Baltimore Orioles: While slumping, a drop in the lineup may be beneficial for Trumbo
By Brian Pinter
Baltimore Orioles slugger Mark Trumbo is slumping his way through his worst start ever.
Mark Trumbo, Baltimore Orioles designated hitter and right fielder, is stuck in a funk that he cannot seem to shake. Mired in a 0-for-19 start before last night’s game, Trumbo went hitless in five at-bats.
After the Orioles 5-to-4 extra-inning victory, Trumbo has now gone 0-for-24 since April 21.
Before falling into this slump, Trumbo had a decent start to the season. In fact, in the Orioles first 14 games this year, Trumbo hit .255 (14-for-55) with one home run and three doubles.
His walk-off home run on opening day brought fans to their feet and gave the Orioles their first victory of the season.
Historically, Trumbo has started hot in the first month of a new season.
As a matter of fact, Trumbo has a career average of .273 in March and April. Tied with May, Trumbo’s best months throughout the course of the year are in the beginning.It’s usually the middle to end of a season where the production drops off.
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Through his career, in the first three months of a season, Trumbo is a .259 hitter with 91 home runs. The back three months tell a different story, as Trumbo is a career .241 hitter with 88 home runs in July, August and September/October.
If you were paying attention to Mark last season, you would’ve noticed that his numbers in the final two months of last season were opposites.
Last August, Trumbo hit .184 (18-for-98) in 28 games in August. However, he hit ten homers, the most of any month, and drove in 21 runs for the O’s.
He followed a cold August with a hot September. In 27 games, Trumbo’s line improved to .272/.330/.544 with seven home runs and seven doubles.
Maybe it’s time for Trumbo to be moved down a few spots in the everyday lineup.
Yes, I said every day.
Mark Trumbo is an everyday player and not a platoon or bench guy. I can’t see him being benched for at the minimum, one game. The guy can flat out hit when he’s on.
The only problem though is right now; he’s not finding much success.
Batting cleanup for the Orioles this season, Trumbo has appeared in nine games, while batting .206/.250/.265. More importantly, he has struck out ten times while hitting cleanup. In 36 plate appearances, that’s a strikeout every 3.6 at-bats. In other words, on average almost twice a game.
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When hitting fifth, the average gets worse. Trumbo’s slash line drops to .178/.213/.267 with 11 strikeouts in 47 plate appearances. A K/AB rate of 4.27.
It’s justifiable batting Trumbo fifth. Of course, you’d want a slugger hitting after your cleanup hitter. And of course, you’d want them to pitch to your cleanup hitter to avoid putting him on for your “second cleanup” hitter.
A drop in the lineup wouldn’t be terrible given that the next time Trumbo gets a hit would be a week since the last.
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Moving Trumbo down to, maybe sixth in the lineup, could help snap the reigning Major League home run champion out of his funk.
After all, in 2015, Trumbo did hit .276/.324/.441 from the sixth spot in 182 plate appearances.
The Baltimore Orioles have the best record in the majors without Trumbo as hot as he can be. What’s it going to be like when he does turn it on?