With pitchers and catchers reporting for the Orioles in a little under a month — Feb. 13 — it’s crunch time for teams and free agents to get something done. Since we spoke last, the Orioles made a parts-for-parts swap with the Seattle Mariners. Coming in is Seth Smith, who’ll play right field on the long side of a platoon. His market was virtually zero considering the cost for flawed corner guys this offseason, but the deal was by no means a bust for the O’s.

In fact, it’s pretty easy to argue the Orioles made out like bandits, as they flipped Yovani Gallardo to the M’s while paying $2 million of his $11 million salary this season — or at the very least it’ll cover the buyout on his $13 million team option for next year. In short, it’s a minimum of $4 million cash savings for a guy who didn’t move the needle forward for a so-so rotation. Meanwhile, Smith is more than adequate against righties — .272/.355/.472 in 3,153 career plate appearances — and will help keep 2016 Rule 5’er Joey Rickard from being overexposed.

(Chat about this on the BSL boards here!)

In fact, it’ll allow the Orioles to used Rickard in a way that maximizes his talent. He’ll be a capable fourth outfielder for the most part, but will also most likely start in right field against lefties to spell Smith. Smith has hit just .202/.282/.312 against lefties in his career (558 plate appearances) while Rickard more than held his own in a limited sampling last season, slashing .313/.367/.494 against southpaws in 90 plate appearances. Rickard walloped lefties in the minors in 2015 (.976 OPS).

It involved handing out a shaky contract in the first place, but Orioles general manager Dan Duquette used bruised lemons to make passable lemonade in the meantime, and the added flexibility should allow him to add a fairly good DH with the leftover savings.

The Orioles could also add Jason Hammel at this point — whose market has been so dead he fired his agent — but we’ll stick to DHs for now. The O’s certainly could stick internally with Trey Mancini, who popped three home runs in his first five MLB games and got significant playing time at Triple-A last season as a 24-year-old. He hit .280/.349/.427 and got into 125 games at Norfolk (536 plate appearances), so it’s not unreasonable for the Orioles to turn the job over to him. At the same time, it might make sense to sign a DH to a one-year deal as a domino for Mancini to topple with red-hot performance in the International League. A team like the Orioles that fancies itself as a contender should add talent when it can, and supplement internally as opposed to giving a minor leaguer the chance to fail on the big stage with no real backup plan.

Behind Mancini, there’s really nothing at DH.

Fortunately for the Orioles, that’s a position that’s still well stocked in free agency — even with the likely return of Jose Bautista to Toronto. Of course, it’ll take some sifting through bruised fruit to find the best one suited for the job.

A familiar face is available atop the list in Pedro Alvarez, and if the plan was to wait out the market to re-sign him on the cheap, it has worked thus far for the Orioles. There’s virtually no chance anyone views Alvarez as a fielder at this point — unless maybe first base in a pinch? — and so that already cuts into his market as a DH-only type or someone an NL club might sign to pinch hit. The financial market for someone like that for an NL team is not real high, and there are still a lot of similar players available to the point where Alvarez can’t really hold out for top dollar. There are also a finite number of teams actively looking for a DH, so all of this plays into the Orioles’ collective hands, really. Alvarez hit a respectable .249/.322/.504 while getting into 109 games last year, drilling 22 home runs while doing nearly all of his damage against righties (.848 OPS). Orioles Park at Camden Yards plays a bit more friendly for lefty power (114 HR park factor via StatCorner) than it does righties (109), so there could be a nice fit here.

Another left-handed bat who could make sense is Adam Lind, who would allow some position flexibility at first base to give Chris Davis a breather now and then. It would be a buy-low situation there, as Lind is coming off a rough season with the Mariners, as he slashed just .239/.286/.431 last season. Safeco Park is a fairly difficult place to hit for left-handed hitters (99-89-109 park factors for 1B-2B/3B-HR), which makes sense that he retained some power while seeing the rest of his game dissipate. He could be interesting on a buy-low deal.

If budget space is an issue, Billy Butler and Justin Morneau could be had on absolutely dirt-cheap deals. We don’t devote much space to them, except to acknowledge that they are people with feelings who would very much like work.

The elephant in the room is that Mark Trumbo is still a decent fit for the team on the right deal. He clearly can hit at OPACY, and has found his market far more frigid than he was anticipating. The Orioles reportedly offered him somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 million — which is kind of a lot unless someone thinks he’s not going to regress some — but it seems unlikely there is a great fit out there. The Rockies could do something rash — kind of like signing Ian Desmond to play first base — and go nuts on Trumbo, but the best move for the righty slugger might be to come back home, either on a one-year deal to reopen his market next winter, or on a deal that takes care of him financially for the rest of his life, even if it is less than he expected.  

Another right-handed option who brings a bit more to the table intangibles-wise is Mike Napoli. Napoli has flirted with the possibility of returning to the Rangers — where he played from 2011-12 and after the deadline in 2015 — but ultimately has yet to sign. His market may heat up once Bautista signs on the dotted line. Napoli is regarded as a positive clubhouse influence — not that the Orioles necessarily need one, but it never hurt — though that may endear him to other teams who can offer more money. Nevertheless, a right-handed bat who has hit .252/.352/.480 in his career while absolutely massacring lefties (.903 OPS) could help just about anyone. It helps that he isn’t dead against righties (.802), either.

Chris Carter also makes some sense. Take a look at how his last three years line up with the likes of Trumbo and Napoli:

  • Trumbo – .786 OPS, 110 OPS+
  • Napoli – .778 OPS, 106 OPS+
  • Carter – .790 OPS, 114 OPS+

He doesn’t have the monster 2016 to fall back on like Trumbo does — though frankly, he led the NL in home runs and isn’t that far behind Trumbo despite not getting as much pub — and he doesn’t have the clubhouse presence Napoli does either. But he’ll also likely sign for quite a bit less money, which will probably endear him to the Orioles in this case. On a one-year deal around $7-8 million, Carter is going to be a steal for someone. Will it be the Orioles?

Another option that’ll be a bit more creative but might help the team more would be to explore adding Luis Valbuena, whose market has been a bit slow after he ended the season on the disabled list with a right hamstring tendon issue. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported about 10 days ago that the Orioles had looked into him, and he makes sense in a number of ways. A late bloomer cut a bit from the Edwin Encarnacion mold, the 31-year-old Valbuena could be extremely useful for the Orioles not only at DH  — against righties, anyway — but with his positional versatility. Valbuena played nearly exclusively at third base last season, but played more than 100 innings at first base in 2015 and has played some second base as recently — in a sizable fashion — in 2014. Let’s focus on third base, where his presence could allow the Orioles to play Manny Machado at shortstop some to get J.J. Hardy off the field — especially if he hits more like 2015 than 2016. With Hardy’s propensity for injury — he hasn’t played over 150 games since 2013 — it could make a lot of sense to have a backup plan at third and first base that’ll allow guys like Machado and Davis to move.

So who do you like most? Did we miss anyone?

Brandon Warne
Brandon Warne

Orioles Analyst

Warne is a Minnesota Twins beat reporter for 105 The Ticket’s Cold Omaha website as well as a sportswriter for Sportradar U.S. in downtown Minneapolis. He also contributes to FanGraphs / RotoGraphs.

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