Should the O's be considering 3B/2B Josh Harrison this off season?

[wildcard]

Henderson, Westburg, Dorrian are probably a year away.  The O's need help at 3B.   So a short term FA/trade looks in order this off season.

Harrison is 34,  will be a FA this offseason.  Was on a one year, one million contract this year. He has played 134 games with a   760 OPS so he probably get more next year but probably on the one year contract.   1/2 or 3m may do it.   

Is Harrison the kind of player that Elias is likely to acquire for a year until the prospects are ready?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/harrijo05.shtml

[RZNJ]

Maybe.

[LTO's]

This is the first good one I've seen in a while. Would be an upgrade and will be cheap. Could do better/could do worse. 

[accinfo]

I would certainly happy with Harrison for a 1 year deal.   He may want some kind of option that would automatically vest based on games played which would be fine as you are waiting for Westberg, Henderson, and I would include Mayo who could come fast.

[sportsfan8703]

I’d be interested in Galvis or Harrison. Urias locked up a starting spot somewhere. Mateo looked good. Guiterrez has flashed potential. We could rotate the 3 young guys with a vet FA, for stability. 
 

Playing Harrison at 3B would drop his 2.6WAR though. Keep that in mind. 

[Pickles]

I know he's had a far more successful career, and a their 2021s are polar opposites, but isn't it like a coin flip if this guy is better than Franco next year?  Or a hell of a lot more like a coin flip that we might want to admit?

[Frobby]

33 minutes ago, Pickles said:

I know he's had a far more successful career, and a their 2021s are polar opposites, but isn't it like a coin flip if this guy is better than Franco next year?  Or a hell of a lot more like a coin flip that we might want to admit?

I think Harrison is likely to be significantly better    I’ve always liked the guy.   He’s versatile and seems like a very good teammate.   

Also you may be forgetting just how bad Franco was this year.  -1.6 rWAR in less than 2/3 of a season (104 G, 404 PA).  That’s worse that Chris Davis was in a similar amount of playing time in 2019 (-1.1 rWAR, 105 G, 352 PA).
 

[Pickles]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think Harrison is likely to be significantly better    I’ve always liked the guy.   He’s versatile and seems like a very good teammate.   

Also you may be forgetting just how bad Franco was this year.  -1.6 rWAR in less than 2/3 of a season (104 G, 404 PA).  That’s worse that Chris Davis was in a similar amount of playing time in 2019 (-1.1 rWAR, 105 G, 352 PA).
 

He was horrendous.  And I'll admit, I didn't realize it was that bad.

And we should of course take more recent information as more important.  However, excluding this season, their last 3-4 are pretty similar.  And Franco is of course significantly younger.

My point isn't really about Franco though.  Or Harrison even.

Rather, that these kinds of signings should definitely be explored, but they aren't a significant departure from the strategy of the last few years.  We're just hoping maybe it works out a little bit better.

[Aristotelian]

He is also on my free agent targets list. Seems like the perfect guy for us in terms of not blocking anyone and should be willing to sign a shirt term deal. Could be flipped at the deadline like Villar if he is still having a good year. Pretty much a no downside signing.

[Philip]

28 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think Harrison is likely to be significantly better    I’ve always liked the guy.   He’s versatile and seems like a very good teammate.   

Also you may be forgetting just how bad Franco was this year.  -1.6 rWAR in less than 2/3 of a season (104 G, 404 PA).  That’s worse that Chris Davis was in a similar amount of playing time in 2019 (-1.1 rWAR, 105 G, 352 PA).
 

That begs the question of why didn’t Mike and the other guys in the brain trust anticipate Franco being so bad? Did they know he was going to be bad and sign him anyway because he was cheap? Which is inexcusable but at least a concrete decision. Or did they expect him to be meaningfully better, and if so, what was wrong with their analysis. 
Like Adam said, “sometime you suck.” But there’s a difference between being bad sometimes, and just… Being bad.

If it is just money, that’s infuriating, but at least they didn’t sign him thinking he would be other than he was. But if they signed him expecting positive results, that’s a problem.

[Just Regular]

Villar and Iglesias along with Galvis are other infielders we know who will be seeking jobs next year.

Jonathan Villar being 2nd on the Mets in HR is a favorite one stat to capture Year 1 of the Cohen/Mets adventure running sideways.

 

[Aristotelian]

12 minutes ago, Philip said:

That begs the question of why didn’t Mike and the other guys in the brain trust anticipate Franco being so bad? Did they know he was going to be bad and sign him anyway because he was cheap? Which is inexcusable but at least a concrete decision. Or did they expect him to be meaningfully better, and if so, what was wrong with their analysis. 
Like Adam said, “sometime you suck.” But there’s a difference between being bad sometimes, and just… Being bad.

If it is just money, that’s infuriating, but at least they didn’t sign him thinking he would be other than he was. But if they signed him expecting positive results, that’s a problem.

He was signed for 1 year/800k. At that price I don't think you are expecting more than replacement level. We got slightly less than that in a year that didn't matter.  If you find that infuriating I don't know what to say. Iglesias exceeded his salary level so you win some and lose some like any risky investment. 

[Aristotelian]

The other 2B/3B who should be relatively cheap and open to 2-3 years is Eduardo Escobar.

[Sports Guy]

  If mediocrity and not good is what we want, these are the types of players we should go after.

[Frobby]

58 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

He was signed for 1 year/800k. At that price I don't think you are expecting more than replacement level. We got slightly less than that in a year that didn't matter.  If you find that infuriating I don't know what to say. Iglesias exceeded his salary level so you win some and lose some like any risky investment. 

We also signed him on March 16.   Nobody else wanted him.   The hope you was he’d be a mild upgrade over Rio Ruiz.   He was never expected to be more than an 0.5-1.0 rWAR player even if things went well.  But he had a very bad year even by his standards.   That’s the risk you take with this level of signing.   I’m just sorry we didn’t jettison him a little  sooner.