Three Potential OF Options For 2027 Orioles

There is little reason to believe Orioles top baseball executive Mike Elias is going to do anything different when it comes to roster construction and lineup deployment next season.

He’s been here a decade and learned precious little from his constant failing except becoming an expert at staying employed and blaming other people, be they middle managers or, most of the time, his dugout manager. There’s no reason to believe he is under any pressure from feckless private equity owners to actually win, and if anything this owner seems inclined to let him do as he pleases as long as he runs things on a tight budget.

But this team needs a transformed outfield in 2027, no matter how they go about doing it. Running it back wit the collection of AAAA guys who ended this season getting the most run – Leody Taveras, Rece Hinds and Christian Franklin – would be nuts even by Elias’s lowly standards, and the internal options offer only platoon guys like Colton Cowser and Dylan Beavers, who Elias didn’t think enough to play regularly during the lost 2026 season, so those are spare parts at best.

He needs a regular centerfielder in 2027, and an everyday corner OF also, if we’re being serious (Tyler O’Neill will be back for the IL stints at $19M a year and probably one of Cowser/Beavers). That leaves a lot to figure out, and a terrible free agent class to pursue. And Elias badly needs a leadoff guy, with O’s leadoff hitter 30th inn average, 30th in slug, 30th in OPS, scoring just 88 runs (27th) and it’s been a problem for years.

There are three potential moves I see to at least impact left field – a wasteland for this team defensively and production-wise since Elias butchered the dimensions of the ballpark HYPER – ranked in order of interest:

Trade For Steven Kwan

The Guardians haven’t dealt him yet, and this would be a rental (unless ownership, you know, got a big boy payroll which these billionaires absolutely could afford), but he checks every box for them possible except the CF thing. He is exactly the sparkplug they need, and could send an immediate signal to the rest of these guys about putting the ball in pay and avoiding the swing-and-miss and launch-angle chasing that has stunted the organization.

This dude gets on base 38% of the time. He strikes out less than 10% of the time. He cares about scoring runs and trying to prevent runs. He was raised on Guards Ball and understands the little things and he has ties to the fraud manager who Elias insisted on bringing back.

I don’t see this lineup ever settling down and learning from past mistakes unless they have a true tone setter and table setter at the top and Elias couldn’t develop a player like that if his career depended on it. This was a 5 WAR player this season.

Sign Ian Happ

This dude remains a defensive stalwart. He is good for 20 homers and he drives in runs and he’s been on winning teams. Did I mention he could actually handle LF in OPCY and not look like he was going to shatter anytime he had to backtrack on a ball?

He’s 32, so not too old, and has been a $20M guy. (This is what a real GM gets for $20M a year; we get O’Neill). He understands what a quality at bat is, he is a switch hitter which helps end some of the platoon madness we’ve seen and he could be a 30 double/25 HR guy. Strikes out more than you like. But he walks 13% of the time.

It would be like what we had to live through for four months with Taylor Ward, only with a real glove attached and way more power than Ward ended up providing.

Move Blaze Alexander To OF

If they keep Gunnar Henderson until the trade deadline, and if Jordan Westburg comes back, then even if they ship out Jackson Holliday, which seems like the move, they still have an IF crunch given the Coby Mayo/Christian Encarnacion-Strand situation at third. So Alexander could focus on the outfield.

Center is a stretch with any regularity. And it may turn out that the tear he was on from late April until getting hit on the hand buy a pitch just before the All-Star break was an anomaly. But this situation is bleak, there options aren’t great and this kid guy plays with fire and emotion that was sorely lacking from this ballclub.

He ended up with a 120 OPS+ despite a horrible first six weeks. He got on base 36% of the time. Stands to reason he gets a chance to be an everyday guy next season given all the holes on this roster and outfield might be in the cards. Athletic enough and has done it as part of a super-utility skillset.

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