The Baltimore Orioles got the news early this week that second baseman Brian Roberts was going to have surgery on his hamstring, that will keep him out for at least six (more) weeks.
It will probably be much longer though because I’d expect it will be six weeks until he resumes baseball activities. That in mind, we are probably looking at an August return at best.
It has always been a mistake, in my opinion, to depend on Roberts. I’ve said for a long time the O’s need to act as if anything they get from him is a bonus. The way they’ve treated the position, it’s almost as if they have been hoping for his return.
With Robert Andino and Ryan Flaherty last season, and Flaherty and Alexi Casilla this year, you are getting almost zero offensively from the position.
Sure, they don’t embarrass themselves with the glove (actually Flaherty has improved a great deal since last year in this respect), but they’re both pretty much an automatic out at the plate.
I am not sure what the Orioles were thinking in this regard. They could’ve brought in a guy like Kelly Johnson, who would have been relatively cheap and given them something serviceable with the bat.
Maybe the birds will continue waiting for Roberts, though at this point that’s the same as Waiting for Godot (high brow humor-look it up!)
Maybe they will make a trade. There are rumors about Phillies second baseman Chase Utley already out there.
Maybe they bring up prospect Jonathan Schoop.
The fact remains that standing pat – again, in my opinion – is a huge mistake.
Yes they’re really good as presently constituted, but with a better second baseman they could be considerably better.
Who out there would argue against being better?
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2 Responses
I think the idea was to hold the fort with Flaherty, Casilla and Roberts while waiting for Schoop to mature in AAA. Buck values strong defense at 2B and Flaherty has done that so far this year. He and Casilla have looked better the past few games with the bat.
Is ths the last year of Roberts’ contract? Last year could have been tough to get a starter in free agency, if they thought they wouldn’t start. Should be no problem now. Let’s move on.