Orioles option Dillon Tate to Norfolk, select reliever Burch Smith

Good news for everyone who wanted the Orioles to make a change in the bullpen: They’ve made a change in the bullpen. It’s probably not the change you wanted or would have predicted, but hey, it’s there. On Thursday afternoon, the team announced that reliever Dillon Tate has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk, and that fellow reliever Burch Smith has had his contract selected from Norfolk.

The specific language of “selected the contract” is used when a player is brought up from the minors who wasn’t already on the 40-man roster. Smith began 2024 as a minor league signing. He was traded to the Marlins for cash considerations at the end of spring training and made it into Miami’s bullpen. They…