AL East Notes: Anthopoulos, Sternberg, Rios, Orioles

The Orioles paid a steep price to acquire Francisco Rodriguez from the Brewers, ESPN's Keith Law opines, (Insider subscription required), given that Rodriguez will be a free agent this offseason.  The busy marketplace for relief pitching could be a boon to another AL East club if they decided to become sellers; "if a two-month rental of K-Rod gets a mid-level prospect, the Jays should shop Brett Cecil and Steve Delabar," Law tweets.

Here's the latest from around the AL East…

• Speaking of the Blue Jays, GM Alex Anthopoulos predicts a "quiet" trade deadline for his struggling team, Sportsnet's Shi Davidi reports (Twitter links).  The Jays are looking for players who are controlled beyond the 2013 season and not just rental players.  "From our standpoint, we’re having dialogue….I really don’t see us doing anything," Anthopoulos said. 
• The Rays are also likely to have a pretty uneventful deadline period, principal owner Stuart Sternberg told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) though they're always open to making moves.
• Jim Hendry, special assistant to Yankees GM Brian Cashman, attended tonight's Tigers/White Sox game, according to Meghan Montemurro of the Northwest Herald.  Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune speculates that the Yankees could be interested in Alex Rios as a backup plan if they fail to acquire Alfonso Soriano from the Cubs (both links are to Twitter).
• The Orioles may need to make some tough choices given the number of key players whose contracts are soon up, CSN Baltimore's Rich Dubroff writes.  Players like Chris Davis, Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters, J.J. Hardy and Jim Johnson are only under contract through 2015 at the latest and Nate McLouth, Scott Feldman and Jason Hammel are set for free agency this winter. 
• In other AL East news from earlier today….Dustin Pedroia agreed to a seven-year extension with the Red Sox, the baseball punditry weighed in on the Pedroia extension, we compiled a series of Red Sox notes, Alex Rodriguez plans to fight any possible PED suspension and the Yankees and Cubs continue to discuss a deal for Soriano.