FanPost

Right Handed Potentially Available Outfielders (who could help in part time duty)

Has anyone else noticed the real lack of good right-handed outfielders available in trades/free agency? We have zero of them. If the M's had to play opening day tomorrow Saunders, Ackley, and Almonte would be the starters with the moose Peguero as the next man up.

The free agents are all some combination of A) fragile, B) bad hitters, C) Nelson Cruz, or D) horrible on defense. Again I am looking at right handed hitters. The M's weren't very good against lefties last year and some balance is important to keep LOOGYS from going a whole inning or more.

The trade market for a full time star looks kind of the same with most players being at least one of A), B), or D) from above, plus E) costly to acquire or F) unavailable. Kemp is injury prone now in the hamstrings, ankles, and shoulders-- which is about as bad of a combination as it gets. Kemp is also bad on defense and maybe expensive to acquire. The fabled Giancarlo Stanton would be E) or F). Jose Bautista is probably F) as well.

What I did was look for a few guys who could be cheaply acquired and play a valuable role in a platoon or time share with Abraham Almonte and Michael Saunders. I came up with a list of guys for you all and provided you with their Steamer projections courtesy of Fangraphs.com.

Player

Team

AVG/OBP/SLG

WAR/600 PAs

Projected PAs

Chris Heisey

CIN

.250/.301/.419

2.5

239

Steve Pearce

BAL

.255/.342/.425

2.0

457

Cameron Maybin*

SD

.247/.316/.379

2.3

391

Drew Stubbs

CLE

.231/.306/.359

1.9

289

Chris Denorfia

SD

.267/.328/.394

1.9

290

Brandon Guyer

TB (AAA)

.262/.318/.412

1.7

206

Junior Lake

CHC

.258/.307/.419

3.3

254

Lorenzo Cain*

KC

.265/.325/.388

3.3

475

Josh Willingham

MIN

.232/.342/.429

1.7

600

Dayan Viciedo

CHW

.266/.316/.454

1.6

600

Justin Maxwell

KC

.235/.315/.408

1.2

242

Justin Ruggiano

MIA

.251/.317/.418

0.2

290

Jose Tabata

PIT

.274/.340/.397

0.7

279

Carlos Quentin

SD

.246/.339/.444

2.2

507

I used WAR/600 PAs to make comparing them easier. Not all of these guys are as good on defense as I would like (Willingham, Viciedo, Quentin, Ruggiano) or even dream scenario everyday players-- but I think that if two of these guys got paired with Almonte and Saunders the M's could field a 6 WAR outfield which keeps a 40 WAR roster possible. If the M's want to do better than that (~6 WAR OF) they are going to need Choo and one of these guys for the OF.

Also the reality of some of these projections is questionable; I doubt Junior Lake is that good, mostly because I have no idea who he is (I thought he was a second baseman before today). Also, Josh Willingham did not hit nearly that well last year so I don't think he will be that valuable a year later.

In my mind the value of most of these players is around Dustin Ackley but less than Nick Franklin with only Lorenzo Cain as an exception. Maybin and Quentin would be salary dumps if traded. The guy I like here is Heisey, who could be had for Ackley if the Reds trade Prandon Phillips and want to have a backup plan to Billy Hamilton filling in there.