Baltimore Orioles: Busy 24 Hours of Moves and Contracts

Sep 11, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles outfielder Nolan Reimold (14) is congratulated by teammates after hitting a grand slam in the eighth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles have been busy over the past 24 hours with a significant trade and various roster moves and contracts.

Here on The Baltimore Wire we have already given our initial evaluation of the trade of Steve Clevenger for Mark Trumbo. An additional point to take from this is that the Orioles are therefore indeed committing to an effort to win in 2016. Trumbo is only a certain deal for one year.

And before we go into some details on various moves and players, let us first enjoy the fact that there is offseason activity. Many O’s fans have commented about how slow this year has been in the free agent market as compared to a year ago. Of course, it has quickly heated in recent days with some large contracts.

For the Orioles, compared to a year ago, it is quite a different first week of December. Today marks a year since Nick Markakis departed for Atlanta in a surprise move. Tomorrow will be a year that Nelson Cruz signed with the Mariners, to be soon followed by Andrew Miller with the Yankees. At the end of that week I wrote …

"It was a one, two, three strikes and you’re out sort of week for the Baltimore Orioles."

And pondering how the Birds might deal with the outfield losses, I wrote …

"The Orioles can hope to swing a reasonable deal with a Melky Cabrera type player. They can sign a couple of short-term players like Delmon Young, Mike Morse, or Nori Aoki until the minors provide longer-term answers … hoping one or two of these (along with Alejandro De Aza or David Lough) can catch fire like Steve Pearce did in 2014. They can hope the minors produce ahead of schedule with the likes of Mike Yastrzemski, Dariel Alvarez, or even Henry Urrutia."

As we now know, not a one of those possibilities eventuated. So the Orioles need to not repeat this; they need to make definitive moves this offseason.

Trumbo is a start, but more needs to be done. Here is a quick evaluation of other moves and events in the past 24 hours …

C.J. Riefenhauser

The additional piece of the trade for Clevenger was left-handed reliever C.J. Riefenhauser. His first 20 innings pitched in MLB have not been dynamic, with an ERA of 6.30 (all for the Rays in 2014 and 2015). But his high-level minor league numbers are very, very good — 1.26 ERA in AA and 2.15 in AAA, comprising about 200 innings. All of the peripheral numbers are very good as well. It was encouraging to see this. He will turn age 26 next month.

Francisco Pena

The Orioles gained catcher Francisco Pena from the Royals for cash. He is the son of former MLB player Tony Pena. Though he has only made it to the majors to be simply 1-for-7, his minor league numbers are unique.

Pena has a rather mundane batting average over his career, but his home run totals are quite high. For example, at the AAA level he has 49 home runs in 980 plate appearances, or once in every 20 times to the dish (exactly!). For perspective, over the past two years, Chris Davis hits a home run once every 16.4 plate appearances.

Nolan Reimold and Vance Worley

The report late last night is that Nolan Reimold has signed for $1.3 million.

#orioles and Nolan Reimold settled at $1.3 mil, per sources
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) December 3, 2015

Long-time readers of this blog will know that we applaud this. Reimold’s high OBP and plus defense, along with decent power and moderate average, make him a solid player for the Orioles. But they need to put him in left field and leave him alone. None of this platooning foolishness. Now get a right fielder.

Vance Worley is the sort of forgotten addition. We wrote mostly positively of him on a previous occasion. This could quietly become a good addition. He signed for a reported $2.6 million.