Rangers claim Rule 5 pick Logan Verrett from Orioles

One part of the Orioles' crowded roster situation got a little more clear on Thursday afternoon. The Texas Rangers claimed Rule 5 pick Logan Verrett from the O's on waivers. Verrett will now be headed to the Rangers organization with the same stipulation that the Orioles faced: He must remain on the 25-man roster all year or be offered back to the Mets for $25,000.

It's possible that by placing Verrett on waivers, the O's were hoping that he would clear through all 30 teams. That would mean that if he had cleared, the O's could potentially work out a trade with the Mets where they would get the rights to Verrett, giving them the ability to option him to the minor leagues.

Verrett was selected 13th of the 14 players taken in the Rule 5 draft, which means back in December at least he wasn't in supreme demand. So it wasn't crazy to hope that he might sneak through waivers. However, as the Baltimore Sun noted this morning, Verrett has had his velocity tick up a bit in relief and the Sun spoke to a couple of MLB scouts who believed Verrett would be claimed.

Sure enough, he was claimed fairly quickly. He is an Oriole no more. That's too bad as he'd done well through the spring and I was interested in seeing him possibly get some work as the O's long reliever. He seemed like a nice guy who would be nice to have on the team.

Best of luck to Logan in sticking with the Rangers. Verrett lives in Texas, so as far as that goes, this probably isn't too bad of a deal for him.