Baltimore Orioles Acquire Odrisamer Despaigne
By Ben Palmer
The Baltimore Orioles have acquired Odrisamer Despaigne from the Padres. Is he worth the investment?
The Orioles have traded minor leaguer Jean Cosme to the San Diego Padres in exchange for 28-year-old right-handed pitcher Odrisamer Despaigne, per Ken Rosenthal.
Despaigne has a minor league option, so it’s possible that he doesn’t end up on the Orioles opening day roster, however it’s an interesting move for Baltimore, considering how desperately the team needs pitching depth. While a right-hander isn’t necessarily ideal, Despaigne is someone who could give a decent return, and considering Cosme is a pitcher who didn’t even crack MLB.com’s top 30 prospects for the Orioles, what Baltimore gave up was fairly minimal.
Despaigne’s strength is in the number of pitches he throws, and the movement on those pitches. He’s got quite a range in pitch speed, he throws a fastball that averages about 91 miles per hour, as well as a cutter at around 87 mph, a changeup, a sinker, and the occasional slider.
His strikeout pitch, though, is his curveball. He calls it a “slow curve” but it’s basically an Eephus pitch, and there’s only a handful of those in the league. It averages about 11 inches of drop, and clocks in around 67-72 mph, which is a huge jump from his 91 mph fastball, and hitters swing at it, over 50% of them actually.
If you look at his stats from last year, you might be shocked at his 5.80 ERA, especially when compared to the previous year’s 3.36 ERA, but there’s an important thing to remember: between 2014 and 2015, San Diego’s Petco Park went from being a major pitcher’s park to a major hitters park, causing Despaigne’s HR/FB rate to skyrocket from 7.1% to 14.8% (the league average is around 10%), despite the fact that, between the two years, his hard hit rate stayed virtually the same and that his fly ball rate actually went down.
That doesn’t necessarily bode well for Despaigne coming to Camden Yards, a well-known hitters park, but it partially explains the change in performance. It also doesn’t help that the Padres defense left something to be desired, which explains why Despaigne’s FIP was more than a full point lower than his ERA, and his xFIP even lower than that.
Despaigne might not even make the opening day roster, but I personally think there’s a good chance he will, and depending on whether the Orioles make some more moves for the rotation, Despaigne could very well find a spot for himself in the team’s rotation. With a few adjustments, maybe Despaigne could turn into something pretty solid.