Baltimore Orioles: Efren Navarro – An Evaluation
The Baltimore Orioles have added Efren Navarro from the Angels for cash considerations. To make room for the first baseman and outfield, L.J. Hoes has been designated for assignment.
Here at The Baltimore Wire, it is not our place in the baseball writing world to break news stories; rather, we give opinion and evaluation as to what is happening with the O’s. So what are we to make of this 40-man roster switch?
Simply stated, the offensive metrics are about the same between the two players when comparing their limited MLB time and extensive AAA years. The Orioles gain a left-handed bat, a player with plus skills defensively, and (perhaps most significantly), a player who can be optioned.
A more curious element is that it removes a player who is well-liked and well-known by more than a couple of the Orioles. The team management may hope and believe that they can re-acquire Hoes at the end of the process.
This is again another move that builds depth. Yet all the depth in the world did not particularly benefit the Orioles in 2015 in the corner outfield positions.
A number of the Orioles beat writers spoke of this as a possible acquisition that can be a platoon player, with Nolan Reimold in particular. Though platooning looks good on paper and has its adherents, I am a skeptic; and I know it simply does not work with Reimold. He would presumably only start against lefties in this scenario, even though he splits relatively evenly against RHP — .246 to .258.
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By contrast, Navarro only bats .238 against RHP in 237 plate appearances, whereas (in only 43 plate appearances) against lefties he is hitting .286.
But Navarro has practically no speed or power to speak of, as compared to Nolan. However, his .316 batting average at AAA, with a .378 OBP looks very good, even if it is in the Pacific Coast League.
So this hits me overall as a fairly lateral move. We are talking about players who hover on the cusp of being on and off 40-man rosters. These are guys who tease and allure with some obviously good skill sets, but then find it difficult to consistently produce anything close at the MLB level with intermittent playing time.