Dodgers’ top affiliate, Siani has slashed just .225/.355/.303. He’s walked at a huge 15.9% clip but has also fanned in 28% of his plate appearances and has yet to hit a home run. Siani has picked up five doubles and a triple in addition to a 5-for-7 showing in stolen base attempts.

An over-slot fourth-rounder with the Reds back in 2018, Siani has spent all of his major league time in the National League Central between Cincinnati and St. Louis. He briefly debuted with the Reds in 2022 but made only 25 major league plate appearances before being claimed by the Cardinals in September of 2023. He was a frequently used, defensive-minded fourth outfielder with the 2024 Cards when he logged a career-high 334 plate appearances.

In parts of four major league seasons, Siani owns an anemic .221/.277/.270 batting line (58 wRC+) but good grades for his defense and baserunning. He’s played 1014 major league innings in the outfield — primarily in center but with fleeting corner appearances mixed in — and been credited with overwhelmingly positive marks from Statcast’s Outs Above Average (16) and from Defensive Runs Saved (7). He’s also gone 21-for-26 in stolen base attempts, giving him a success rate of nearly 81%.

The Orioles lost Dylan Beavers to an oblique strain last week. Heston Kjerstad hasn’t played at all this season due to a hamstring injury and is on the 60-day IL. Siani adds some depth to an outfield group that has gotten good production from Taylor Ward and Leody Taveras but has seen former top prospect Colton Cowser and relatively high-priced slugger Tyler O’Neill (who signed a three-year, $49.5MM contract prior to the ’25 season) both struggle tremendously at the plate.

Espada, 29, is the cousin of Astros skipper Joe Espada. He’s pitched one scoreless inning with the O’s this year and another three shutout frames with them in 2025. The 2015 fifth-rounder (Blue Jays) has only five big league frames to his credit. Espada carries a 4.57 ERA and 27.5% strikeout rate in parts of three Triple-A seasons, but he’s also walked 15.5% of his opponents at the top minor league level. Beyond his work in North American ball, Espada tossed 27 innings with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball back in 2024.

Espada has sat 93.6 mph on his four-seamer in the majors, coupling it with a slider that sits just under 93 mph. In the minors, he’s frequently used a splitter that averages just under 90 mph, but he hasn’t used the pitch heavily in his tiny sample of MLB work.

The O’s will have five days to trade Espada or place him on outright waivers. That’d be another 48-hour process, meaning his DFA will be resolved within a week’s time. Espada doesn’t have three years of big league service and hasn’t been outrighted at any point in his career, so he won’t have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed. In that scenario, he’d head to Triple-A Norfolk and stick around as non-roster depth.