Has third base become an issue for the Orioles?

Do the Orioles have a problem at third base? Well, yes, in the sense that they don't have Manny Machado and the player that was replacing him, Chris Davis, has been suspended. The club is a bit down the depth chart at the position. Bringing further concern to the fanbase is the poor defensive play we are seeing at the hot corner. Ryan Flaherty's error last night at third led to two unearned runs. O's third basemen have made four errors in the last four games. Both Jimmy Paredes and Kelly Johnson made errors at third on Friday night, and Flaherty had errors there on Saturday and last night. So, yeah, that is not good. Looking ahead to the playoffs, I see Flaherty as the club's best option at third base. Despite his recent errors, he is the best defender there in my opinion. And in what could be close, low-scoring games in the American League Division Series, I put run prevention ahead of run production. Paredes has hit .350 as an Oriole and has a strong arm. But he has looked shaky over at third base and I just don't think the team can risk putting him there in the postseason. Johnson had a chance to come here and make a strong bid to start at third in the playoffs. He did have a big walk-off hit during the last homestand, but he's batting just .174 in 14 Orioles games. Meanwhile, in 20 games this month, Flaherty is hitting .275 with a .431 slugging percentage and a .793 OPS. Those are his best numbers of any month this season. We know Flaherty is a solid defender. We've seen it. Despite his recent errors, he can handle himself just fine at third. He looks to me to be the best option starting a week from Thursday. He has also started the past three games at third base, so maybe Buck Showalter has already begun the process of Flaherty taking over there. No, the Orioles don't have any All-Stars waiting in the wings to play at third. And while any starting player is important, I don't see the O's postseason fate being determined by which player starts there in the playoffs. As usual, the team's core players need to carry the load and pick up the slack, especially in the Orioles' biggest games of the season. But while we wait for those games, it would be nice to see a few games with some solid defense over at third base.