The Orioles announced four minor league signings Thursday, headlined by the latest comeback bid by 40-year-old Japanese right-hander Tomo Ohka.
Ohka last pitched competitively in the independent Atlantic League for the Bridgeport Bluefish in 2014 and hasn’t pitched in the majors since he was with the Cleveland Indians in 2009. He has reinvented himself as a knuckleball pitcher and was in spring training with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013.
Ohka, originally signed by Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette back when Duquette was in charge of the Boston Red Sox in 1998, also tried out for the Orioles back in 2013, when he began working on his knuckleball.