Red Sox Place Kaleb Ort On Outright Waivers

The Red Sox have placed right-hander Kaleb Ort on outright waivers, reports Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). The team will presumably wait until the waiver process is resolved before announcing the move.

Ort finished the regular season on the 60-day injured list, as he didn’t pitch after July 4 because of elbow inflammation. There is no IL over the offseason. The Sox would’ve needed to reinstate Ort onto the 40-man roster within five days of the conclusion of the World Series. They’ve decided against doing so.

There’ll likely be an indication within a day or two whether another team placed a claim. In either case, his time in the organization is likely coming to a close. Ort would have the requisite service time to declare minor league free agency at the start of the offseason even if he goes unclaimed.

Boston acquired Ort from the Yankees over the 2020-21 offseason in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. The Aquinas College product pitched in parts of three seasons for the Sox, tallying 51 2/3 innings through 47 MLB appearances. He worked to a 6.27 ERA with slightly worse than average strikeout (20.9%) and walk (10.2%) rates. He consistently fared better in the minors, posting a sub-3.00 ERA in parts of three years at Triple-A Worcester. That included a 2.88 mark across 40 2/3 frames for the WooSox in 2022, when Ort punched out an impressive 31.5% of opposing hitters.