BALTIMORE — Needing to make room for outfielder Chris Parmelee and never unwilling to be creative with their roster management, the Orioles optioned starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen to Single-A Frederick on Tuesday.
And the Taiwanese lefty wasn’t pleased with the news.
Manager Buck Showalter cited a desire to keep Chen fresh less than 24 hours after he pitched eight shutout innings in a 4-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night. However, Chen’s next outing was scheduled to come against the Toronto Blue Jays, who have hammered left-handed pitching to the tune of a .313 batting average and an .876 on-base plus slugging percentage.
“Before his last outing, not this one, he was complaining of just some overall body fatigue,” Showalter said. “We’ve tried to take a little break with everybody during the year. And he’ll get an extra day. He may not even take a work day. We’ll shorten up his outing at Frederick.”
The Baltimore skipper said Chen “completely” understood the decision, but the 29-year-old posted on his official Twitter account that he was fine from a physical standpoint, which doesn’t exactly jive with Showalter’s description of how he was feeling after his outing on June 10. Chen rarely posts anything on his Twitter account with his last activity coming on May 13.
Chen is expected to return from the minor leagues on June 26 to start against Cleveland, the first day he is eligible to return after the 10-day minimum. He is scheduled to pitch three or four innings for the Keys on Saturday.
Chen is scheduled to become a free agent after the season and is represented by super agent Scott Boras, who can’t like seeing a veteran starter with a 2.89 ERA sent to the minors a day after his best start of the season.
