Orioles Offseason Update - Chen and Parra Leave The Nest...Is Yo On The Way To Baltimore?
It’s been a while since we had any noteworthy Orioles news to report. Besides for a few minor moves, everything had been relatively quiet. There has been next to no news on Chris Davis, and it seems like there really isn’t a market for him at this time. We will dive more into that later, and we also talk about it in the podcast below. I will also talk about the Orioles jumping into the lead for the services of Yoenis Cespedes. This offseason just got a wholeeeee lot more interesting.
Wei-Yin Chen Takes His Talents To South Beach
No surprise to anyone that Chen is leaving Baltimore and headed to Miami with a 5-year, $80 million deal with a sixth-year vesting offer. He did a great job when he was here, a guy who you could count on to keep you in the game. He wasn’t going to go 8 innings and 115 pitches, but he would gut out 6 or 7 innings and keep the Birds in the game. He was prone to giving up the long balls, 97 over the last four seasons, but hadn’t had an ERA of over 4 since 2013 and was a combined 27-14 over the past 2 seasons.
After his performance the past few seasons, Chen was due to get a big contract, and it we knew it wouldn’t be in Baltimore. He became unhappy earlier this season when his start against the right handed heavy Blue Jays was skipped and he was sent to Frederick. We knew why he was getting sent down, over his career, righties hit .27o against him, compared to .237 against lefties. Chen and his agent Scott Boras were very upset, and even though he put it behind him and finished 11-8 with a career low 3.34 ERA. Boras had floated out a price tag of $1oo million early in free agency, and there is no way the O’s would have paid that, nor should they. I wouldn’t have wanted them to pony up that type of money for Chen, but I’m happy he got paid. He was a good pitcher who got more than he should have, but that is the going rate today. He was a beast to watch in 2014, and in the 2012 wild card season, helping both teams make the playoffs, thanks for your time here Wei-Yin, hat tip to you my friend.
Gerardo Parra Expected The Rockies Would Be A Little More Rocky
Parra’s time in Charm City was short, after coming over at the trade deadline for young arm Zach Davies, Parra couldn’t continue his hot play from the first half of the season with the Brewers. Parra and his 3-year, $28 million is headed to Colorado to join that crowded outfield with a 3-year, $28 million deal.
After going for .328 with 9 HR, 31 RBI, and a .369 OBP in the first half, he dropped off when he came to Baltimore with stats of .237, 5 HR, 20 RBI, and a .268 OBP. His Gold Glove defense also didn’t translate, I can personally remember two or three plays where he just totally misjudged a ball, and had them hit off his glove and roll to the wall. While it sucked that Davies, who looks MLB ready, became the latest young Oriole pitcher to be shipped off for a rental (Eduardo Rodriguez, Jake Arrieta) they did need to make the trade last year,and make a push for that wild card spot, it didn’t work. I would have been okay with the O’s bringing back Parra for a deal similar to this, I wasn’t ready to give up on him after 55 games, but I don’t call the shots.
Parra joining the Rockies gives them four left handed outfielders, opening the way for a possible trade. Any of their three outfielders could be on the block, Carlos Gonzalez, Charlie Blackmon, or Corey Dickerson. Banks and I discuss what it would take to get any one of these guys in the podcast, and why their home and away splits scare the shit out of us. Like all other Colorado players, MUCH better stats at home than on the road. It was also reported that the Rockies wanted Kevin Gausmahahahahaha oh man, couldn’t finish that sentence without laughing. The O’s are more likely to trade the warehouse than Gausman, kid is a young stud who is still growing and developing into a top of the rotation star.
Is Yoenis On The Way To Baltimore?
Is this happening? Are the O’s getting fed up with Chris Davis sitting on this 7-year, $150 deal and are gonna turn their attention to Yoenis Cespedes? It sounds like it. While no market has developed for any of the top three hitters (Upton, Davis, Cespedes), it seems like things may finally start to to get going. The Orioles had this offer for Davis on the table for a while, then they took it off, and who knows where it is now. I don’t think the offer should be $150 anymore. It is clear they are negotiating against themselves, and I don’t hate the idea of seeing them go after Cespedes who fills that hole in the OF. The O’s have several guys who can step in at first (Trumbo, Wieters, even Christian Walker or eventually Trey Mancini). Cespedes in the outfield with Jones gives the Birds one of the best throwing outfields in the game, even with Hyun Soo Kim’s average arm.
If the O’s could scoop up Yo for 5-years, and $75-90 million that would be an absolute steal, considering people thought he would get a deal projected with Chris Davis’, around $175-$200 million. He is similar to Davis in that he can hit for power, hits for a little higher average, and plays pretty good defense, he did win a Gold Glove last year. Yo put up 35/105 last season, he could get close to the Davis numbers of the previous years in a hitters park like Camden.
You saw the spark Yo brought to the Mets and how he carried them the last few weeks, imagine the spark he could bring with some of the latin players here like Manny, Ubaldo, and Schoop. They would have the best handshakes in the game, and a terrifying lineup. If they get Yoenis (or Davis back) this lineup is much scarier than it was last year with the addition of Trumbo, and a full season of healthy Schoop.
I guess we will sit here and wait for the developments on this, but I think I’ve talked myself into wanting Yoenis over Justin Upton. He will probably be cheaper, and he also wouldn’t cost a draft pick to sign. Couple that with gaining a comp pick from Chen, and possibly a pick from Davis, and overall you gain 2 picks plus pickup an absolute stud outfielder. This could be a big move for the O’s if this deal starts to develop. I’m sure we will see a lot of this new Orioles outfield doing the celebration jump. I will also need KFC to send me all the YO KNOWS BASEBALL shirts, they’ll look amazing in orange and black.
Check out episode 8 of the podcast, we’ve got some guests coming up, let us know what to do to improve it/anything you want to hear us talk about.