The Orioles are looking at a pair of left-handed hitting outfielders in Gerardo Parra of the Brewers and Ben Revere of the Phillies, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports. The club was talking about a deal involving minor league hurler Zach Davies (in addition to other pieces). Baltimore already has Travis Snider and David Lough as left-handed options in the corner outfield, but has long been said to be looking at new options.
Confirming and building on that report, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says Baltimore is indeed pursuing talks on both Parra and Revere (Twitter links). Baltimore is also working on a deal with the Cubs involving reliever Tommy Hunter, per the report. The team would look to save some cash (around $1.5MM) while adding a minor leaguer from Chicago. The 29-year-old has been a steady contributor in the pen, though he failed in an early stint as the team’s closer last year.
The O’s would presumably put some of the savings achieved on Hunter, should that deal come to fruition, towards a new outfielder. Parra ($6.24MM annual salary) and Revere ($4.1MM) would both cost Baltimore a fairly tidy sum to field the rest of the way, in addition to whatever the acquisition cost would be from their respective clubs. Both are different players who represent different kinds of assets: Parra is a better defender with decent pop (particularly this year), and is a pure rental, while Revere is a singles hitter with outstanding speed who can be controlled for two more seasons.
Do not trade a Triple A pitcher for a two month rental. Set your sites higher and go after Carlos Gonzalez.
They don’t have the assets to get CarGo with all the injury concerns in their farm system.
I’d like to see the O’s pick up 2 parttime bats for he outfield. LH bats could be Parra or Smith (from Seattle). RH bts coul be Francouer(Philadelphia), Byrd (Cincinnatti), or Raburn (Cleveland). I don’t think the O’s farm system has the juice to get something done for a bigger target- though I think Bruce or CarGo would be ideal.
CarGo has terrible splits away from Coors for his entire career. He is controllable, but he’s not good outside Denver.
I’m more than okay with a minor league piece or two for Parra.
At this point it’s not worth giving up any solid prospects for marginal help or rentals. The O’s need more than just a bat – the starting pitching is nowhere near good enough to make any sort of run. I wouldn’t mind having Revere going forward but guys like him or Parra are not going to be difference makers.
phillies would eat revere’s $ if they got something at all useful in return.
I disagree. I think you out Parra and his OBP near the top of the order in front of Jones, Davis and maybe even Manny and you’ll start scoring more runs.
I think the SP could use help, sure, but then you’re talking about paying a price in terms of prospects. Everybody is gonna want Gausman. And anybody you can get without giving up Gausman is probably comparable to to the guys you’re trying to replace.
You think getting 2 months of Parra is going to make a difference? Granted, they will score a few more runs – but do you honestly think that is going to help them keep up with the other AL teams that have retooled? Outside of Tillman, who seems to have settled down, and Chen the rotation is questionable at best. Gausman had a nice last outing but shaky before that.
Parra has been an underrated solid 4th OF and is having a career year. He’s not going to help push this team deep into the postseason.