Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

O's decline options on Mora and Moeller among several moves

The Baltimore Orioles elected not to pick up the 2010 club options on third baseman Melvin Mora and catcher Chad Moeller among several moves announced by the team on Thursday.

Mora appeared in 1,256 games over 10 seasons in Baltimore, hitting .280 with 158 home runs and 662 runs batted in. His 807 games at third base place him second in franchise history for most games played at the position.

Moeller spent the 2009 campaign with the Orioles and had two homers and 10 RBI while batting .258 in 30 contests. In 10 big league seasons, the backstop holds a career .226 average with 29 home runs and 132 RBI with Minnesota, Arizona, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, the Dodgers, the Yankees and Baltimore.

In other moves, the club outrighted outfielder Jeff Fiorentino, right-handed pitchers Chris Lambert and Jim Miller, and catcher Guillermo Rodriguez to Triple-A Norfolk. The O's also announced that left-hander Sean Henn was claimed off waivers by Toronto.

Fiorentino hit .281 with eight RBI over 24 games in 2009, while Rodriguez did not get a hit in five at-bats spanning seven contests last season.

Lambert saw action in four games, compiling a 4.76 earned run average in 5 2/3 innings of work. Miller went 4-4 with 17 saves and a 2.64 ERA last year with Norfolk. Henn had six relief appearances for the Birds in 2009, giving up three runs in as many innings of work.

Baltimore also announced a change in its coaching staff, hiring bench coach Jeff Datz to take the place of Dave Jauss.