Baltimore Orioles: Major Takeaways from the 2016 Season

Mark Trumbo was one of the best additions of the offseason

Mark Trumbo has always been seen as a flawed player somewhat along the lines of Chris Davis. He’s a definite power threat that strikes out more than one would like and is a liability in the field. So when the Orioles acquired him in a trade from the Seattle Mariners early in the winter there was some question to what this meant for the O’s pursuit of Chris Davis.

Once Davis opted to return to Baltimore and Pedro Alvarez came into the picture from the Pirates, it was clear that Trumbo would try to be hidden in right field. While, the 30 year-old was by no means a good right fielder he did more than enough the bat to make it for it.

Camden Yards is notorious for producing the long ball, and with Trumbo coming from Safeco Field in Seattle it was expected that his home run numbers would increase, I don’t think many would predict that he would finish atop the entire MLB in home runs. The right fielder hit a career-high 47 bombs this season, which was a full 25 more than he hit in 2015. Trumbo also surprised by hitting for a high average out of the gate, and while his average did creep back into the .250’s like many expected, that’s still good enough with the type of pop he brought to the Orioles lineup.

Probably the biggest surprise in all of this was that the O’s only had to give away a backup catcher in Steve Clevenger. This is mostly due to the fact the Mariners were already set in the outfield and didn’t really have a spot to put Trumbo with his arbitration number spiking because he was in his final year before free agency. Nevertheless, this, outside of the Shelby Miller–Dansby Swanson deal, was probably the biggest fleecing of any move this past offseason.