Baltimore Orioles Hot Stove: O’s have interest in Cards outfielders

The Baltimore Orioles are in the process of building their team during the offseason. One possibility has been a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals.

According to Derrick Gold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Baltimore Orioles have interest in one of the Cardinals outfielders:

The Phillies and Baltimore Orioles are also teams that have had had at least passing interest in at least one of the Cardinals’ outfielders. Randal Grichuk has been the outfielder that comes up the most often, and he was scouted at the trade deadline by a handful of teams. The Los Angeles Dodgers pursued a deal for Tommy Pham this past summer before the Cardinals elected to hold onto him as a starter.

In addition, there are also talks that Stephen Piscotty, Dexter Fowler and Jose Martinez could all be available, with the litany of outfield talent in the Cardinals minor league system.

Filling right field

Baltimore has a need in right field, particularly for either an everyday outfielder or a left-handed bat, that could be platooned with Joey Rickard or Austin Hays. Though Hays made a quick leap from the High-A ball with the Frederick Keys to the MLB in one season, he may need some more seasoning. Acquiring another outfielder could assist Hays with his development.

The numbers on Grichuk and Pham

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The Orioles have been on the search for left-handed hitting outfielders, but Grichuk and Pham are right-handed bats. However, Pham showed that he could possibly be ready for an everyday role in the outfield in 2017. In 444 at-bats, Pham slashed .306/.411/.520, drove in 73 runs and hit 23 home runs. To add icing on the cake, he also hit for a higher average against right-handed pitching (.310) than he did left-handed pitching (.292).

As for Grichuk, he slashed .238/.285/.473, but he drove in 59 runs and hit 22 home runs. He has the power, though he doesn’t hit for the high average that the Orioles seem to covet every offseason. Another alarming stat about Grichuk is his batting average against lefties, which was .204 in 2017.

Acquisitions of Piscotty, Fowler or Martinez seem to be more unrealistic and they seem to want to dangle Grichuk and Pham first.