BALTIMORE; 10:18 a.m. ET – The Orioles announced on Thursday that they had selected third baseman Michael Almanzar of the Boston Red Sox organization in the Rule 5 Draft.
In six minor league seasons in the Red Sox organization, Almanzar is a career .250/.302/.373 hitter with 49 home runs and 304 RBI. In 131 games with Double-A Portland in 2013, Almanzar batted .268/.328/.432 (136-507) with 16 homers and 81 RBI.
With this move, the Orioles now have 39 players on the 40-man roster.
The Orioles on Thursday also announced that they had selected outfielder Julio Borbon from the Chicago Cubs organization in the Triple-A portion of the draft.
In 288 major league games, Borbon is a .272/.318/.347 hitter (215-789) with eight home runs and 76 RBI. In 73 games for the Texas Rangers (one game) and Chicago Cubs (72 games) in 2013, Borbon, 27, batted .200/.282/.276 with one homer and three RBI.
In 414 minor league games in the Rangers and Cubs organizations, Borbon batted .304/.357/.410 with 19 homers and 165 RBI. He was originally selected in the first round (35th overall) of the 2007 First Year Player Draft out of the University of Tennessee.
Source: Baltimore Orioles
