Former reliever with the Baltimore Orioles signs a minor league contract with a new American League team

A reliever who once played for the Baltimore Orioles has left the team to join a new squad in the American League.A former reliever with the Baltimore Orioles has secured a position with a different organisation.

Jonathan Heasley, a right-handed relief pitcher, has signed a minor league deal with the Chicago White Sox. As part of the deal, Heasley will receive an invitation to spring training. This comes after Heasley had a terrible season in 2024, both for the White Sox and for himself.

Following his acquisition by the Orioles during the offseason of the previous year, Heasley started the 2024 season with the organisation. However, he only made four appearances for Baltimore at the major league level. Over the course of those four bullpen appearances, he would end up accumulating a 16.88 earned run average (ERA) while pitching only 5.1 innings and allowing 10 earned runs.

It is interesting to note that Heasley performed admirably at the Triple-A level for Norfolk in 2024, despite the fact that the sample size was very tiny. He pitched 30.2 innings and had an earned run average of 2.64 over the course of ten appearances, three of which were starts.

The Kansas City Royals organisation was where Heasley had spent his whole professional career up until the time that he was signed by the Baltimore Orioles before the start of the previous season. During the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft, the Royals picked the native of Plano, Texas, who had previously attended Oklahoma State University.

After making his debut in the Major League Baseball prior to the 2021 season, he went on to play in each of the three seasons that came before 2024. Over the course of his three years with Kansas City, Heasley made a total of 36 appearances, 24 of which were starts, and he pitched a total of 133.2 innings. His earned run average (ERA) was 5.45, his earned run average plus (ERA+) was 77, and he had 85 strikeouts, which was a strikeout rate that was much lower than the average for the league.

Following his failures in the Major League Baseball in 2024, Baltimore put him out of commission in July, after he had been designated for assignment but had not been claimed.

Although it is clear that Heasley had a forgettable career with the Orioles during his one season with the organisation, a player who is versatile and has the ability to work both out of the bullpen and out of the starting rotation is someone who could be valuable to a Major League baseball club at some time throughout the season.

With a staggeringly dismal 41 wins in 2024, Chicago was, without a doubt, one of the worst teams in the history of baseball. Having dealt Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox, who are Baltimore’s division rivals, from a pitching staff that was already quite thin, the Chicago Cubs need use held wherever they can get it.

The very least that can be said is that he becomes a name that Orioles fans will keep an eye on for many years to come. It’s possible that he may get his career back on track, despite the fact that things didn’t work out for him in Baltimore.