The Orioles were able to re-sign 1B/OF Steve Pearce on Tuesday after he refused the waiver claim the Toronto Blue Jays had put on him earlier in the day. The Orioles weren’t messing around either, and gave him a major league contract so they could have somebody to play first base that was actually a first baseman while Chris Davis remains on the DL.
Perhaps they saw Nick Markakis’ botched rundown play this past weekend vs. the Royals and decided that they needed a better solution. You can’t really blame Nick for that, as how many rundown situations do outfielders practice? The fact he was playing first base at all showed how desperate the situation was.
Of course the Orioles wouldn’t have been in that situation they not designated Pearce in the first place, a panic move for an overworked bullpen to bring up a reliever in T.J. McFarland who only pitched in two appearances before being optioned back to the minors. It was foolish to be willing to lose a full season of Pearce to get a couple of appearances in from a reliever that wouldn’t have been needed had Buck Showalter managed the rotation and bullpen properly. Of course it looked even more foolish when Davis was injured, and the Orioles no longer had a backup first baseman on the roster.
Delmon Young also somehow found more playing time than Pearce in spite of his terrible offensive stats in 2013 and defensive limitations to the outfield and DH. Young was always a liability in the outfield and has cooled off significantly, with Showalter now only willing to play him in matchup situations. He should have never made the team and got playing time over Pearce as I mentioned before here, and now with Davis out, Pearce will finally get the playing time he deserves and more.
One would think Pearce will be exposed though when he faces right-handed pitching as well as left handed pitching, but he actually held his own last season against righties with a .250/.340/.409./.749 line against them in 50 plate appearances with a 10.0% base-on-ball rate. His overall line of .261/.362/.420/.782 would also be an improvement over what Davis has provided thus far, though of course the oblique injury likely was a culprit for his reduced production. Pearce could also help boost the sagging Orioles offense at Oriole Park at Camden Yards as he owns a .276/.377/.524/.901 mark there in 38 games.
Defensively, Pearce also has his best statistics at first base, owning a career +5.4 UZR/150 mark with 680 innings at the position so he’ll be playing a position of strength which should maximize his value. Last season he was worth 0.8 fWAR in only 44 games playing both the outfield and first base, a great value on the bench, so one would think he could provide similar value again if not more.
“Underappreciated” is the perfect word to describe Steve Pearce, and the Orioles almost found out the hard way what they would have lost. Had Pearce agreed to go to Toronto, he would have reminded the Orioles every time he faced them with a lefty on the mound and while watching Nick Markakis do his best to make routine plays at first base not look like an adventure. Instead, the Orioles get to re-sign Pearce, finally have an adequate solution while Davis is out, and get a second chance to realize what value they have in a player that fits exactly what they need to do – work the count, get on base, hit for power and play good defense.
photo: Craig Landefeld
