Baltimore’s Second-Base Shenanigans Creating Unexpected Fantasy Options

Ever since Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop went down with a sprained right knee, manager Buck Showalter has been covering the keystone in some wonderfully weird ways. Without backup Ryan Flaherty — who hit the disabled list himself with a groin injury — Showalter turned to a couple of highly unorthodox options.

As Jeff Sullivan outlined last week, the Orioles called up natural second baseman Reynaldo Navarro, but used him sparingly before ultimately optioning him back to Triple-A on Friday. Instead, Showalter has relied on Jimmy Paredes — who had made just eight starts at second in his five partial major-league seasons — and first baseman/corner outfielder Steve Pearce, who had never logged an inning at the position in his 11-year professional career.

Pearce is now 2B-eligible in Yahoo leagues, with his five starts at the position. Paredes racked up three consecutive starts at second last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. With Flaherty reportedly struggling to recover from his groin injury — and unable to start back-to-back games this weekend — it’s a good bet that both Pearce and Paredes will get some more time in at second until Schoop and Everth Cabrera return from the DL.

On Saturday, Showalter brought in Flaherty as a defensive replacement for Pearce. As fate would have it, Flaherty promptly flubbed a relatively routine one-hopper, allowing Jacoby Ellsbury to reach base. With two outs in the inning, Ellsbury came around to score. I soaked in the rare joy that is wondering if the inning would be over, had the Orioles just stuck with the infinitely less-qualified Pearce.

After all, just two days prior, Pearce made this excellent diving stop:

Just look at the boundless joy on his face as he processed the fact that, yes, he actually did come up with that ball:

With Pearce now 2B/MI eligible in many formats, and Paredes well on his way, let’s discuss what they have to offer as fantasy options. The 32-year-old Pearce had a shocking breakthrough last year, swatting 21 homers in just 383 plate appearances, finishing with a .293/.373/.556 line.

Unfortunately, Pearce has come crashing back down to earth in dramatic fashion so far this year, as his hideous .179/.273/.284 slash indicates. After being widely owned to start the season, he’s now available in the majority of leagues, and understandably so. Still, the newly created option of sticking him in a MI slot makes rolling the dice on a rebound a much more appealing scenario.

Paredes is essentially the polar opposite of Pearce’s story right now. A 26-year-old with 145 major-league games under his belt over four partial seasons, Paredes has been on a tear lately, to the point where he’s forced his way into a full-time role. With just five homers in those first 145 games in the majors, Paredes has already matched that total in his 18 games in 2015.

Hitting .355/.380/.684 and riding a nine-game hitting streak, Paredes is bound to hit the proverbial wall at some point, but it sure hasn’t happened yet. There’s been some luck involved, but really he’s just hitting lots of line drives and using the whole field. As long as he keeps doing that, he’s worth a long look in a MI spot until his poor plate discipline rears its ugly, regressive head.

The overarching problem with both of these guys is that eventually the Orioles will (theoretically) get healthy, which may make playing time hard to come by. Still, with both Paredes and Pearce out of options, they’ll likely remain on the active roster. Regardless, these are problems we can deal with when the time comes. For now, slot them both into the back half of the “Wichita, Kansas” tier in my second-base rankings.

Setting production and projections and all that stuff aside, what the Orioles are doing at second base right now is fascinating in a fashion wholly unique to the game of baseball. I find myself watching Orioles games hoping to see tricky grounders to the right side of the infield — and getting very excited when they happen. That statement is a microcosm of what makes baseball so beautiful, I suppose.

I discussed the Pearce situation with a friend who does not watch baseball. He’s a sports guy, but one of those types who says “baseball is boring” while eagerly watching Tony Romo throw 4-yard slants for 3 ½ hours.

Digging for a cross-sport comparison, I told him to imagine the Patriots starting Rob Gronkowski at cornerback in a regular-season game, with one week’s preparation. I even went cross-media, asking him if he could imagine a “Game of Thrones” episode in which the actors were forced to swap roles, with only a cursory glance at the script.

“That does sound pretty weird,” he responded, “but I still don’t see how that makes ground balls and pop-ups interesting.” At this point I chose to abandon ship and switch topics to the NBA playoffs, which we mutually follow, but I did so with a foul taste in my mouth.

Don’t you dare tell me baseball is boring when Steve Pearce is playing second base.