Orioles claim infielder Cord Phelps on waivers from the Cleveland Indians

The Orioles have announced that they claimed infielder Cord Phelps off of waivers from the Cleveland Indians. Phelps, who will turn 27 years old in January, has amassed 123 unimpressive big league at bats over the last three seasons. He has played at AAA Columbus over the last four seasons and has a hitting line of .286/.367/.471. His overall minor-league OPS is .808. Of his 539 minor-league games, he has played second base in 469 of them.

He's certainly shown in the minors that he can hit, but hasn't gotten the chance in the majors to prove anything. The Indians have a guy named Jason Kipnis playing second, so Phelps was definitely blocked on that team.

Phelps was drafted in the third round of the 2008 draft out of Stanford University. He's too old to be considered a prospect, but he looks like a solid waiver pickup to me, especially with the hole the Orioles have at second base right now. If he doesn't pan out it's no biggie since the Orioles didn't give up anything for him, but it does appear that he's out of options (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), so he might not stick with the team if he can't make the big league club out of spring training.

Welcome to Birdland, Cord Phelps! You are the 38th member of the Orioles current 40-man roster.