Small sample sizes shouldn’t produce a chorus of long-term outlooks. The word “small” is the giveaway Baseball requires patience over the course of a 162-game season.
OK, we got that out of the way.
Left-hander Gregory Soto has made three appearances with the Orioles since the deadline trade with the Phillies. He’s allowed eight runs and nine hits and walked three batters in 1 1/3 innings. And his second outing was scoreless.
It wasn’t clean. Soto allowed two hits Sunday in two-thirds of an inning in Cleveland and was bailed out by Cedric Mullins’ outfield assist.
The first five Guardians batters reached against Soto Friday in his Orioles debut. He retired one and was removed.
What happened Tuesday in Toronto was especially rough. Soto entered in the sixth inning with two outs, a runner on base and the Orioles clinging to a 1-0 lead. Spencer Horwitz singled and Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer – only his third of the season.
Daulton Varsho doubled at 76.6 mph off the bat, Ernie Clement was walked intentionally and Addison Barger followed with a two-run double at 77 mph. Some bad luck, too.
The Orioles are trying to compensate for losing left-hander Danny Coulombe to bone chip surgery in his elbow. They gave up pitching prospects Seth Johnson and Moisés Chace to get Soto. It hasn’t worked out in a small sample size.
Soto can’t be optioned, so that isn’t in play. The Orioles didn’t trade for him and also ask for a short leash. He’ll receive more chances and he’s got to get outs.
Craig Kimbrel already was in lower-leverage mode in his latest reset. There’s room for only so many guys in that role in a contender’s bullpen.
"I mean, this guy has been an All-Star twice,” manager Brandon Hyde told the assembled media yesterday. “It's a huge arm, a guy that has had success up here. Love to try and get him going, honestly. He'd be a huge weapon for us in our bullpen with that second lefty and now we have Ake (Keegan Akin). That would be really, really big. Try to get him going somehow.”
Soto wasn’t happy about surrendering closing duties in Philadelphia. He welcomed a change of scenery.
“For the last few months I’ve been looking for a new environment, a new team that can give me the opportunity to excel and play well, and I’m really excited, I’m really happy to be here right now,” Soto said last week.
“I was focusing on doing a good job over there whenever my name was called, but with that being said, we had conversations, my agent and I, with the team and if the opportunity popped up to go somewhere else, that was something we were willing to do. Things just happened to work out that way, where it happened now and I’m happy to be here.”
In his final appearance with the Phillies, Soto pitched the eight inning against the Yankees and allowed three runs and three hits in a 14-4 loss. Sixteen of his previous 18 outings were scoreless and his ERA tumbled from 5.40 to 3.41.
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. That ship sailed for Soto. But there are lots of games remaining and lots of left-on-left matchups for Soto, whose held them to a .211 average .593 OPS in his career. But right-handers are hitting .326 with a .913 OPS this season, and that’s a problem with the three-batter minimum.
“It’s been difficult, but having my teammates' support has been huge,” Soto told the assembled media in Toronto. “They brought me here for a reason. I know that. And so, having their support means a lot and I know with that I’ll get through it.”
It’s gotta happen quick.
* The Orioles signed corner infielder J.D. Davis to a minor league deal yesterday and he’s on Triple-A Norfolk’s roster.
Davis, released by the Yankees last week, is a career .257/.340/.425 hitter with 72 home runs in eight major league seasons.
Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias is familiar with Davis from their days together in the Astros system. Davis was a third-round pick in the 2014 draft.
“He’s a player that I know well, I drafted him in Houston, and he provides a right-handed third base option among other things that he does,” Elias said.
“He’s been in the big leagues. He’s got a lot of experience. And right now, we have internal options but as you can see, your depth can get tested in a hurry. We’ve lost a lot of right-handed infielders via trade, and then (Jorge) Mateo and (Jordan) Westburg going down. We have (Coby) Mayo and (Ramón) Urías up on the team and we need some right-handed infielders in Triple-A, and I think J.D. was a great get in that regard.
“We’ll see what he does. I think he’s eager to get rolling after kind of going through a season where he’s been shuffled around the league. So I hope that he can stabilize and maybe help us here down the stretch.”
Davis has accumulated only 12 plate appearances at Camden Yards and he’s gone 3-for-10.
* The Orioles wrap up their series in Toronto tonight with Dean Kremer opposing Kevin Gausman.
Kremer hasn’t faced the Blue Jays this season. He’s made three career starts at Rogers Centre and allowed five runs in 18 innings.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is 8-for-25 with a double and four home runs against Kremer. Kirk is 5-for-16 with a double.
Gausman faced the Orioles on June 3 in Toronto and allowed six runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings. Ryan Mountcastle is 6-for-17 with a double against him. Mullins, who hasn’t been in the lineup for the first two games of the series, is 5-for-12. Anthony Santander is 4-for-15 with three home runs.
Mullins was 7-for-14 in his last five games in July and 0-for-13 in Cleveland to begin this month.
Santander homered twice last night to give him a career-high 34.
