Which playoff contenders should target the White Sox’s Todd Frazier?

Baltimore Orioles

Admittedly, this is a stretch because the Orioles are set at third base with Manny Machado and they re-signed DH Mark Trumbo to a three-year, $37.5 million contract in the offseason. Unfortunately, neither Machado nor Trumbo are hitting like the Orioles expected them too. You can’t do anything but let Machado continue to play, but you could move Trumbo away from the DH spot and put him at first base or right field. His defense won’t be good but he has consistently hit better when playing the field throughout his career.

In 770 career plate appearances as a DH, Trumbo has hit .235/.299/.431, making him 4% below league average (96 wRC+). He’s been a bit better when playing first base (.249/.295/.467, 108 wRC+) and much better when playing right field, hitting .278/.336/.517 (129 wRC+). The team’s regular first baseman, Chris Davis, is on the DL. Trey Mancini has been getting starts at the position and has hit well and is projected to continue to be an above average hitter, so he should continue to fill in for Davis at first. That means moving Trumbo to right field and having Seth Smith split time between right and left, with Frazier being the DH.

Another, better option, in my opinion, would be to move Machado to shortstop and put Frazier at third base. The team’s regular shortstop, J.J. Hardy, is out with a fractured wrist. Machado has proven he can handle shortstop in the past. He played 45 games their last year. Moving Machado to short and putting Frazier at third would likely gain the team a win or two over the rest of the season.

A win or two may not seem like much, but the team is currently just 4.5 games out in the AL East and 2.5 games out of a wild card spot. Every extra win or two is important to the Orioles this year. Of course, adding a hitter doesn’t address the real problem on the Orioles, which is a pitching staff that has allowed the second-most runs per game of any team in baseball, but Frazier would help them on the hitting side.