When the Orioles signed Mark Trumbo for three years and $37.5 million before the 2017 season, they weren’t doing so for his glove. After coming over in an offseason trade, Trumbo produced a career-best.358 wOBA and 125 wRC+ in 2016. But, as he did in previous seasons, he also ranked near the bottom among all major league outfielders in defensive metrics like Ultimate Zone Rating, Defensive Runs Saved, and Outs Above Average.



The woes of his glove were a bit more tolerable when he was adding value at the plate, but then the presence of his bat didn’t work out as planned in 2017. He had a year to forget — among 10 qualified designated hitters, Trumbo’s 80 wRC+ in 2017 was only better than Albert Pujols (78) and Carlos Beltran (76). And out of 145 major leaguers who had at least 500 plate appearances, Trumbo’s wRC+ tied for 133rd. Of those players, only one had an fWAR lower than Trumbo’s -1.2 (Pujols, at -1.9).



So what went wrong?