Orioles' Joey Rickard: May land in platoon for left field spot

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said the team plans to platoon Rickard (thumb) with Hyun Soo Kim in left field for 2017, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Analysis:

Based on his performance as a rookie last season, Rickard makes sense on the small side of a platoon -- he hit .313/.367/.494 against southpaws in 2016 (by comparison, he hit just .247/.296/.322 against righties). Much like Kim, Rickard offered very little in terms of homers (five) or steals (four) last season, but the duo might generate a steady number of runs scored if manager Buck Showalter uses them in a table-setting role.