Baltimore Orioles: Should the O’s consider a Marlin or two?

The Baltimore Orioles finished day two of the Hot Stove season with nine empty spots on the 40-man roster.

Many of the Baltimore Orioles needs could be filled by acquiring free agents, but there are other avenues that could be pursued.

One or more of those could be from the Miami Marlins fire sale.

Buster Olney tweeted about the Marlins desire to get some of the big salaries off of the books.

This tweet supports an earlier report from the Miami Herald regarding new co-owner Derek Jeter‘s desire to get the Marlins payroll to $90 million. They are currently on-target to have a payroll closer to $140 million. But trading Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon, and Martin Prado could clear $40 million. Stanton, alone, is scheduled to make $25 million in 2018. Gordon and Prado have contracts of $13.5 and $10 million respectively.

Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna would be attractive players for other teams; they are young and affordable. Yelich is scheduled to make $7 million in 2018. Ozuna is in his second year of arbitration and made $3.5 million in 2017. While it looks like Jeter is planning to retain them both for 2017, he could be forced to deal them if his salary goals are not achieved.

Despite the talk of Stanton only going to teams with massive markets and huge payrolls, he could truly benefit any team that is willing to pay.

Imagine Stanton hitting dingers at Orioles Park? OMG.

Could you imagine the home run numbers Stanton would put up if he played at home in Camden Yards? The dimensions at Marlins Park include a left-field line of 344 feet, a center field at 407 feet and a right-field line of 335. Camden Yards dimensions pale in comparison. The left-field line is 333 feet, center field is 400 feet, and the right-field line is 318.

According to his home run records at Baseball Reference, Stanton has hit a career total of 267 home runs with 112 of them at Marlins Park. He has never hit one at Camden Yards, Fenway Park, the Oakland Coliseum, Safeco Field, and Guaranteed Rate Field. Interestingly, Stanton has 135 home runs hit at his home park and 132 hit at away parks. Most away parks have shorter dimensions than his home stadium does.

It’s rather unlikely that Stanton would become an Oriole, but he would easily fill the weakness at right field and he would certainly sell tickets. It would be quite something to see the crowds that would come to watch Stanton set home run records year after year if the 27-year-old made Camden Yards his home. Imagine a line up that included Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, and Stanton as the two, three, four hitters. Wow.

What about Gordon and/or Prado?

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Dee Gordon would not fill any impending needs other than being a left-handed batter in a heavy right-handed lineup. He plays middle infield and the Orioles have Schoop back at second and Tim Beckham at shortstop. The two Orioles combined salaries are close to Gordon’s individual one. Gordon’s style of play is significantly different than Schoop’s and Beckham’s. He’s a small ball player and led the NL with stolen bases. Schoop’s OPS in 2017 was .841 and Gordon’s was .716. Beckham’s OPS was even better at .871.

Martin Prado is another unlikely player to fill any needs in the Orioles lineup. He played only 37 games in 2017 and in the past three years, he’s played third base for the Fish. Machado has that spot locked down for 2018.

Duquette needs to catch this Fish

While Stanton-as-Oriole is more of a pipe dream, the Marlins player that Duquette should try to get is Christian Yelich. The 25-year-old outfielder bats left-handed and has already earned a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove. Even though Jeter has said he wants to keep Yelich (since he’s scheduled to make a cheap $7 million in 2018) it is clear that Jeter wants to clean house. Jeter is a man on a mission. So, it is probable that any player could be traded.

With the right package, Dan Duquette could do some magic and bring him to Baltimore. Fans would not be disappointed with Yelich who is an all-around player who has a 17.7 WAR in 4.5 seasons in the MLB.

Next: Baltimore Orioles odds to win the 2018 World Series

Adding a few Fish to the Birdland would certainly beef up the offense (no puns intended) and help the team get a few more wins in 2018.