All continues to be quiet on the western front for the Dodgers and most of baseball. The only recent moves include the reported signings of two players to minor league contracts.
Paulo Orlando was a late bloomer in the baseball world, making his major league debut with the Kansas City Royals in 2015 at the age of 29. He was a member of their World Series team and had a walk-off game slam in July of that year. He has been with the Royals since 2009, playing in the majors for a bit of each of the last four seasons. His best season was in 2016, when he played in 128 games and slashed .302/.329/.405/.734 with five home runs and 24 doubles.
He was originally signed as a non-drafted free agent out of Brazil in 2005.
Now at 33 years of age, the right-handed hitting outfielder hasn’t played more than 40 games in the majors in either of the last two years and spent most of last season in Triple-A Omaha. Over 75 games for the Storm Chasers, he hit .270/.319/.467/.786 with 12 home runs and 17 doubles.
Orlando was named the fastest baserunner in the White Sox system prior to the 2007 and 2008 seasons by Baseball America. Defensively, he can handle all three outfield spots.
The Dodgers also signed another right-handed hitting outfielder to a minor league contract, this one including an invitation to spring training. Cameron Perkins was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the sixth round of the 2012 draft and has spent the majority of his career in the minors.
In 2017, he made his major league debut at the age of 26, when he played in 42 games. During that campaign, he hit only .182/.237/.273/.510 with one home run. He spent 2018 with the Seattle Mariners organization. In 94 games with Triple-A Tacoma, he slashed .257/.313/.423/.737 with 10 home runs and 25 doubles.
Over the course of his eight year professional career, the 6-foot-5 Perkins has played both corner infield spots, both corner outfield spots, as well as some limited center field.
Seemingly, the signing of these two outfielders lends some organizational depth for the Dodgers, after having traded away both Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Depth? Really?
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Andy didn’t say deep depth Gordon. What we have here is shallow depth.
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Shallow depth. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
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I consider that the supreme compliment Scoop, coming from a wordsmith such as yourself.
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I said ‘some depth’ 😉. Trying to spin it in the most positive way
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Herrera just signed with KC for 2 year deal. Was hoping we could pick him up for a 1year deal late into winter. Oh well nothing seems to be going our way right now!
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White Sox not KC
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That was some real creative writing, trying to put a positive spin on that Andy. No offense to Paulo, or Cameron, but I hope we don’t need them on the Mlb club this season.
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I agree. But there’s not much more to comment on at the present
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From a piece I just read on Herrera:
“He was looking for the first big payday of his career. He made $7,937,500 during his final year of arbitration in 2018.”
He’s made $19 million so far in his career. He’s 28. These people orbit a different sun.
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David Wright is going to work in the Mets front office. He was a good player until his injuries.
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OK folks, things are really slow so let’s help AF with an exercise here. We’ve removed Puig and Kemp from the roster and I think we all feel we need to replace at least one of them with another outfielder. We’ve discussed the following possibilities: Harper, Pollock, Castellanos, Haniger, Stanton. We’ve gone back and forth about the reasons any or all of them can’t or shouldn’t be part of next year’s team. Can anyone come up with any other possibilities that might be available in trade? It’s possible one of those guys will wind up here anyway, but there must be some other names out there.
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Good question Jefe…..they did have some conversations with the Cardinals about Martinez. He is a decent hitter, but worse than Castellanos defensively. On the free agent side, there are 3 guys who are pretty interesting, Gonzalez, who falls right into the Friedman mold. Versatile and he has decent power. Austin Jackson although it seems like he has been around forever is only 31 and a natural CF with a lot of speed. Dark horse for me would be Avasail Garcia. Decent bat with some power. Not a great outfielder, but decent and young. Trade wise, you would need to find a team with OF depth to pick from, which is why most mention the Yankees who have a ton. Jones is still out there. He would be pricey, but less than Harper, and he is a much better defensive player than Bryce. It is a conundrum that we can only hope Ol Andy fixes and before we all die of old age.
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I’m not sure Marwin is any major improvement over CT3. Jackson doesn’t hit enough to suit me, Garcia (except for the outlier 2017) struggles to have an OBP over .300. I assume the Jones you’re referring to is Adam Jones. Not sure why you think he’d be pricey. I bet he’ll have a hard time getting 10 mil, but he ain’t the player he used to be. When I was formulating the question, the first guys I thought of were Jones and Upton, whom Scoop mentioned, but Upton is owed 90 mil over the next 4 years. This isn’t easy, but the one thing it’s convinced me of is that I wouldn’t mind having Castellanos if they would bring their ask down to something reasonable. In my mind the Indians definitely don’t need to trade a pitcher, but the Marlins and Tigers definitely need to move Realmuto and Castellanos. I’m convinced they’ll both be traded but it may not be until just before spring training.
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The problem with this requisition is I believe contenders are pretty much set up and non contenders are going to ask too much for their best players. We still have a glut of outfielders, some of them right handed and a couple of lefthanders that are good enough to be better against lhp. I don’t believe this is a problem without an in house solution. Sluggo Van Skyhack will address this in Spring Training.
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Oh ..depth? Really? They are listed as carrying 4 outfielders right now. 3 of the 4 are lefty’s. They have signed 3 to minor league deals, 1 is a lefty. C, and a RH hitting OF with some pop would seem to me to be priority’s. Neither Perkins or Orlando fit that profile. They also do not have a bona fide CF. They have guys who can play there, but not a natural CF. It is a team filled with reserves. Bellinger, Seager and Turner are basically the only everyday players on the roster right now, everyone else is interchangeable.
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Upton or Buxton.
But frankly I don’t think we need them as badly as what it would cost. Skyhack will see to it our OPS v LHP will improve.
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Jeff, here’s my part of your little exercise, have Andrew call his old buddies in Tampa, to work out a deal for Tommy Pham. He is a right handed bat, he’s under control Thru 2021(arbitration) he batted .275/.367/.464 with an OPS+ of 127. His power #s are a little low 21 HRs, 63 RBIs, 67 BB 140 Ks. I know the FO likes him, they tried to get him from the cards in 2017. For you war guys, he had a 3.6 Owar, and a -.2 Dwar (-.5 in stl .3 in TB)
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I’m a big Pham phan (see what I did there Scoop?) but I have my doubts that the Rays would give him up easily just because of the amount of control left on his contract and the fact that they actually have a chance to compete in their division these days. I wouldn’t decimate the farm system to get him but if we could give them value while shipping them guys we consider duplicates, I’m all for it Keith. Grade = A.
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The guys Tampa traded for Pham, are ranked 14, and 18 currently in the cards system. The 3rd guy in the trade isn’t in their top 25, this is a trade that we could easily pull off without giving up the cream of the crop. The more I type this the better I like it. He is a perfect AF guy cheap, lots of control, can play cf and lf, and he really fills the hole we created in that trade with the reds.
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I expect an A on my exercise professor pot stirrer.
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And he hit .293/.411/.466 against LHP last season.
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I have about as much faith in either of these bozos making an impact on the Dodgers as I do in Ol Andy to get his head out of his rear orifice and actually sign or trade for a player that makes sense. This is the 5th year Dodger fans have had to scratch their heads and wonder what in the blue blazes is Wonderboy doing? There is a little story about 5 teams that are still going to make news on the hot stove. The Dodgers are right on the top of the list. Other than the annual salary dump trade, this one netted them bupkis, Kelly is the only player of note that Wonderboy has obtained. Yes, spring training is a month away, so he has time. But this endless feet dragging process is maddening. Do something already you flatulent butthead!
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The feet dragging is part of the process Bear. You can’t just give the other guy what he wants the first time he asks for it. Boras is the most successful agent out there and he plays the same game. Wait ’em out. I really don’t think we can jump up and down and scream at AF when we don’t have access to all the information. That’s why I keep suggesting that you be patient and if he doesn’t do anything, I’ll buy you the bullhorn. For a guy who lives in such a beautiful area, you should be more mellow. 🙂
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I am the epitome of Mellow. I know how the process works. And I also know how deliberate Ol Andy is. But the last 2 winters his foot dragging tactics have not led to any earth shattering additions to the team. All the hoopla and innuendo about the salary dump of Kemp, Puig and Wood has faded into the mist. Spring training is about 5 weeks away. Some of the guys you would have thought the Dodgers might have an interest in are gone. They have zero interest in Machado, and they want Harper, only at their price and terms. Sorry, I would have moved on weeks ago. I like seeing the roster pretty much settled well before spring training opens. He is adding the AAA fodder before he addresses the real holes on the team. I am pretty much fed up with his act and his tactics.
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You had me convinced you might be mellow until your last sentence. Let’s face it Bear, you’re a bubbling volcano just waiting to explode. But that’s OK, because if you weren’t so freakin’ upset with Andrew I might be the one doing it, and this way I can be the mellow one. So we actually both serve a purpose here. Sincerely, your friend, the Pot Stirrer.
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Pham might work. He’s a late bloomer as he will turn 31 in early March and is arb eligible for 3 more years. Those are the kind of guys impecunious teams like Tampa survive on. If we are serious about a RH thumper the guys we should be looking for are proven, expensive players that teams are looking to move. You know, guys like Puig and Kemp. That way we can get Wins without having to pay much for it.
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Dear Pot stirrer. You may continue stirring your Dodger soup, but unfortunately it is smelling like HOBO stew. They are taking the low road so far. Sure, none of us really have a clue how OL Andy’s brain works. But he cleared payroll, and now he only has 2 roster slots left. So, Kluber/Bauer, insert name here and Harper are not happening anytime soon. Harper, I care less about. A RH starter would be really nice as long as he is accompanied by a RH power bat. Since he likes the Rays so much he could get Wilmer Font and Tommy Pham. Would not cost a lot and makes sense in his world. Or he could even bring Jose Deleon back from the Rays. There are all sorts of low roads for the former fazman to travel. His act gets older by the year. And the beat goes on and the Dodger still have not won a WC in 30 years.
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