Baltimore Orioles Decline Options on Wade Miley and J.J. Hardy

The Baltimore Orioles have declined the team options on starting pitcher Wade Miley and shortstop J.J. Hardy, making them officially free agents.

The Baltimore Orioles have declined the team options on starting pitcher Wade Miley and shortstop J.J. Hardy, officially making them free agents, according to MASN‘s Roch Kubatko on Twitter. Kubatko also reports that Hardy will receive a $2 million buyout and Miley will receive a $500,000 buyout.

Miley came to the Baltimore Orioles at the trade deadline of the 2016 season, when the Seattle Mariners sent him to Baltimore for starting pitcher Ariel Miranda. Since joining the Orioles after that trade, Miley has gone 10-20 and put up a 5.75 ERA with an 8.39 K/9 over 211.1 innings pitched.

Hardy is very obviously in the twilight years of his career, and with the acquisition of Tim Beckham last year, the Orioles have little need of whatever Hardy has left in the tank.

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While the Orioles do desperately need starting pitching, and especially left-handed pitching, Miley has been bad ever since he showed up in Baltimore, and there’s a number of free agent pitchers, many of whom are substantially better than Miley.

However, there have been reports that the Baltimore Orioles have reached out to both Miley and free agent pitcher Chris Tillman, though the talks seem to just be preliminary at this point.

Miley started his career with the Arizona Diamondbacks and played with them through 2014. He put up his best season of his career so far with them in 2012 when he went 16-11 with a 3.33 ERA and a 6.66 K/9.He also earned his first and only All-Star nomination that year. Last year with the Baltimore Orioles, he went 8-15 with a 5.61 ERA and an 8.12 K/9.

Hardy started his career with the Milwaukee Brewers before being traded to the Minnesota Twins for Carlos Gomez. The Twins then traded him to the Baltimore Orioles in December of 2010 along with Brendan Harris for pitchers Brett Jacobson and Jim Hoey.

Hardy has been with the Orioles since then and has been extremely productive. During his time with the Orioles, he’s won three straight Gold Gloves, one Silver Slugger, and was named an All-Star. He also earned an All-Star nomination with the Brewers in 2007.

Hardy started off his career with the Baltimore Orioles with probably the best season of his entire career in Baltimore, slashing .269/.310/.491 with 30 home runs, 76 runs, and 80 RBIs.

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Hardy is 35-years-old now and has struggled with injuries lately, playing just 73 games last year. He also had the worst season of his career last season, slashing .217/.255/.323 with four home runs, 24 runs, and 24 RBIs.