Baltimore Orioles' Roster: Is There Room for Jake Fox With the Club?

Guess who leads the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues in home runs this spring? The answer is not a household name. The guy leading all of spring training in home runs in none other than the Baltimore Orioles’ Jake Fox.

Fox belting another HR against the New York Yankees on Tuesday and now has eight HRs this spring. That’s two more than the Washington Nationals’ Michael Morse.

I am guessing the Orioles didn’t expect this type of production from Fox this spring. Drafted in the third round of the 2003 June Draft by the Chicago Cubs, Fox has always been a Quadruple-A type player. That’s a player who is a superstar in the minor leagues, but never quite good enough at the Major League level.

Fox has a career .293/.357/.528 minor league slash line, but only .236/.285/.423 slash line at the Major League level. He also has a career 22.9 percent K Percentage and 4.9 percent BB Percentage in the big leagues.

So now the question is, do the Orioles have a spot for Fox on the 25-man roster? My answer is yes.

Fox’s best position is probably DH, but he can five positions—none of them well, but he can play them nonetheless. Fox can play first, third, left, right and catcher.

His best bet is to make the team might be as the backup catcher to Matt Wieters. Right now, the Orioles plan on using Craig Tatum (no relation to Hollywood John of WCCW fame) behind the plate, but he’s useless. Fox might be able to snag that job.

If not the backup catcher, then he should be able to make the team as a utility player. He could backup Derrek Lee at first or Luke Scott or Nick Markakis in left or right.

Bottom line, there should be a spot on the Orioles’ 25-man roster for Fox.

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