The Orioles have been in contact with Chris Carter‘s representatives, according to FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman (Twitter link). The O’s also had interest in Carter last offseason before the slugger signed with the Brewers.
Since being non-tendered by the Brewers last week, Carter has drawn interest from the Indians and Rockies, so it makes sense that another team in need of some first base/DH-type power has gotten in touch. As Heyman notes, Carter would essentially replace Mark Trumbo‘s power bat, and at a fraction of Trumbo’s reported asking price. Pursuing Carter would also fit Orioles executive VP Dan Duquette’s recent strategy of not overpaying for power hitting; Baltimore has gotten quite a bit of pop from Nelson Cruz, Pedro Alvarez and Trumbo himself in recent years at relatively low costs.
Carter hit .222/.321/.499 in his lone season in Milwaukee, leading the NL in both homers (41) and strikeouts (206). Despite all of Carter’s power, his lack of a well-rounded hitting game and below-average fielding and baserunning contributed to a value of just 0.9 fWAR in 2016.
Despite these drawbacks, Baltimore is a good fit on paper for Carter’s game. He should provide as much home run power as ever in hitter-friendly Camden Yards, and his defensive shortcomings wouldn’t be an issue since thanks to Chris Davis‘ presence, Carter would primarily be a designated hitter. Over his career, Carter has been a notably better hitter as a DH ( 130 wRC+ in 764 PA) than as a first baseman (105 wRC+ in 1575 PA), so a case could be made that he could still unlock some greater hitting potential if freed from a regular defensive assignment.
The Orioles’ lineup already tilts heavily to the right side, however, and the O’s may be more interested in seeing what they have in young DH candidate Trey Mancini. Baltimore could prefer to save its DH spot for Mancini and a rotation of veterans on rest days and instead direct its funds towards landing an everyday right fielder.
It’s about time! Much better choice than Trumbo, considering the years and the dollars.
I’m pretty much convinced you could put Rafael Belliard or Walt Weiss in left field or at 1st base for the orioles at Camden Yards and they’d hit 25 homers.
The Orioles will continue to hit tons of homers in the regular season and fail in the playoffs until they balance their lineup with some high average hitters. Homers don’t win in the playoffs.
I wonder if there is a stat that shows how a hitter hits against good pitching as opposed to average pitching? Reason being that in the playoffs you see better quality pitching and it’s entirely possible a home run hitter racks up his numbers against lesser pitchers and strikes out against the better ones. Would explain why home run hitters often tank in the playoffs no?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Agreed…. I’d rather see more of what Mancini can do at the major league level than see the O’s re-sign Trumbo or sign Carter. O’s already have plenty of power in the lineup…. money would be better allocated towards any pitching help they can get and acquiring an OF who can get on base.
I think you’ll see Mancini platooning in Left Field and at DH. Rickard will backup center and play RF. Signing Carter would still provide some extra $$ to extend players like Tillman, Schoop, Gausman, and Machado (but I’m not holding my breath on that).
They’ll add another catcher and pick someone in the rule 5 draft (possibly another outfielder) and that will be the end of the offseason for the Orioles.
The problem is the 30+ mil we have tied up in Gallardo, Jimenez and Miley isn’t going anywhere. so acquiring pitching won’t happen til next year at best when that money is off the books. And then we have to look at Machado, Jones, Tillman extensions and the effect they’ll have on additional spending.
Tough times ahead.
there is NO REASON TO SIGN TRASH !
I agree that the 38.5 million we have tied up in Gallardo, Jimenez, and Miley is a constraint on payroll.. But really if one of them has a great year, or at least two are average, that amount of money is in line with league average for pitching.
Hopefully by 2018, one of Keegan Akin, Cody Wedlock, Chris Lee, or Tanner Scott will be ready (all will be between 23-24 by then). Jason Garcia is also a potential option. If Tillman stays around, we’d have him plus Gausman as Bundy at the front of the rotation, so we’d just need some solid innings at the back.
Chris Carter was tied for 3rd best in baseball in terms of raw power output/.ISO with Mark Trumbo and Khris Davis,
His splits show that he hits better when he is in an everyday DH role and with his age and Camden Yards hitter friendly ballpark, I think he could hit 50 homers next year….at about 8-9 million less than Trumbo.
So, how’s that a trash signing??
Oriole’s are going to smash the Strikeout record with Davis and Carter.
Bingo
Let’s see, he hit .222 and led the NL in strikeouts … sounds similar to Davis who hit .221 and led the AL in strikeouts. How about someone, anyone with a higher OBP and play decent outfield?