O's undrafted hurler carving out space in the bullpen in Fall League

PHOENIX -- After his first season in professional baseball with the Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League, Sayer Diederich didn't exactly know what was next for him.

He headed to Tread Athletics in Charlotte, North Carolina, to train and throw in on pro day in January 2025 to find another opportunity. Diederich signed with the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association of Professional Baseball shortly after. Two weeks later, though, he was cut from the team and went back to the drawing board.

Instead of dwelling on the situation, Diederich went back home and started to train again. He got an offer from another independent team two weeks after he was cut, but something stopped him from accepting it.

"For some reason, my gut was telling me not to take it," Diederich said. "I should have taken it because it was an Atlantic League offer. That's the cream of the crop when it comes to [independent] ball, but I just didn't take it for some reason."

Two days after that call, another team got in touch with him, and this time, it was the Baltimore Orioles on the other end.

The 25-year-old packed his bags quickly and headed to Sarasota, Florida, to join the Florida Complex League Orioles. He played two games with the Rookie-level team before moving up to the Orioles’ Single-A team, the Delmarva Shorebirds.

"I went straight down to Florida and started to get on the Orioles' routine," Diederich said. "I threw a couple of times down there, then they shipped me to Delmarva, and I played the last half of the season there. I love everybody in this organization. Everybody's brought me and treated me as everybody else, so I’m super grateful."

With the Shorebirds, Diederich posted a 3.29 ERA in 27 1/3 innings over 10 games. The success he had on the mound was in part due to the preparation he had from playing in the independent league and the MLB Draft League.

While in college, he played with the Draft League's West Virginia Black Bears in 2022 and '24. The time spent in that league helped prepare him for how to be a professional athlete once he left school.

"Definitely the closest feel that I got to MLB, for sure," Diederich said. "It taught me how to carry myself as a professional and how to go about my stuff every day, and to be a good teammate first off. Just how the managers there go about their stuff it makes you act like a professional."

Once Diederich left Louisiana State University Shreveport and signed with the Mustangs, his next step was to hone in on a pitching arsenal. With Tread Athletics, he threw four-seam fastballs with a gyro and a changeup. In Billings, he expanded to fastballs, sinkers, changeups and sweepers.

Indie ball also helped Diederich with his mindset in terms of the length of the season.

"The biggest take would be to not do too much every day but do enough to where your body feels like you can go perform every day," he said. "I think that was definitely something that I continue to work on, but I feel like I've gotten a lot better at."

• Subscribe to the MLB Pipeline Newsletter

Diederich has impressed so far in relief in the Arizona Fall League. In five appearances for the Peoria Javelinas, he has posted a 1.59 ERA with six strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

"Just trusting my stuff and being myself," Diederich said of his work in the desert. "I'm not trying to be somebody that I'm not. I know I have a really unique way that I throw to where all my pitches move. I don't really have the [velocity] but just taking my strengths and running with them."