The Marlins have claimed outfielder Cristian Pache off waivers from the Orioles, reports Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Baltimore designated him for assignment two days ago. Pache is out of minor league options, so he’ll go right onto the big league roster. Miami has multiple 40-man vacancies after their deadline sell-off, so only a corresponding 26-man roster move will be necessary when the team announces the claim.
Pache, 25, is a former top prospect whose bat has never come around at the big league level. He’s still a lights-out defender in center field and can give the Marlins a standout defender at a position that’s been a point of weakness on the roster for several years now. In 119 plate appearances between the Phillies and Orioles this season, Pache is hitting .210/.297/.276 with a 36.1% strikeout rate. Overall, he’s a lifetime .181/.244/.274 hitter in 546 big league plate appearances.
Even with that dearth of offensive value, Pache’s glove made it seem like a virtual lock he’d be claimed by another team when the O’s designated him for assignment this week. He can handle any of the three outfield spots but has spent the bulk of his career in center field, where he was lauded as a true 80-grade defender during his prospect days. Defensive metrics bear that out. He’s played 1338 innings in the field in his major league career and been credited with 12 Defensive Runs Saved and an even gaudier 16 Outs Above Average. Pache “only” sits in the 77th percentile of big leaguers in terms of sprint speed, but his jumps, reads, instincts and arm strength are all so strong that he nevertheless stands out as one of the sport’s premier defensive talents.
Pache entered the season with 2.031 years of big league service time, and since he’s spending the whole year in the majors — again, he cannot be optioned — he’ll finish with 3.031 years. That’ll make him arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter and give Miami an additional three years of club control. He’s not going to hit for them, but the rebuilding Fish might simply be content to give him frequent playing time because of his defensive wizardry, knowing that if anything, the lack of offensive contributions is going to keep his price tag low during the arbitration process.