Reality: When Manny Machado returns, Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette will have to make room for him on the active roster.
Perception: It won’t be easy. With All Pro Machado out, and J.J. Hardy out of the lineup for much of last week with back spasms, Steve Lombardozzi, Ryan Flaherty, and Jonathan Schoop got the chance to play every day at 2B, SS, and 3B, respectively. It’s given fans and the Orioles front office a chance to see them get quality playing time and be able to judge them against each other. With Hardy back, one of them takes a seat on the bench. Whenever Machado comes back, another will have to sit on the bench or get sent down to the minors. But who?
Schoop is 10-for-41 at the plate with four doubles, 1 home run and 6 RBIs. His OBP is .244.
Flaherty is 7-for-37 at the plate with two doubles, 0 homers, and 2 RBIs. His OBP is .231.
Lombardozzi is 13-for-44 at the plate with 0 doubles, 1 triple, 0 home runs, and 2 RBIs. His OBP is .311.
Schoop’s fielding might put him on the bottom, but based on those stats above, Flaherty is the odd man out.
Who would have thought that a month ago? Flaherty was your starting second basemen with Schoop in AAA and Lombardozzi being the Utility player off the bench. Now those three players are fighting for positions once again.
Will Schoop remain here after Machado is activated? Steve Lombardozzi isn’t going anywhere, so it’s between Schoop, Flaherty and Steve Pearce. Schoop and Flaherty have minor league options. Pearce does not. He’d have to be exposed to waivers.
As solid as Lombardozzi has been, I was a little shocked to see Roch so plainly say he “isn’t going anywhere.” Since Pearce doesn’t have options, but Schoop and Flaherty do, I would guess they’d use up an option before releasing Pearce. My thought is as good as Schoop has been, Flaherty stays, along with Lombardozzi to rotate at 2B and backup SS and 3B. But we could still be weeks away from making that decision (Pun intended?).
Reality: Orioles Designated Hitters lead the Majors in Average, OBP, SLG, and OPS.
Perception: That’s a major change as the Birds were at the bottom half of the American League at the DH position in 2013. This season, Orioles DHs are 18-for-50 (.360) with four doubles, two home runs, 10 RBIs, have OBP of .429, and have slugging percentage of .560.
Most of that damage is being done by two players who weren’t on the team last year. In my opinion, Nelson Cruz has been better than anticipated at the plate. He is not just hitting home runs. As DH, he is hitting .364 with OBP of .462. That’s huge. Delmon Young has also been better than expected (which isn’t saying much). As DH, he is hitting .381 with an OBP of .409.
That position was so poor for the Orioles last year that even if that’s the only place offensively they improve, as long as everything else repeats itself from last year, this team will be just fine.
Reality: Kendrys Morales is still a free agent and waiting for the right opportunity.
Perception: Could that be the Orioles?
CBS’s Jon Heyman had this to say on the matter:
The Orioles, Mariners, and Brewers are among several teams believed to have interest in the first baseman/DH Morales… The Orioles could be an interesting choice for Morales as they made two big free-agent signings in spring training… but have continued to eye the free-agent market.
Heyman goes on to say that with the moves we made this off-season, along with offering a big contract to Ervin Santana and with Hardy (2014), and Chris Davis and Matt Wieters (2015) as pending free agents, the O’s window is now, and Morales plays into that “go for it” attitude.
I guess, if money is not an issue, than what do they have to lose, right? As I shared above, the DH position is strong so far, so how does Morales help? Well, unless he doesn’t hit, he can’t hurt. Signing Morales probably means the end of Pearce in Baltimore, but Pearce hasn’t seen much action this year, so that may not matter. But if it’s a money issue, not signing Morales doesn’t hurt either, as Pearce, Cruz, and Young have done a nice job thus far.
It seems that Morales might not sign before June, so the Orioles probably have time to wait and see how things continue over the next month or so.
photo: Craig Landefeld
