5 potential landing spots for Chris Carter

3. Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles are another logical landing spot for Chris Carter. In Baltimore, Carter could leave his glove at home and focus solely on hitting home runs. The Orioles blew the rest of the league out of the water with 253 home runs in 2016, clearing the second-place St. Louis Cardinals by nearly 30 bombs. At DH, the Orioles were second in the league with 42 home runs.

Manager Buck Showalter has managed to extract a great deal of value from the platoon options he has been given at DH during his tenure with the Orioles. Pedro Alvarez blossomed into the role nicely in his first season in the American League, hitting 22 home runs in only 109 games. From June to August, Alvarez homered 16 times in only 56 games before cooling down the stretch. Depending on how the club’s negotiations with Mark Trumbo play out, Alvarez could return for another season as the left-handed half of a DH platoon in Baltimore.

If the Orioles are not ready to trust rookie Trey Mancini with the right-handed half of their DH platoon, Carter is a good, cheap option. At this point, the Orioles may as well embrace their homercentric offense and go all-in on the long ball. The strikeouts are going to pile up with or without Chris Carter in tow. Letting Trumbo walk and finding another source of cheap power would give the Orioles the money to sign a right fielder or catcher. No one in baseball is better at locating low-budget power than Dan Duquette, and Chris Carter has all the makings of another diamond in the rough in Baltimore.