The Orioles plan to re-sign at least some of their impending free agents, GM Dan Duquette told fans and reporters at an annual event including Rich Dubroff of CSN Baltimore. Duquette highlighted one power hitter by name, saying “we do want to sign some of our key players for the future, and Chris Davis is one of them.” In addition to Davis, Baltimore currently has seven impending free agents including Matt Wieters, Wei-Yin Chen, Gerardo Parra, Darren O’Day, Steve Pearce, and Nolan Reimold. The club probably can’t sign them all, tweets Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com.
Specifically regarding Davis, the Orioles may have to compete in a thin market for first baseman. Our free agent tracker lists just eight potential free agents at the position. Of those, Edwin Encarnacion will be retained unless he sustains a major injury. Justin Morneau also has an affordable $9MM option although he has missed most of the 2015 season with injury. Mike Napoli and Pearce are probably the next biggest names at the position.
The lack of free agent first basemen could push Davis’ value north of $100MM, according to Mike Petriello of FanGraphs. The 29-year-old is in the midst of his second best season, slashing .257/.341/.541 with 32 home runs. However, Davis showed last year that there is some downside to his power happy approach. The club may have to weigh whether it makes better sense to commit to Davis or sign multiple other players.
Among the other free agents, Wieters, Chen, and O’Day will be the most difficult to replace. Wieters, 29, missed the early portion of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery. He’s battled a few nagging injuries since his return. He appeared to be breaking out in 2014 prior to sustaining the elbow injury. This season, his strikeout rate has spiked to 24.6 percent – up from a career average of 18.7 percent. It’s worth wondering if that number will regress with full health.
MLBTR’s Jeff Todd wrote about Chen recently in a free agent profile, comparing his potential earnings to Bronson Arroyo, Jason Vargas, and Ricky Nolasco. Including inflation, that would seem to peg him for a two to four year deal worth about $12MM to $14MM per season. The Orioles plan to make Chen a qualifying offer, per CBS’ Jon Heyman. That may affect the market for his services.
While I think hes a lock for 100M+, I don’t think he should get that. However hes far from mediocre. 3+ WAR average over the last 4 seasons.
Agreed.. He might not be the sexiest name out there but his production has been very good.. He had the suspension cut his season short last year just when he seemed to be coming around.. His OPS+ of 121 and 168 in 2012 and 2013 followed by a solid 139 this year should get him that $100m contract..
that strikeout rate is scary, keep in mind its that high in his prime.
All of the games best players have high strike out rates, its what the player does when he puts the ball in play that matters most.
Not over 30%, and k rate generally just goes up with age. I feel like starting in 2017 whoever pays him will regret it.
The lack of free agent first basemen could push Davis’ value north of $100MM
1st of all he is not worth that.
Second, even if he was the O’s will never pay that.
Third, the O’s are not really a very good team, we are playing around .500 and that is exactly what they are.
DD should have sold more and replenished the Prospect Cupboard.
Instead, he filled the cupboard with Snickers bars because the O’s aren’t going anywhere for awhile. He also filled it with Kool-Aid® for fans that like that Showalter shift! SMH!
My favorite team could use a mediocre 140 WRC+ in the middle of the lineup.
Chris Walker is in waiting, Davis has power but for 100 million let Walker try to replace him and use that money to keep some other players and add more pitching.
a 24 year old hitting 10% over league average in triple a isn’t inspiring
He has potential, he hit last year when he got called up. I’d rather give him a chance than pay 100 million for Davis.
The Orioles needed to sell this deadline to avoid a rebuild. While minor, they will have difficulty filling all of their holes this offseason. Investing $100m in Davis would be a foolish decision. They should call up Walker and see how it plays out. Also Joseph should replace Weiters.
Joseph is an interesting player, he played full time and did well. At the least he will be a great place holder until Sisco is ready.
Its a tough call. He’s doing very well and showed how he can send a ball over the fence with the literal flick of his wrist tonight. One of Davis’ often overlooked attributes is his defensive ability at 1st. He can make stretch plays and rarely (I can’t remember one) allows even a poorly thrown ball to get past.
Personally, I’d love to see the Orioles retain him. I actually think Davis is a good signing. Let Wieters walk at this point. See about resigning Chen and hopefully keep Parra. It’ll be expensive, but it will be worth it. The AL East is not as strong as in the past and the window might be worth the cash.
Now whether Angelos sees it that way…
If the O’s can get Davis at 5/100 for his age 30-34 seasons that’s actually a bargain.
Davis 9th inning HR last night was the lowest most outside pitch a lefty has ever homered on in PITCHfx era. He’s good.
That has to be one of the most naive comments I have ever read. The window for their current core is closing? The Orioles success the last few years has come when some of our key (core) players have been hurt. Had the O’s been healthy last year they might have won 100 games and went further in the playoffs. We didn’t have weiters, machado and Davis got suspended. Machado, schoop and gausman will only keep getting better. Jones and Davis are both top 3-5 at their positions. Keep on hating hater, your comment is as disrespectful as your name