Baltimore Orioles: Additional Left-Handed Hitting Possibilities

Sep 19, 2015; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Baltimore Orioles right fielder Gerardo Parra (18) reacts after striking out during the third inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles remain in need of more offense from the left side of the plate, and some sort of additions to the team will yet be made in this offseason.

Of course the biggest addition would be the re-signing of Chris Davis. The possibilities surrounding this issue have been all over the map in recent days, with totally conflicting accounts and reports from alleged insiders.

Orioles fans don’t know what to think, and even apart from the dollars involved there are divergent viewpoints as to the baseball production expectations and wisdom of a seven-year deal.

It may well eventuate that Davis ends up back in Baltimore purely due to the absence of any contract that is better anywhere else. He seems to have the misfortune of hitting free agency at a time when there are not many profound needs at first base. It could be that the junior year date for the prom turns out to look pretty good after all for a repeat when no senior girls are interested in 12^th grade.

The pending consummation of the signing of Hyun-soo Kim (which needs to be spelled Hyeon-soo Kim in order for the name to be linked by Baseball Reference.com) looks to be a very good and savvy addition, bringing to the O’s some much-needed on base capacity. We wrote yesterday of the expectation that he will perform well in the transition to MLB.

Even with the addition of Kim, at this moment the only other known regular left-handed bat in the lineup is the switch-hitting Matt Wieters. Beyond that there is only Jimmy Paredes and Ryan Flaherty if they make the team, or even more remotely (right or wrong) Henry Urrutia.

So if the Orioles are unable to sign Chris Davis, there will be a need for another left-handed bat. Presuming the O’s would not go after one of the expensive free agent outfielders, the funds would be available for a lefty bat along with a starting pitcher of some merit. Those would likely be the two probable larger moves for the remaining offseason, though surely Duquette will look for some bargains, especially at the end.

Let’s look at five possible left-handed hitters: Pedro Alvarez, Matt Joyce, David Murphy, Gerardo Parra and Will Venable. With the lead hands and glove of Alvarez, this would mean that he would be the primary DH (with Trumbo at first base), whereas the others would most often be outfielders (or occasionally the DH as well).

Charting these five players together, it looks like this …

Alvarez – In 2015, Alvarez batted .243 with 27 home runs in 150 games. His career average is .236, and his peak number of home runs was 36 in 2013, while also hitting 30 in 2012. The drop off in the past two years is what concerns the Pirates, along with simply dreadful defensive statistics.

But Alvarez could DH in the American League. And in any league, he can also strike out quite a good bit. In his league-leading 36-home run season of 2013 (tops in the NL along with Paul Goldschmidt), he also topped the circuit with 186 strikeouts.

Joyce – The Orioles used to see Joyce a lot with the Rays, and he played well against the O’s in slashing .277/.373.  He obviously also liked hitting at OPACY, posting a .322/.407 in 47 games with seven homers.

Joyce is definitely more effective against right-handed pitching, almost to the extent that he needs to sit and watch any lefties: against RHP it is .253/.348 versus .180/.252 against lefties.

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Murphy – Now age 34, he was a first-round pick by the Red Sox in 2003, so you know that has to count for a lot with DD. His career peaked with the Rangers in 2012 when he hit .304 with an OBP of .380!  This past year he combined for an average of .283 between the Indians and Angels.

Murphy has been hard on the Orioles over his 10 years, hitting .341/.395, although he has “only” hit .283 at OPACY.

Another curious split (with a significant sample size) is that he has hit .318 in the eighth spot in the lineup, but only .224 at the bottom of the order.

Parra – Known now to Orioles fans, he simply did not distinguish himself whatsoever in his Orioles tryout. He has frankly only had an Ubaldo-like period of time where he has excelled, and he is searching for a longer contract than the O’s might want to offer. I see him as a National League player, not one made for the AL East.

Venable – He had a 22-homer season with a .268 average for the Padres in 2013, but there is not a lot else that really jumps out from his career statistics. I don’t see anything that would cause one to expect him to produce really much beyond the parade of outfielders that went through the Orioles roster in 2015. Delmon Young would look to be a better deal in every way, but for some reason Venable’s name gets attached to the Orioles.

Next: Love or hate Dan Duquette?

Looking at these names, apart from them giving the O’s available financial space to add a starting pitcher, it really makes one hope to see Crush back with the club. I listed these five names and talked about them alphabetically, but that is how I would also rank them as of value for the Orioles roster. There are no sure bets in this group.