O’s make an early waiver claim to open up meetings

For the third straight year, the Orioles have ensured they won’t end baseball’s winter meetings empty handed by making an early waiver claim.

The Orioles claimed right-hander Ashton Goudeau from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday and outrighted catcher Austin Wynns to Triple-A Norfolk in a corresponding move, the team announced.

Goudeau, 28, came up through the Colorado system after being drafted by the Kansas City Royals, and made his big league debut in 2020 with the Rockies. In four appearances this summer, Goudeau (pronounced gooDOE) had a 7.56 ERA, allowing seven earned runs on 15 hits with a 2.04 WHIP.

The 6-foot-6 right-hander features a fastball in the 93-94 mph range, and also uses a changeup and big curveball out of the bullpen, and was with the Pirates for just a short time after they claimed him off waivers this fall.

Having been added to the 40-man roster last offseason, Goudeau still has two minor league options available.

Wynns, who debuted for the Orioles in 2018 as their wave of young catching came to the big leagues with he and Chance Sisco, spent all of 2020 at the team’s alternate site and didn’t make an appearance during the shortened 60game season.

In being outrighted to Norfolk, Wynns will continue to provide catching depth along with veteran catcher Taylor Davis, who re-signed as a minor league free agent after the season ended.

Though this year’s winter meetings aren’t being held in-person in Dallas as planned, Monday was meant to be the first day of them.

Orioles have made three waiver claims on the first day of the meetings, claiming Rio Ruiz from the Atlanta Braves in 2018 and Marcos Diplan from the Detroit Tigers in 2019.