The Marlins have traded outfielder Peyton Burdick to the Orioles in exchange for cash, per announcements from the two teams. Baltimore transferred injured closer Felix Bautista to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Miami designated Burdick for assignment earlier this week when acquiring Darren McCaughan from the Mariners.
Burdick, who’ll turn 27 later this month, has seen limited MLB action with the Marlins in each of the past two seasons. He carries just a .200/.281/.368 batting line and a sky-high 38% strikeout rate in the big leagues, but that’s come in a tiny sample of 139 trips to the plate. Burdick has better numbers in the upper minors — he’s a .214/.324/.424 hitter in 952 Triple-A plate appearances — but strikeouts have been an issue throughout his professional tenure, evidenced by a 32.7% mark even in Triple-A.
Contact issues notwithstanding, Burdick offers plenty of loud tools that have long intrigued evaluators. He’s a former third-round pick whom FanGraphs has credited with plus-plus raw power (70-grade) in the past. He has better-than-average sprint speed, and scouting reports on the 2019 No. 82 overall draft pick have suggested that he has the tools necessary to stick in center field, or at the very least to profile as an above-average to plus defender in the corners.
Burdick has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so the Orioles can stash him in Triple-A Norfolk and rely on him as a bench option behind a deep and talented outfield that features a nice mix of veteran contributors and fast-rising prospects. Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander figure to open the season in the Baltimore outfield (from left to right), but top prospects Colton Cowser and/or Heston Kjerstad could force their way into the mix before long.
In Sam Hilliard and Ryan McKenna, the Orioles have a pair of out-of-options outfielders on the 40-man roster who aren’t considered locks to make the club. In the event that one or both of Hilliard/McKenna is lost via waivers late in camp, the addition of Burdick and his two minor league option seasons can help Baltimore retain some experienced outfield depth to help safeguard against injuries throughout the course of the season. And with Burdick just entering his age-27 season and still possessing six full seasons of club control, there’s always the off chance that he makes some strides following the change of scenery and forces his way into a longer-term role than anticipated at the time of acquisition, similar to Ryan O’Hearn last offseason.
That’s not the Baltimore & Miami trade that was expected…
Agreed. Seems like they are just hedging against some of their older 4th outfield type guys that are starting to run out of options like McKenna.
Burdick had pretty good numbers early on in his minors career (and rose up the ranks fast). Maybe the Orioles see something they can work on.
The Orioles have a Birdick
How much cash? They never say. Probably don’t want to hurt the players feelings by saying you weren’t worth that much
Cash sounds better than a bucket of balls.
It’s usually not much, sometimes can be as low as a dollar.
Cash Considerations about to be the Marlins best offseason acquisition
I wonder about all the information that’s NOT in this article. Why even write it? Why post it? Insert eye roll here-
They normally will get a blurb out quickly while they work on fleshing out the full article (hence the “more to come” note at the end).
Honestly, they do it pretty often on this site so I’m surprised you’re not familiar or otherwise taking umbrage with it.
The article was for more informative and useful than your comment. Take your criticism and eye rolls to a different site if this one isn’t for you. The large majority of use are appreciative of real time updates and the MLBTRs writers’ efforts
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Jud Fabian clone.
On the surface, they appear similar. Those BAs! phew!!!
Those are some PRODIGIOUS strikeout numbers. Dude K’ed 180 times in 420 ABs, in AAA.
Adam Dunn watches him play and says “Bro, cut down on your 2 strike swing a bit?”
Based on this write-up, the guy sounds like a poor man’s DJ Stewart. Never thought I’d used that phrase…
That’d be very poor. Dj never struck out close to that in the minors.
And I doubt he could compare to DJ’s one-man Keystone Cops impersonation in the outfield.
Related to Orioles Mike?
The Orioles player was Mike Bordick, not Burdick.
But there was a Zach Burdi recently.
One of my old band names: Bored Dick.
Peyton is an outfielder going to the Orioles. What are the chances he ever gets a major league at bat again?
How the mighty have fallen. A couple of years back Burdick looked like a great prospect. He could force his way on to the roster since he can play an above average CF. He just hasn’t shown he can hit enough at the major league level.
Feel like the Marlins could’ve done a little better here, this guy has the potential to be a HoF’er if he could just learn to actually hit the ball while missing it a whole hell of a lot less. With the new guy coming in and purging all the star talent Kim built up in guys like Groshans and Burdick, theyre about to lose me as a fan if they dont bring back Wendle.
Damn it! I just realized Wendle signed with the Mets. Thats it, im done.
Bleday, Burdick, & Brinson were supposed to take over for the homegrown outfield of Stanton, Ozuna, & Yelich. Our “killer Bs” outfield developed into the “honey Bs” outfield. All we have to show for our former stars is Sandy… DEREK!!!!
Can’t really blame Kim for Burdick though. That was inherited mess. The previous regime didn’t seem to care if you could make contact.
Brinson, Bleday, Burdick.
All of them were good at swinging and missing.
“Swing away Merril…swing away.”
I could have been a HOF’er too if I could have learned to hit the ball and not miss.
How many .200 hitters do the orioles need to keep acquiring?
if you can add a couple of them together, they can chase Ted Williams’s 0.400.
seriously, surprising pick up by the O’s. I get that prospect pedigree but high K batters are not typically Elias’ targets. I guess he sees something to fix or it’s just some brief insurance to see if Mateo can fill the CF depth or not, that’s really the only place that they’re thin on depth in.
He’s AAA depth. The odds that he plays more than 10 innings at the major league level this year are slim, and dependent on a *whole* lot of unexpected injuries.
This is the kind of low level transaction all teams do.
Or trades. The O’s have quite a number of guys on expiring or near expiring contracts like Santander and Mullins.
@Mac
Have to disagree with you about high K guys. Elias grabs quite a few high K guys that he believes can be developed or reworked.
@BrianS
Hope the dev staff see something they can fix. A third of his ABs ending in a K is giving me Joey Gallo vibes. And I hope we don’t need to test their experiment anytime soon.
Obviously Burdick is tough to compete with since he K’s at a ridiculous rate. But he’s similar to Jud Fabian who we took with the comp pick a few years ago.
Let’s hope they are not trying Mateo as a backup option in CF. He’s not a major league hitter.
Please jettison the space occupiers of HIlliard, McKenna, and Mateo. The team needs to be better than this. Plenty of depth available in the minors with options.
Plus-plus power and high strike out rate- where have we seen this before?
How hard is it to realized and then instruct and accept to STOP swinging from your heels and make contact under a controlled swing. The power for rewards will be there, but you have to make contact.
If he hasn’t learned it yet, he’s unlikely to at age 27. Right now he is what he is.
I was trying to recall who this guy would remind me of in Orioles history. He is on the cusp of being a true 3 outcome guy, BB/KO/HR. The only name that comes to mind is Jack Cust. But, Cust walked a LOT more, had tons of power, but he was a horrendous outfielder.
He is supposedly a plus defender. Has a good arm and has logged over 1000 innings in CF and around 1400 in LF in the minors. If he’s forced into action for the Orioles, it is with the expectation of not expecting much. You know what he is. He’ll be more than solid defensively which is important, you’ll get some walks, you’ll get a lot of strikeouts, and you’ll get some pop. It would be really doubtful he gets much play in the crowded OF the Orioles have, but he’s good organizational depth.
Right, not Burdick is not at all like Jack Cust.
That was a double negative.