Edit: My mention of Preston Tucker below seems to be way premature. I was sure I had seen, somewhere, that we had grabbed him, but now can not verify. Thanks to Kyle for pointing out the error. And sincr Tucker is out, that simply highlights our need for a #4, preferably one who brings an infield glove, as well.
In case you missed it, while we're overloaded at 1B/DH (Healy, Ford, Vogelbach, Boomstick), we're desperately short in the MLB OF category. That, of course, is complicated by the reports that Heredia, coming off shoulder surgery, may not be ready for spring training. I feel a bit doomed by that prognosis.
As it sits right now, considering Heredia shelved, we have Gamel, Haniger and Dee Gordon as MLB OFers. And Gordon is pretty new to the OF grass, you will remember. Oh sure, we have Andrew Romine, but he's purely a utility guy, sort of our new version of Shawn O'Malley. now that O'Malley is inked to a MiLB contract with the Rockies. Romine has a career OPS/OPS+ of .601/66, although he does hammer lefties to the tune of .659. I love guys like this, multi-positional guys who can cover every position in a pinch, but he's not the guy you're going to run out there for 5 days if Haniger tweaks a hammy.
After Romine we have Preston Tucker, picked up after the Astros designated him. Tucker plays both the corner spots and has a career .219-.274-.403 line, in 467 MLB PAs. He OPS+'ed 102 in 323 Astro PA's in '15 (.243-.297-.437 w/13 HR's) and then fell to an OPS+ of 50 in '16. He never made it to the majors in '17, although he was .250-.333-.465 w/24 HR's with Fresno in the PCL last season. He's not much of a glove, btw. Right now, he's likely our next man up in the OF. (B-R projects him to .231-.291-.421 in 214 PA's next year, claiming a 56% Reliability)
OK, Taylor Motter just might beat out Tucker and be our next man up, but Motter is pretty bad with the bat, you will remember. He's a career .195-.265-.330 hitter (59 OPS+). We all remember the five HR's he hit in the first month of the season in '17, but we forget that he hit two the rest of the season. From May to October he was 35 for 187 with 2 homers and 2 doubles. Really! After he excited us in April, he was just plain dismal. Capital D.
Cameron Perkins was a recent Waiver Wire pick up, after Philadelphia released him. He's a corner OF with 42 games and 97 PA's in the bigs, all in '17. His impressive line? .182-.237-.273. Oh, he did hit a home run. He was pretty good at AAA for the Phillies last season (.288-.374-.447), but he would have to torch up the Cactus League for him to be our 4th OF coiming out of ST. He might be #2 on our back-up OF Hit Parade right now.
We used to have Boog Powell, a classic 4th OF, but we let him go to create 40-Man space last season, Oakland grabbed him, and he ended up hitting .321 for the Orcs after a callup.
After Perkins, then we have minor league guys like Andrew Aplin (reputed to have a terrific glove, he's a career .245-.344-.688 AAA bat), Ian Miller (92 steals in 100 attempts in '16-'17; .268-.297-.315 in Tacoma last season, after a .336-.382-.430 1/2 season in AA), Braden Bishop (.336-.417-.448 in AA last year) and Chuck Taylor (.271-.369-.397 in AA). All are young, sort of glovey and fast, with barely a smidgeon of pop. Would you roll one of them out as your 4th OF for April? They add depth, but I'm not sure they are ready. Heck, I might just prefer Eric Filia, as he can hit. Alas, my one-time favorite, Dario Pizzano owns AA but struggles at AAA. Sigh.
So take your pick: Tucker or Perkins for #4, assuming Heredia is DL'ed early? Tucker for me. Perkins has actually played some 1B, and that might factor in, if we are picking/choosing from these guys.
But that leaves you with only Romine as your bench guy, your total Swiss Army Knife, if we leave camp with 13 pitchers, as has been suggested. Lineup + Marjama + Romine + Tucker = 12. Man, that just doesn't work. OK, Healy can go to 3rd and Gordon to 2nd, but that just means we move a OF to 1B/CF, creating a hole to fill with our 4th OF. To alleviate that, you would have to keep a Motter up and go with 12 arms instead. ALL of that is why I continue to advocate that we chase a multi-positional guy, IF & OF, with a decent bat, and then go get him. I have suggested Derek Dietrich of the Marlins, who brings a 2B/3B/1B/LF/RF experience and a 108 OPS+bat, in 1591 career PA's. Man, I would wet my fishing waders in giggly anticipation, were we to add him. BTW, he plays for a team in fire sale mode, if you haven't noticed.
But there are other guys like that available. Eduardo Nunez is a FA. You might peel away Chris Owings from Arizona. Both play IF/OF and have real MLB bats.
Mike Ford has played a whole 6 games at 3B in 5 MiLB seasons. Is that our thought process with him? He's a Healy, playing both CIF spots, except swinging from the other side? I would be interested in sniffing that out, but it doesn't do us diddly in terms of finding an OF #4.
Nunez is about as good as it gets for a FA utility guy, but he will be decently spendy.
Hey, from my living room cheap seats, it looks like we absolutely need a 4th OF who wears a variety of gloves. I want one. Sure, I can live with Tucker as #4 because he has hit RHP with enough pop go get by (.229-.289-.440), but his .569 OPS vL isn't too encouraging. He's more of a #5, first man up, type of guy......which is sort of our situation if Heredia is tweaked for just a bit. But if Haniger is then tweaked for a month, are you ready for Aplin, Tucker or Perkins in the everyday lineup?
We surely need a MLB #2/3 type of arm, but that isn't all we need. Go get me a Dietrich, JeDi, and I'll gladly put up with the embarrasment of piddling in my waders. Or get somebody similar, if you are dead set on the modern MLB paradigm, relief pitchers up the wazzu.
If we leave camp with 13 pitchers, then the more IF/OF guys we have the merrier. MLB teams used to be able to buy such utes with pocket change. That is now changing. And we need one.
As always, your mileage may vary.
Go team!
