Hours after he shuffled the right side of his defense for Tuesday's game against the Boston Red Sox, Orioles manager Buck Showalter saw a play that involved his new first baseman a notable moment.
In the third inning, pitcher Yovani Gallardo fielded a swinging bunt and threw it on a hop to first baseman Steve Pearce. The throw knocked off Pearce's glove and the play resulted in an infield single. It caused Gallardo to throw 14 more pitches that inning. Many wondered if it was one Showalter's other first baseman, Chris Davis, would have come up with.
Davis was in right field, though, shifted there after batting practice to accommodate Pearce's balky throwing elbow and the teams' desire to keep Mark Trumbo off his feet. Every catchable ball hit toward Davis in the outfield was converted into an out, and that scoop was Pearce's only issue. He even showed off his infield arm in starting a 3-6-3 double play.
"Chris and I talked about it, jeez, I think about a week ago," Showalter said. "Some time on that trip. It's kind of a day off — I don't mean it like he was just standing out there, for him to go out to right field. But I wanted to get [Trumbo] off the field, and wanted to make sure that Steve was good physically to play first base. We couldn't do any of those things until we took batting practice. Steve felt good at first, Chris liked the idea of playing right. I know [Trumbo] appreciated getting off his legs for a day."
Pearce said before the game that he might still be several weeks from being able to make the full-strength outfield throws required with the condition his arm is in, so the Orioles will probably need to continue to maneuver him between first base and designated hitter while also accommodating Trumbo and Davis. Trumbo typically gets to serve as designated hitter against left-handed pitching, if only to save his legs a bit, so this could be the setup against such opposing starters from now on — today versus David Price included.
Showalter's relentless anecdotal support for his Gold Glove candidacy aside, Davis entered this homestand ranked as the sixth-best defensive first baseman in the league by the metric UZR/150, which credits and debits fielders based on the batted ball value of balls hit into their zone that either are or are not converted into outs. On its own, UZR is a counting stat, but UZR/150 tries to replicate the runs saved or caused over a full season's worth of games.
Davis' UZR/150 is 4.8, third in the American League and sixth overall among qualifying fielders. [The lowest number of innings played at the position on the FanGraphs leaderboard, from which all these statistics are gleaned, is 670. Davis had 978 innings at first base.] The stat comprises all defense, but Showalter maintains Davis' value is in his picking ability and his arm. Davis' early-career woes at first base mean his career UZR/150 at first base is just 1.0, but he's been much better the last few years, rating out at 3.6 in 2014 and 5.7 in 2015.
Pearce, meanwhile, has played just 234 innings at first base entering Tuesday's game, but had a UZR/150 of 15.8. Lower the innings played threshold down to 200 innings, and only Boston's Travis Shaw is rated better among first baseman. Over his last three seasons, which is a good barometer in reaching back, Pearce has posted ratings of 19.6 in 2014, 5.6 in 2015, and now 15.8.
Trumbo has played just 37 innings at first base for the Orioles this year and done fine there, and has a 6.2 career UZR/150 at first base. He only was a liability at first base in 2014 in Arizona, when Trumbo spent most of his season battling a foot injury and had a UZR/150 of -17.3 at first base. In 2015, it was 8.9 in 152 innings, and this year, it's 6.2 in an admittedly very small sample size.
The metrics in right field, where Trumbo has played 563 innings, are not as kind. He has a -6.3 UZR/150 with a -4 DRS (defensive runs saved). Out of the 26 players with at least 500 innings in right field, Trumbo ranks 21st in UZR/150, and 22nd in DRS.
There's not nearly enough data to compare Davis' nine innings in right field Tuesday or Pearce's 21 in between his trade from the Tampa Bay Rays and his injury last Sunday, so this is where it gets sticky.
Under the premise that Pearce's arm can't stand up to what's required in right field (or left field, where Hyun Soo Kim seems entrenched and also doesn't have the arm to move to right field, anyway), Davis would be the next logical candidate. And if you believe in the 2015 sample of right field defense over the 2012 one from Davis, he's more than held his own out there.
In 2012, Davis had a UZR/150 of -11.1. Last year, when he moved out there for 253 innings over 30 games, Davis had a UZR/150 of 20.4, though his DRS was -3.
If that's what you want to go off, then Showalter seems to have deployed the trio in question in the best defensive way he could in Tuesday's loss to Boston. Let's get the caveats out of the way here — defensive metrics are volatile from year to year, especially so when you use small in-season samples. None of the three players involved have enough time at the positions in question, save for Davis, to make firm judgments.
Save for the eye test, this is as close as we get. None of this will change the equation when the other half of Pearce's platoon, Pedro Alvarez, returns to the lineup and needs to be the designated hitter against right-handed pitching. But as long as this is the Orioles' situation, playing Davis in right field and Pearce at first base is their best shot at keeping runs off the board.