The Baltimore Orioles missed out on Melvin Upton, Jr. They should try to acquire a former Oriole to get their LF platoon back in order. Press play or read below for more.
The O’s had perhaps their most effective outfield platoon since the days of Lowenstein and Roenicke with Joey Rickard and Hyun Soo Kim. Unfortunately, Rickard is out until at least September, and while it looked for a moment like help was on the way in the form of Melvin Upton, Jr., the Blue Jays rained all over that parade.
So what do the O’s do now? While I’ve always been a vocal supporter of his, and certainly appreciate his walk-off homer on Sunday afternoon, I can’t bring myself to trust Nolan Reimold to get the left field starts against left-handed pitching. He’s never been much of a platoon guy anyway, hitting righties and lefties equally well when he’s on – which he hasn’t been this year.
As our own Phil Backert points out, the O’s have 14 games in September against Boston and Tampa, and both squads have three lefty starters. We saw on Monday night that even a mediocre southpaw – Colorado’s Jorge De La Rosa – can completely stymie the Birds’ bats.
One player who I’d like to hear that the O’s are pursuing is our old friend Steve Pearce. Pearce, in his first season with Tampa, is absolutely crushing lefties, to the tune of a .502 wOBA and a 226 wRC+ in 63 plate appearances. That’s even better than his breakout 2014 in Baltimore, when those numbers were .472 and 208, respectively.
In short, Steve Pearce can mash lefties. While he wouldn’t provide the defensive boost that Upton would have, and a trade for Pearce certainly wouldn’t involve the added benefit of getting Ubaldo Jimenez out of town, I think getting ol’ @WayneTwentyOcho back in Birdland would be quite the acceptable consolation prize to missing out on the artist formerly known as B.J.
It shouldn’t cost much. It almost makes too much sense. Hopefully the Orioles front office agrees.
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This is a completely great idea. And what a story it would be.