The Orioles may have two third basemen to offer up this winter: Miguel Tejada and Melvin Mora.
Tejada’s mind would need to be changed – he still doesn’t want to move to third. But the Yankees do have interest, and I can think of 13 million reasons Tejada would change his stance. Tejada came up as part of the inclusive list I came up with the night A-Rod opted out. The Orioles’ focus would be to acquire position players, so you’d have to think Melky Cabrera or Robinson Cano would be targeted. Tyler Kepner adds that the Orioles would like to acquire Kyle Farnsworth in a Tejada deal. I doubt the Yankees would have a problem with that. The Yanks would have to make a very strong offer to convince the O’s to help their division rival.
One third baseman I didn’t include on my list was Melvin Mora. While Mora wants to remain with Baltimore, he said yesterday that he’d consider waiving his full no-trade clause if the Orioles asked him. They haven’t yet. Mora’s a below average offensive third baseman, hitting .274/.341/.418 last year. Mora will make roughly $17MM from 2008-09. He doesn’t figure to be a hot commodity.
