Austin Voth claimed by Baltimore Orioles

“We looked at all kinds of stuff,” Davey Martinez said, “... all kinds of different numbers, and we tried some things with him, and he was all open to it, and ... you saw some signs that maybe this was going to work, and then unfortunately, it didn’t, so it’s tough. It’s tough for me — I really believed that he was going to get through it, and it just didn’t happen.”

Martinez, the Washington Nationals’ fifth-year manager, was talking about the team’s move to designate veteran reliever Austin Voth for assignment late last month, and as he said, he was selfishly hoping the 29-year-old would clear waivers and decided to stick with the club that drafted him in the 5th Round in 2013 and brought him to the majors in 2018.

In his fifth MLB season, however, Voth had a 10.13 ERA, a 4.96 FIP, six walks, and 18 Ks over 18 2⁄3 IP out of the bullpen before he was DFA’d.

“I was more frustrated because I sat down with him daily, and tried to figure out,” Martinez said after the club decided it was officially not working.

“[It] was a tough [decision] because he’s been here for a such a long time, we felt like this is an opportunity for us to kind of let him decide what he wants to do next. It just didn’t work out here, and it’s always a tough call. I felt like we gave him a lot of opportunities, and he was very grateful, very understanding, but it was tough because he’s one of the few remaining guys who were in the playoffs and World Series with us, and such an unbelievable human being, that was a hard one. So I wish him well, and tell him selfishly, I’d love to have you back, but if you get an opportunity to go pitch somewhere else, the best of luck to you, I’ll help him out any way I can.”

Voth got that opportunity on Tuesday, when the Baltimore Orioles claimed the reliever off of waivers.