Replacing Adam Jones atop the order

Orioles manager Buck Showalter doesn't know who's going to be playing right field next season, who's going to set up behind the plate, how the middle of his order will unfold. But he has a pretty good idea about the top of it.

Showalter wants a different leadoff hitter.

Adam Jones took over the role on May 27 in Cleveland, with Showalter attempting to jump start the center fielder's bat and an offense that slipped into one of its dormant stages. Jones made 108 starts and hit .282/.320/.471 with 13 doubles, 24 home runs, 64 RBIs, 26 walks, 80 strikeouts and 68 runs scored.

He also had to keep paying fines for not getting in the box at the designated time at home games, slowed by the trip from center field to the dugout - where he put on various forms of protective equipment - to home plate.

The charities benefited from it, but it still seemed unfair.

Showalter confirmed at Thursday's news conference that he wanted to change leadoff hitters.

"Adam did well there for a while and I think to take better advantage of his skills, in a perfect world he'd hit somewhere else in the order. That's something I'm hoping and I plan making happen," Showalter said.

"But it's actually quite a good reflection on Adam that he knows the club needed him to try to do that and he did it very well for an extended period of time. Certainly not prototype, it's not something that we wanted to do, but we just didn't have ... It fit in a lot of different ways.

"I was real proud of the way Adam embraced it and said, 'Whatever the club needs.' I'm not sure we'd be where we were if he hadn't done what he did for us for an extended period of time. It was tough doing it, but if not him, who? I gave him a special 'thank you' for it because a lot of guys with his status and his background would not have embraced it."

Joey Rickard led off in 40 games as a Rule 5 pick, but there are no guarantees that he breaks camp with the team now that he has minor league options. Hyun Soo Kim led off in two games and, while not a stolen base threat, makes sense based on his .382 on-base percentage and ability to work the count.

Michael Bourn would be a candidate if the Orioles re-sign him, but he might fit more as a backup outfielder.

In a perfect world, the Orioles would find a player with on-base skills who also has some pop. It doesn't have to be Mickey Rivers.

The top priority should be improving the team's OBP and basestealing. The Orioles ranked last with 19 steals and it wasn't close, the runner-up Cardinals having 35. Rickard led the team with four and he didn't play after July 20.

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