Baltimore Orioles: Orioles want to add another left-handed OF
Despite the Baltimore Orioles trading for Seth Smith, the team is interested in adding another left-handed outfielder.
The Baltimore Orioles pulled off one of their first major moves of the new year by trading Yovani Gallardo to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for OF Seth Smith.
But despite adding Smith to the mix, the Orioles still want to bolster their roster. And the team wants to do that by adding another left-handed outfielder before camp.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter said the following about the situation:
[Just] because of the way the at-bats would work out. You are talking about 400 or 500 at-bats as opposed to 100 or 200. [But] if you look at our division and the number of left-handed starters that are in it now, you got to stay on top of that.”
Showalter mentioned the Boston Red Sox starting rotation, which is lefty heavy with David Price, Drew Pomeranz, and Eduardo Rodriguez.
The Orioles hit .234 against left-handed pitching, which was 29th in the league. However the acquisition of Smith is set to help the Orioles in more ways than one. Smith has a career .344 OBP, including a .355 OBP against righties. Smith also hit .326 with runners in scoring position.
Here’s what Showalter said regarding Smith:
“Good baseball player, very trustworthy. He’s kind of evolved. Watching him over the years, he’s evolved into a pro hitter. He brings two things to the field that it would be nice to have in our batting order, the low strikeouts and the high walks — you see a guy’s on-base percentage 100-plus points higher than his batting average.
“Every time you face him, feels like he’s hitting about .320. He was a tough out for us. … Smith has always hit good pitching late in the game. He was always a good at-bat on somebody. … He doesn’t go out of the zone much.”
Even though the Orioles are interested in adding another outfielder, it’s worth mentioning the O’s already have nine outfielders in the organization: Adam Jones, Hyun-Soo Kim, Adam Walker, Joey Rickard, Christian Walker, Smith, and Rule 5 draft picks Anuery Tavarez and Anthony Santander.
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Showalter said there is plenty of Spring Training to go around, which means the club is going to continue exploring their options going forward.
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