Orioles announce three-year deal with Mark Trumbo, designate Adam Walker for assignment

The Orioles today announced their three-year deal with slugger Mark Trumbo, and designated outfielder Adam Walker for assignment off the 40-man roster.

The $37.5 million contract represents the biggest deal the team has made this offseason. It brings back to Baltimore the major-league leader in home runs who batted .256/.316/.533 and earned his second career All-Star appearance back.

"Mark’s presence in our lineup gives us a slugger," executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette said. "He’s an established power hitter. He’s a real threat pitchers have to be concerned about. That also sets up our lineup pretty good, and creates a lot of challenges for our other hitters. We’ve got a lot of established sluggers in the lineup, like Mark Trumbo. He’s got elite power, and he’s a good teammate, good work ethic, and it’s a good ballpark for him. We’re both looking to capitalize on the great year he had last year."

Duquette noted that the team's brightest young star, third baseman Manny Machado, reached out to him Thursday to express how glad he was to have Trumbo back in the lineup.

"I’m sure some of our other hitters [feel that way] too, because he’s a real threat in the middle of our order," Duquette said.

Under the terms of the deal, Trumbo will have a limited no-trade clause to seven teams and receive $11 million in salary each year, with $1.5 million payments being issued annually in the three years following the expiration of his contract in 2019.

Trumbo, who was one of the higher-profile free agents remaining on the market, found that a return to the Orioles was the best fit as other sluggers took shorter deals than expected at the outset of free agency.

"Obviously, he had a great year for us last year, and we told him that we wanted to re-sign him," Duquette said. "I think we just had to give a little time for the market to establish itself. After our initial conversations, Mark was looking for a longer-term deal, and he went out and he reviewed the market, he and his reps, and then they came back to us and we were able to make a deal. They started indicating that they were really interested last weekend, so we’ve been working on it since last Sunday. It came together in the last couple of days."

In addition to Trumbo, the Orioles signed free agent catcher Welington Castillo and traded for outfielder Seth Smith, all in an effort to keep the team's high-scoring offense at the level it was in 2016.

Trumbo is expected to be reintroduced at a news conference next week, in advance of the team's FanFest on Jan. 28.

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Walker, who was a waiver claim from the Milwaukee Brewers, has been a prolific minor league slugger with 124 home runs in five minor league seasons, but struggles to hit for average. He has seven days to be traded, claimed on waivers, or assigned to the minors.

jmeoli@baltsun.com

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