Baltimore Orioles make offer on Yoenis Cespedes

The Baltimore Orioles have made a contract offer to free agent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.

As the free agent market continues to take shape, the Baltimore Orioles made some small waves yesterday. They reportedly offered a contract (with undisclosed terms) to free agent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. There does not appear to be a deal about to be signed, but there’s an offer from the O’s out there on the table.

So now we wait. Obviously this is news that the camp which says the Birds should move on from Chris Davis has to applaud. But even if you’re hellbent on having Davis back, is this not potentially a better move?

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First off, Cespedes is the only player I’ve ever seen who was traded at the deadline and come season’s end was in the discussion for NL/AL MVP. I would never be in favor of electing an MVP who was in that league for less than half the season, however the fact remains that he was that good when he got to New York. Cespedes is a career .271 hitter, which is for a much higher average than Davis. In total he hit .291 last year with Detroit and New York.

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Ironically, one of the parts of the flip side is that the Orioles are already top-heavy in the outfield. Cespedes could obviously DH and so forth, however it also might behoove the Birds to potentially unload a player or two via trade if they could. But at the end of the day, if you have an opportunity to replace Davis’ production in the lineup with a player of Cespedes’ caliber, I think you do it.

This could also be a red herring in a sense. The Orioles’ first choice is and always will be to bring Chris Davis back.. However they aren’t budging off of their since withdrawn offer of seven years, $154 million. And I’m on record as saying that they shouldn’t. I do know that there’s legitimate interest in bringing Cespedes aboard in the Warehouse, however I would also submit that financially it’s an either or deal. If Cespedes comes to town, that would close the door on Davis.