After buying and selling away Trey Mancini, the Orioles largely lacked an apparent backup behind Ryan Mountcastle at first base. A handful of gamers who had by no means appeared within the majors on the place — Anthony Santander, Terrin Vavra and Adley Rutschman — obtained occasional pregame work there, although none performed the place in a recreation. Baltimore ultimately signed veteran Jesús Aguilar as a salve, however he provided little upside.
In their most lively day of the offseason past these impressed by league deadlines, the Orioles made a pair of strikes that improved their first base depth forward of the winter conferences.
First was claiming Lewin Díaz from the Pittsburgh Pirates lower than an hour earlier than asserting they agreed to phrases with Franchy Cordero on a minor league deal. With Baltimore additionally placing outfielders Daz Cameron and Jake Cave on waivers — shedding Cave to the Philadelphia Phillies whereas Cameron cleared and was outrighted to Triple-A — the membership has three openings on its 40-man roster as its entrance workplace prepares for subsequent week’s conferences in San Diego.
Both Díaz and Cordero are left-handed hitters, emphasizing that a type of able to enjoying first base might proceed to be a goal for Baltimore within the coming weeks. Díaz, 26, hit .181/.227/.340 in 343 main league appearances throughout three seasons with the Miami Marlins. He has proven spectacular energy in Triple-A, hitting 39 house runs and slugging .504 in 680 plate appearances at that stage over the previous two seasons. Originally signed by Minnesota, he was traded for present Orioles pitching prospect Chris Vallimont and reliever Sergio Romo in 2019.
Cordero, 28, has lengthy been a Statcast darling regardless of a meager profession batting line of .221/.290/.386 in components of six seasons with the San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals and Boston Red Sox. Since 2017, he has put 10 balls in play at 115 mph or tougher, whereas the Orioles as a crew have 11 such drives in the identical span. Exclusively an outfielder throughout his time with the Padres and Royals, he performed 64 video games at first base in his two years with Boston, spending practically 150 extra innings at first than within the outfield for the Red Sox in 2022.
Given that Díaz is a waiver declare now together with his third franchise in two weeks and Cordero settled for a minor league contract after being nontendered, there’s no assure both has a lot of a task to play for the 2023 Orioles. But it exhibits the kind of participant govt vp and basic supervisor Mike Elias would possibly goal over the approaching weeks.
Given that Camden Yards’ new left area wall has made the ballpark designed to suppress right-handed hitters’ energy, including left-handed bats can be a sound strategy to bettering an offense that ranked nineteenth in each runs per recreation and OPS in 2022. And until they once more discover Santander, Vavra or Rutschman — Vavra being a lefty and the others switch-hitters — at first base, the group lacks a transparent left-handed possibility there.
The Orioles might proceed to peruse the open marketplace for an answer. Coming off a Silver Slugger marketing campaign within the National League break up between the Washington Nationals and Padres, Josh Bell might tandem with Mountcastle at first base and designated hitter, giving supervisor Brandon Hyde extra matchup-based choices. Projections have Bell, 30, receiving a three-year deal for about $40 million, in line with FanGraphs; the Orioles have but to present a free agent a assured multi-year deal in additional than 4 years beneath Elias. After setting a franchise rookie file for house runs in 2021, Mountcastle was, by some metrics, the majors’ most unlucky hitter, producing comparatively poor outcomes given his quantity of onerous contact.
Even if the Orioles don’t purpose greater than Díaz or Cordero as a secondary possibility at first base, they may do worse than contemplating two gamers with upside and energy potential.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com