Baltimore Orioles acquire OF Seth Smith for Yovani Gallardo

The Baltimore Orioles made a trade on Friday, acquiring OF Seth Smith from the Seattle Mariners for SP Yovani Gallardo and cash considerations.

Did Baltimore Orioles‘ Dan Duquette just find Buck Showalter his third starting outfielder, and lead-off hitter? Only time will tell on that, but bringing Seth Smith to Baltimore is certainly a good move for the Baltimore Orioles.

First, it gives the team a legitimate major league outfielder.  Smith has played in at least 117 games in each of the last eight seasons, playing for Colorado, Oakland, San Diego and Seattle in that process.

He is a career .261/.344/.447 hitter who can play either left field or right field. He has made 412 starts in left field and 286 in right field during his career.

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Smith, 34, has never rated great as a left fielder, possibly due to his lack of top speed, but rates out near league average in right field.

For the analytical numbers, his oWAR is 13.1, his dWAR -6.6 and his overall WAR a solid 11.7. He has never rated positively defensively via the WAR analytics, however.

In 2016 for Seattle, Smith hit .249/.342/.415 with 16 HRs, 15 2Bs, 63 RBIs, and 62 runs for the Mariners in 137 games.

In giving up Gallardo, the Baltimore Orioles dealt with what was going to be a logjam at starting pitcher headed into Spring Training. Sure, having five capable starters is always dangerous in case there is an injury, but with guys like Logan Verrett, Tyler Wilson, Mike Wright, Joe Gunkel and others on the roster, they can all compete for a spot.

Gallardo went 6-8 with a 5.42 ERA with the Orioles in 2016. He started the year behind due to trying to recover from injury, and was never healthy to start, eventually going on the disabled list.

Gallardo came back and was a serviceable piece, but he is a guy without an out pitch, who has to nibble and rarely goes deep into games. Maybe this is a sign Roger McDowell is looking for the staff to be aggressive.

A tweet from national writer for MLB.com, Mike Petriello, lauded the Orioles’ work on the deal:

In saving $4M (Smith will make $7M in 2017, Gallardo $11M), it likely frees up money that can be offered to another player. That played could be a pitcher, like Doug Fister, or it could be Mark Trumbo, Pedro Alvarez, Michael Bourn or others.

I expect the Orioles to add another OF before Spring Training starts, with Bourn becoming more and more likely. Bourn is a decent OBP guy who has speed and can be a good fourth outfielder.

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All in all, it appears to be a good move for Dan Duquette, Buck Showalter and the Orioles. What do you think?