The Baltimore Orioles run in the postseason didn’t end the way the team and the fans may have wanted it to, but now we must move on and begin to review the Orioles roster in what will become a series of articles on the different positions and the players who play them. In this particular instance we will review the outfield and take an in depth look at each player in right field, center field, and finally left field.
Right Field
Right fielder Nick Markakis had a very good, but also a very rough season with the Orioles this year. Before the season even began there was a concern he wouldn’t be ready by opening day due to having intensive surgery to repair a torn rectus abdominis muscle (essentially he tore a muscle in his abs). Even though he was able to recover in time to begin the season it was clear he was not 100 percent comfortable at the plate in April and struggled as a result.
Markakis batted just .244/.323/.384 with just seven extra-base hits during the first month of the season and many were wondering if he tried to come back too soon. I don’t believe it was an issue of him coming back too soon so much as it was an issue of him not really having a spring training to get game ready. The month of April was his spring training and if you look at the Pitch f/x hitter profile of Markakis below, you can see that he was only really able to handle mistake pitches up in the zone as well as slapping pitching on the outside corner down the left field line.
We didn’t see him pull the ball all that often and that can be attributed to two things really:
1) He wasn’t exactly in peak condition when he began the season due to not getting his timing down in spring training.
2) His swing looked a little tentative at times during the month of April because this was the first time he was seriously swinging the bat in game situations post-abdominal surgery. It was very clear that he didn’t have all of his strength back in his core.
Once May began though Markakis started to get a little more comfortable at the plate, as he batted .265/.341/.504 with six homeruns and 17 RBI. You could tell that he was finally getting his timing down and felt more comfortable putting some serious power behind his swings as he was finally hitting the ball with more authority into the gaps.
Naturally, it wasn’t until Markakis began to look and feel more comfortable at the plate that he suffered another injury – this time it would require him to go on the disabled list for the first time in his career. He broke the hamate bone in his right wrist on a slide somewhere around the last week of May and it wasn’t confirmed until a few days after it had actually happened. Ultimately, Markakis had to have surgery to remove the bone and it wasn’t until the middle of July (July 13th to be exact) that he was finally able to return, missing a total of 35 games.
Once he returned to the lineup manager Buck Showalter inserted him into the lineup as the leadoff hitter and it was there where he truly excelled during the second half of the season. He suddenly became the best hitter on the team again and was one of the better leadoff hitters in all of baseball during that second half, and an easy argument can be made that he was the best leadoff hitter in the American League East.
He batted .335/.390/.489 as the leadoff hitter and had 22 extra-base hits over a 54 game stretch, while also drawing more walks than strikeouts (20 walks to 14 strikeouts).
Below are the four leadoff hitters of the Orioles’ division rivals and the number they put up during the second half, roughly the same time period that Markakis began his duties as the everyday leadoff hitter.
Boston Red Sox – Jacoby Ellsbury: .278/.314/.379
New York Yankees – Derek Jeter: .325/.372/.449
Tampa Bay Rays – Desmond Jennings: .258/.329/.419
Toronto Blue Jays – Brett Lawrie: .240/.304/.365
The only one of those hitters that even came close to putting up the kind of numbers that Markakis did in the leadoff spot is the ageless wonder himself, Derek Jeter.
Even though Markakis’ season ended on September 8 when a C.C. Sabathia fastball broke a bone in his left thumb, an injury which required surgery and another extended stay on the disabled list, we at least learned one thing this season.
Nick Markakis will make a very capable leadoff hitter for his team when a new season begins in 2013 and he will, as he always has, play a very solid right field.
Center Field
Adam Jones began the 2012 season on quite the hot streak, as he hit .333/.368/.611 with six homeruns and 12 RBI, and he was a large part of the reason why the Orioles finished the first month of the season with a 14-9 record and just one game behind the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in their division.
Through May 25 Jones was batting .310/.353/.594 with 14 homeruns and 31 RBI and such strong play is what led the Orioles to pursue a contract extension with Jones in-season. The contract Jones agreed to was for six years and $85.5 million dollars, ultimately making the All-Star center fielder the second-highest paid center fielder in all of baseball, behind only Matt Kemp, and making his contract the largest in franchise history.
The interesting thing about Jones this season is how incredibly consistent he was with his performance throughout the year, evidenced by his .289/.330/.534 batting line in the first half of the season compared to his .285/.339/.472 batting line over the second half of the season. Consistency is the one thing that dogged Jones at the beginning of his career because he had a tendency to get into slumps that would drag on a little bit in the past, but this year was completely different for him and his team.
Jones ended up having a career year of sorts as he posted career highs in games played (162), runs (103), hits (186), doubles (39), homeruns (32), stolen bases (16), batting average (.287), and slugging (.505). He was named an American League All-Star for the second time in his career and more important than any statistics or personal accolades he could achieve – he became the clubhouse leader of his team.
Even he would tell you that none of that other stuff matters more to him than leading by example and being able to do whatever he can to help his team win games.
With Jones in tow for at least the next six years, and the fact that he will be just 33 years old by the end of it, this looks like a long-term commitment that will work out beautifully for Jones, the Baltimore Orioles organization, and even more so for the fans as they get to watch an exciting player – their favorite player – start in center field for their team, for his team, over what will likely be the most productive period of his career.
Having all-star, or potential all-star, players in center and right field is a huge boost to any team and with Adam Jones and Nick Markakis patrolling those positions in the outfield together for several more years, at least, means great things for a team that relies on their defensive and offensive production. Even though the core of this team is well intact and young, if they are to take the next step forward and not fall back any when the team’s around them improve themselves for 2013 and beyond then they will need to take a good long look at left field.
Left Field
Nolan Reimold began the season as the team’s starting left fielder and was on an absolute tear to start the season. Through his first 16 games this season for the Orioles he was batting .313/.333/.627 with five homeruns and 10 RBI. It finally appeared as if he was going to break out in a big way and lead the Orioles in just about every offensive category imaginable, but how quickly things can change in baseball.
On May 1 it was official; Reimold was placed on the disabled list because of a bulging disc in his neck which was causing a numbing sensation in his arm and a great deal of pain in his back and neck. He and the team first tried to deal with the pain, and the injury, by giving him an epidural injection hoping that it would cause whatever inflammation was in there to subside and relieve the pain and tension in and around that area.
He received that injection on May 11 and when that didn’t do what he and the team had hoped it would, he received a second injection later on in the month just to see if it would possibly work. The second injection did little to nothing to help resolve the issue he was having so he was placed on the 60-day DL retroactive to June 12 and made the decision to have surgery to remove the bulging disc from his neck and fuse two vertebrae together – officially ending his season.
Reimold was at Camden Yards towards the end of September to get checked out by team doctors to see how his fused vertebrae were healing and so far so good with his recovery. He still has a ways to go because the vertebrae aren’t completely fused/healed as of yet but once they are he will be cleared to resume normal activities, which includes working out and preparing himself to be ready by spring training.
One thing that some fans may not know about his surgery and overall treatment to get healthy once again is that it was team owner Peter Angelos who helped Reimold get the very best care he could. Reimold had this to say to reporters when he was at Camden Yards last month getting checked out:
“I wanted to thank Mr. Angelos publicly. He stepped in and made sure I got the best doctors, the best surgeons, the best care and everything taken care of for me. I’m very appreciative to him and his family, and also to Brady (Anderson), because Brady is the one who went to him and told him my situation, and he stepped in and got me the best care. So I wanted to thank him.”
After Reimold went down the Orioles turned to Xavier Avery, who was spending his time in Triple-A Norfolk when the season began, to see if he was ready to contribute at the major league level. The hope for Avery was that, even though he was just 22 years old and hadn’t even spent an entire season in Norfolk before being called up, his combination of speed and defense would translate well to the majors and his bat would eventually catch up once he acclimatized to major league pitching.
Avery spent the rest of the month of May with the team, a total of 15 games and 54 plate appearances, and it was clear that he was not ready to see regular playing time in the majors. He had a batting line of just .217/.299/.317 in May and because he wasn’t getting on base often enough the team was unable to take advantage of the pure speed he possessed. He was sent back down to Norfolk on May 29 and only spent a total of 17 additional games in the big leagues during the second half of the season, seeing intermittent playing time as a late sub here and there.
The one player who actually contributed the most in left field this season, and surprisingly so, was Nate McLouth. This is a guy who seemed like his career was over and he just hadn’t gotten the memo yet but he kept working at improving, even though lesser men would have likely given up had they of gone through the kind of three year long slump that he did, and his hard work finally paid off.
McLouth was an All-Star and Gold Glover with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2008 when he batted .276/.356/.497 with 46 doubles (which led the National League), 26 homeruns, 94 RBI, and 23 stolen bases. It appeared as if he was on the fast track to super stardom after that season but that’s simply not how things turned out. It was all downhill for him from there and he found himself traded to the Atlanta Braves during the 2009 season and went on to compile a .203/.312/.313 (200 games and 566 at-bats) batting line from 2010 to the first half of 2012 before finally being signed by the Orioles.
In the 55 games he played for the Orioles after being called up from Norfolk on August 4, McLouth had rediscovered his swing to the tune of a .268/.342/.435 batting line with seven homeruns and was even second on the team in stolen bases with 12. He was the biggest contributor in left field with the bat, displayed average to slightly above average defensive skills in left field, and showed that he still has plenty of speed and ability to steal bases.
Manager Buck Showalter and GM Dan Duquette will have to decide if McLouth just got hot after spending the last two and a half seasons of his career bottoming out, with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Atlanta Braves, or if he’s finally regained his ability (and confidence) to contribute regularly in the majors as a starter in the outfield for the team.
After having used 11 different players in left field during the 2012 season, the Orioles will certainly have to spend a considerable amount of time deciding the best course of action for the position. They will need to figure out if Reimold is capable of playing left field regularly in 2013 or if he is now best suited as the regular designated hitter. A determination will also need to be made on Avery as to whether he could develop into an everyday left fielder or if his skill set is best suited as an eventual fourth outfielder.
Ultimately a decision will have to be made on whether to choose McLouth over Reimold for left field or Reimold over McLouth because someone will likely end up victimized by the roster crunch that will eventually take place due to the designated hitter spot already being locked up by Chris Davis. The only way the DH spot opens up for Reimold, because let’s face it – McLouth has more speed and is better able to track balls down in left field, is if the team chooses to let Mark Reynolds go and move Davis back to first base.
That right there is something we shouldn’t expect to happen as the Orioles still retain the rights to Reynolds even if they don’t pick up his $11 million dollar option and fell in love the work he did at first base throughout the season. What that means is that the only spot truly available for Reimold is in left field or on bench while splitting time backing up in left field and DH if the team does decide to re-sign McLouth.
There simply isn’t enough room to play both McLouth and Reimold in left field to the point where they would each get the playing time they would really need to make it worth keeping them both. This is certainly something that could be settled in spring training but a decision still has to be made on McLouth before one has to be made on anyone else that would realistically compete for the starting job in left field.
Note: Discussion of this post can be found here.
