With starter Jeremy Guthrie entering his contract year, Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette felt compelled to send him to the Rockies for pitchers Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom, who can both be controlled for 2013. Duquette praised the strikeout-to-walk ratios of his new additions. Other notes from Duquette's conference call today:
- Duquette feels Hammel essentially replaces Guthrie's innings in the rotation, and Lindstrom represents a power arm at the back of the Orioles' bullpen. By the way, for the latest bullpen depth charts check out RotoAuthority, and for breaking news about stoppers follow @closernews on Twitter.
- Duquette didn't care to speculate on whether the Orioles would have retained Guthrie had he settled a month ago on a figure closer to the team's $7.25MM submission. He did note that he didn't think that salary was possible unless they won a hearing. Upon the trade Guthrie ended up settling below the midpoint, at $8.2MM.
- "We didn't have any offers of young prospects for Jeremy," Duquette told reporters.
- The Orioles top exec wouldn't comment on the Rangers' Koji Uehara, but he did say, "We would still like to strengthen our bullpen between now and Spring Training."
- Duquette admitted he's had exploratory talks with Manny Ramirez's agent and the Orioles have seen him work out, but added, "We are still considering the composition of this club, and some of the challenges of integrating a player like Manny into our ballclub and market."
The issue of Guthrie’s arbitration case and the reports surrounding it are interesting.
As are the reports that the O’s discussed Eric Young, Jr. in the trade.
lol Manny.
I’m wary of the O’s interest in Manny, but like that DD is aware of the “challenges of integrating” him into the club and market.
Duquette admitted he’s had exploratory talks with Manny Ramirez’s agent and the Orioles have seen him work out, but added, “We are still considering the composition of this club, and some of the challenges of integrating a player like Manny into our ballclub and market.”
What is Manny going to do for the O’s? Nothing, plus the fact it will alienate the remaining loyal fans! Furthermore, if Angelos only wants to bring in players such as Ramirez, why should we repay Angelos with buying season or even single game tickets? Players should meet to call Mutiny and fans should boycott. Bringing in a Jack Wagon like Ramirez brings nothing good to a franchise, especially to the Orioles. We don’t even take a sniff at Cody Ross or Aoki both of whom would have fitted in just fine in Baltimore, but Duquette and his “Thick Skull” still is considering Manny Ramirez a known cheat!
I don’t think it will alienate me…
I don’t understand the surprise/anger over rumors about Manny Ramirez.
First off, the Orioles have been making nonsense moves like this for the past 10 years.
Second, no one got upset when the Orioles brought back Miguel Tejada, a known cheater who was well past his sell-by date.
So… What’s the difference here?
I didn’t blog back then. Heck I didn’t even know what a computer was much less the earthly existence of MLB TR’s. :p
Tejada was a bum!
The signing Mike Gonzalez had me annoyed and alerted me that MacPhail had no clue, that and a few other moves was a precursor to Lefty.
On a more positive note, I see Blake DeWitt was just designated. I would give him a jingle, but that might be asking too much from Duquette.
What the hell was Duke smoking when he made this trade?
I am not familiar with Hammel, but VERY much so with Lindstrom and it shocks me to see interest in him.
Yet another closer the Fish were GLAD to throw out the door (like Gregg) and even tho he throws some SERIOUS gas, he often has -0- clue where it is going and easily crumbles on the mound/walking numerous batters in a row in tough situations.. Does that sound familiar.. The crumbling on the mound/walking too many in tough situations?
When the Astros show someone the door for failure.. You have to be pretty bad..
What’s even funnier is that everyone is going to be clambering extra hard to trade Adam Jones now. Do you really want to see what kind of awful trade value Duke could swing for Adam Jones?
Yup just wait til we wait to long to deal him. He either needs to be traded now or signed long term now.
I don’t think you read what I wrote.
So it looks like ” Captain Kaos ” now has a sidekick . Just what the O’s didn’t need :(
The curse of Angelos continues ………………
The O’s could sign Manny to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. If he does anything remotely close to his past, he goes on the restricted list until the middle of May, spends till the end of June in the minors and by that time, the O’s will know if the players they have are working out or not. If Manny bombs in the minors, they cut him loose and he retires. No risk involved, but if the O’s are playing good baseball, it gives them an option if he is tearing up triple A at the end of June.
There are plenty of bats on the market right now, even with just a little more than a week away from catchers and pitchers reporting to spring training. Why would any team want to sign Manny with a 50 game suspension looming? Vladimir G. and J. Damon should really consider coming down on their asking prices, because they’d respectively be better fits for the Orioles and any other team in need of a DH or off the bench bat. But Manny….please!
Not sure this is a looking-over-the-ledge worthy event for Orioles fans. Hammel has more upside than Guthrie, and you should be in the market for upside. Lindstrom isn’t a relief ace (did you think you’d get one for Jeremy Guthrie?) but he has shown he can get you some outs in the later innings. Think of it this way – Lindstrom can take some of the appearances scheduled for the likes of Jason Berken (40 games, 1.79 WHIP, .318 BAA in 2011).
I’d rather have one season of Guthrie, than two of Hammel and Lindstrom.
^ This.
Or maybe one well thought out trade for him…