Yennier

Cano

This could be a change to help unlock more strikeout upside for Cano. In his 208 2/3 MLB innings, he has just a 23.2 percent strikeout rate, which is well below average for a late-inning reliever. The splitter adds more depth and drop, which could be useful for Cano, whose changeup ran in on right-handed hitters similarly to his sinker. The splitter could play well off the four-seam fastball and give him more swing-and-miss.

Cano struggled to a 5.12 ERA in 58 innings last year, but he’s still a strong groundball pitcher with a decent strikeout rate and his .335 BABIP last year wasn’t all his fault. He’ll contend for a setup role in the Baltimore pen, but since he does have two option years left, he’s not promised anything.

Keegan Akin had recorded the final out in the eighth and started the ninth with a two-run lead over the Blue Jays. He recorded one out and was replaced by Cano with a runner on. Cano surrendered three straight hits that would tie the game before Alejandro Kirk knocked in the walk-off run with a sacrifice fly, charging Cano with a blown save and his seventh loss.

Pham’s homer started the ninth. Cano rebounded to retire the next two batters, but he was then replaced by Keegan Akin with lefty Oneil Cruz coming up. Akin went on to walk two before finishing the inning, and the Orioles eventually won in 11. Akin still seems like the favorite for saves in Baltimore, but no one is a great bet there right now.

Cano fanned Will Wagner and Fernando Tatis Jr. before getting a routine grounder from Luis Arraez to end it. This was Cano’s first real save chance since Félix Bautista went down and the Orioles made their deadline deals. He has a 5.07 ERA and a 47/24 K/BB for the year, and he’ll probably continue to take a backseat to Keegan Akin for the most part.

The Orioles had lefty Dietrich Enns pitch the eighth with a 4-1 lead tonight, and after he got through it scoreless, he stayed in to face Roman Anthony in a 6-1 game in the ninth. Anthony singled, at which point Cano entered. Cano went on to walk Nathaniel Lowe and give up a two-run double to Jarren Duran with two outs before getting Ceddanne Rafaela to ground out to end it. It wasn’t a save situation for Cano, but the way things played out suggests he would have gotten one had the Orioles not increased their lead in the ninth.

Akin walked Darell Hernaiz to open the ninth in a one-run game and then gave up a single and a two-run double, though the go-ahead run should have been cut down easily. Having converted the first two, Akin was handling his third save chance since the trade deadline. The Orioles might keep going to him, but he just hasn’t been as impressive this year as he was in 2024, even if his ERA hasn’t changed much. Yennier Cano, another option in the ninth, retired four of the five batters he faced in the seventh and eighth today, allowing one walk and striking out two in the process.

After the Orioles took a one-run lead in the top of the eighth, Yennier Cano got the eighth before handing it to Akin to close things out in the ninth. The 30-year-old left-hander worked around two walks, striking out two batters, including the final hitter of the game, to convert his first save of the season. Akin should continue to be in the mix for regular saves in Baltimore but could work in a committee with the right-handed Cano.

The move was announced just after midnight and is now official. Kittredge, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, will provide extra depth and veteran leadership in middle relief for the Cubs. Corbin Martin and Yennier Cano could be the favorites for saves in Baltimore.

Kittredge was another expected departure from the Orioles pen, leaving Yennier Cano as the probable favorite for saves for now. Kittredge, who has a 3.45 ERA in 31 1/3 innings, will contend for a setup role in Chicago.