Baltimore Orioles Land Gerardo Parra for Playoff Push

The Baltimore Orioles are all set to welcome their newest acquisition, Gerardo Parra, after completing a deal to land the venerable 28-year old in exchange for pitching prospect Zach Davies.

Parra is a really solid option for the Orioles, and he will look to immediately step into the left field role currently occupied by David Lough.

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Gerardo Parra is a valuable player and a great acquisition for the Orioles, who needed outfield improvement. The versatile left fielder is a career .279 hitter with over 3000 career plate appearances. He has valuable experience that will serve the Orioles well in their push to catch up with the New York Yankees in the AL East.

While perhaps not as prolific as Justin Upton would have been, Parra is a fantastic fielder with an equally fantastic arm. He brings more to the O’s than just a capable bat. He will shore up the defense on the left side of the outfield.

Zach Davies was a promising young pitcher and he will serve the Brewers well in the future, but just as we saw in the Mets potential deal for Jay Bruce, each team got what they needed and neither team lost something that was vital to their present or future success.

The Orioles have a farm system loaded with young, talented arms. Zach Davies was one of those arms, but he was by no means the most promising. Dylan Bundy and Hunter Harvey were both ranked above Davies in the O’s top prospects list. Even beyond him they have Mike Wright, who has already shown promise at the MLB level.

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This was the position that the Orioles needed the most. Adam Jones is a mainstay in center but around him the O’s outfield is riddled with question marks. Gerardo Parra is no question mark, as he has proven with years of consistency. Baltimore ranks in the bottom five in baseball in nearly ever statistical category when coming from left field. Parra is going to fix that.

Zach Davies will be given the chance to make it in a less cluttered rotation in Milwaukee and would likely be slotted in right from the completion of the deal. In Tiple-A so far this year, Davies has thrown 101.1 innings while maintaining a 2.84 ERA. It’s safe to say that he is ready for the next level.

Next: Jay Bruce set for Mets switch

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