When you see a nearly 28-year old pitcher in rookie ball, he’s typically on rehab or newly signed and trying to build up arm strength before being sent to a higher affiliate. With Mason Dinesen though, the Orioles have something a little different.
The 6-foot-4 righthander spent most of his professional life as a position player playing in Indy ball and the last few seasons with some time in the White Sox organization as an org filler. Going nowhere as a position player, went to Tread Athletics this offseason with the goal of getting back into professional baseball as a pitcher within one year. It took him two months to get signed by the Orioles after showing a mid-90s sinker that reaches as high as 97 mph, a good moving changeup, and repeatable enough mechanics to suggest he could be worth a flier.
The Orioles are still developing him in the FCL, and in his most recent outing he recorded 4 different pitches in statcast, a 94.3 MPH sinker, 95.1 mph 4-seamer, 87.9 changeup, and 88 mph cutter.
In his 3.2 innings over four appearances, Dinesen has struck out seven of the 14 batters he’s faced, walked two, and hasn’t allowed a hit. Impressive stats overall, but he’s certainly a work in progress after a review of his statcast information that is available for two of his four appearances.
He’s mostly thrown his sinker and or 4-seamer, hasn’t featured any breaking balls yet unless you want to count the one cutter, and has thrown just two changeups.
The Orioles will most likely challenge him in Delmarva at some point this season where his secondaries will need to be used more often. Either way, he’s an interesting story to watch as he tries to rebuild his baseball dreams one ladder at a time in the minor leagues.
