The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve claimed right-hander Levi Stoudt off waivers from the Mariners, who’d designated him for assignment earlier in the week. Left-hander John Means was transferred from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Stoudt has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.
Stoudt, 26, was the Mariners’ third-round pick in 2019 and for a few years ranked among the organization’s most promising pitching prospects. Though he was never quite as highly touted as current rotation members like Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo during their own prospect days, Stoudt was a well-regarded member of a deep Mariners pitching pipeline. He was talented enough to be included as a secondary piece — behind headliners Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo — in the trade that netted Luis Castillo from Cincinnati.
Stoudt would go on to make his big league debut with the Reds in 2023, pitching just 10 1/3 innings. The Pennsylvania native was tagged for 11 runs on 16 hits and eight walks over a stretch of four one-off appearances, being optioned back to Triple-A Louisville after each. Most of the damage against him came in his debut effort, when he was rocked for seven runs in four innings. The Reds removed him from the 40-man roster in the 2023-24 offseason, and the Mariners wound up reacquiring Stoudt via waivers.
Although Stoudt made six sharp starts in Triple-A with the Reds following the 2022 trade that sent him to Cincinnati, he struggled in Louisville last season, posting a 6.23 ERA in 82 1/3 frames. Things haven’t gone any better so far in 2024. He’s made 12 appearances with the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma (11 starts) and posted an unsightly 6.92 earned run average. Stoudt has fanned a well below-average 14.9% of his opponents and issued walks at nearly as high a clip (12.4%).
Rough as his performance in Triple-A has been, Stoudt is an optionable starter with big league experience and a heater that sits just shy of 95 mph. Scouting reports during his prospect peak credited him with plus command — though that hasn’t been the case this season, clearly — with Baseball America calling his split-changeup an at-times “diabolical weapon” that lacked consistency. He’ll give the Orioles some needed rotation depth on the heels of season-ending surgeries for Means and Tyler Wells, and it’s always possible that Baltimore could shift him to a short relief role and see if his stuff plays up and allows him to emerge as a high-end relief option.