Orioles release LHP Nick Raquet after he clears unconditional release waivers

The Baltimore Orioles announced that left-hander Nick Raquet has cleared unconditional release waivers and is now a free agent, free to sign with any club. The announcement follows a designation for assignment that came one day prior, per MLB Trade Rumors.

What happened

When Baltimore designated Raquet for assignment, the club faced a narrower-than-usual menu of options. Under general league mechanics, a team that designates a player has up to seven days to trade him, place him on outright waivers, or release him. In Raquet's case, two of those three doors were effectively closed before anyone reached for the handle.

The trade deadline had passed roughly a month before the designation, per MLB Trade Rumors, which removed the trade route entirely. The second complication: Raquet was on the minor-league injured list at the time of the DFA, due to an elbow injury, per Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun. Under general league rules, injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, which meant a release was the only remaining path. Baltimore walked it, Raquet cleared unconditional release waivers, and the transaction is now complete.

Why it matters

The procedural tidiness of this move should not obscure what it actually represents: a left-handed pitcher with an elbow injury, a team that had no viable mechanism to retain him on the 40-man roster, and a set of rules that funneled the situation toward a clean separation. None of that was discretionary by the time the designation was filed.

What happens next is genuinely open. MLB Trade Rumors notes that in situations like this — a player released while injured, with an existing relationship with the organization — it is common for the player and club to reunite on a minor-league deal. Raquet would return in a non-roster capacity under that scenario, which would keep him in the Baltimore system without occupying a 40-man spot. A minor-league contract, as a general matter, does not place a player on the 40-man roster and often carries an opt-out provision.

That said, MLB Trade Rumors is equally clear that Raquet now has the opportunity to explore options with every club in baseball. The minor-league reunion is a possibility, not a plan. He is a free agent, and the market will have its say.

Is Raquet expected to return to Baltimore?

Per MLB Trade Rumors, a reunion on a minor-league deal is described as common in these circumstances and is floated as a genuine possibility — but it is not reported as agreed upon, imminent, or even in discussion. Raquet's elbow injury remains a factor in whatever comes next, for Baltimore or anyone else. The desk will note that "perhaps" is doing real work in that framing, and we are leaving it there.

Where the club stands

Baltimore enters this stretch of the schedule at 69-73 (.486), sitting in the AL East's bottom tier, 15.5 games back of the division lead. In the Wild Card picture, the Orioles rank sixth, sitting 2.5 games relative to the cut line — not an impossible gap in the abstract, but one that a four-game losing streak does nothing to shrink. The math is not yet final, but it is getting less patient.

The Orioles travel to Coors Field on Wednesday, September 2, where Trevor Rogers is the probable starter against Colorado's Tomoyuki Sugano. The club then returns home to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for a two-game set against the Boston Red Sox: Brandon Young is the probable for Thursday, September 3, opposed by Jake Bennett, and Shane Baz draws the Friday, September 4 assignment against Ranger Suarez.

The September roster expansion — which under general league rules allows clubs to carry 28 players from September 1 through the end of the regular season, up from the standard 26 — gives Baltimore some additional flexibility to fill out the active group. That flexibility does not directly affect Raquet's situation, since he is no longer on the 40-man roster, but it does shape the broader context in which the Orioles are making personnel decisions right now. When a roster can grow, the calculus around who stays and who goes shifts slightly; when a player is already gone, it is mostly academic.

What we don't know yet

The elbow injury that placed Raquet on the minor-league injured list has not been further characterized in the available reporting. No diagnosis, no timetable, and no prognosis appear in the material from MLB Trade Rumors or Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun. Whether the injury affects his market as a free agent — or the timeline of any potential minor-league arrangement with Baltimore — is not addressed.

It is also not reported whether Baltimore has had any preliminary conversations with Raquet's representatives about a return, or whether other clubs have expressed interest. The free-agent market for a left-handed pitcher on an injured list, in September, is its own particular ecosystem, and the desk does not have visibility into it at this moment.

What to watch

The obvious thread to pull: whether Raquet and the Orioles do, in fact, reconvene on a minor-league deal once his health situation clarifies. MLB Trade Rumors flags it as a common outcome in these circumstances, and the organizational familiarity is real. A minor-league signing would not move the needle on Baltimore's 40-man roster or their Wild Card math, but it would keep a left-handed arm in the system for whatever the offseason brings.

Beyond Raquet specifically, the Orioles' position — 69-73, 15.5 games back in the AL East, four straight losses, 2.5 games outside the Wild Card cut — means that every roster decision between now and the end of the regular season carries some weight. The Rogers-Sugano matchup at Coors Field on Wednesday is the next data point. The desk will be watching.