The rumor mill is slowly beginning to turn again with the end of what MASNsports.com's Roch Kubatko calls "baseball's dead zone" — the period of general inactivity between Christmas and New Year's Day. For Orioles fans, that means a return to clamoring for the club to make some impactful additions to its roster. (Baltimore's most expensive addition to date has been reliever Ryan Webb, who was non-tendered by the Marlins.) But, as Kubatko notes, there are a good number of high-quality players still available on the open market, many of whom have been linked to the O's in some manner. Here's more from the O's:
- The Orioles could be a legitimate landing spot for Kendrys Morales, Kubatko suggests. Baltimore is not concerned with his fielding, and is less hesitant to give up a draft pick than in years past, according to Kubatko.
- One other avenue for landing a bat, of course, is via trade. Kubatko says he has heard "rumblings" that executive VP Dan Duquette is working on a deal that could be nearing the stage of reviewing medicals.
- The O's have not made a sizeable free agent investment to date, though the club figures to be in on several remaining players, writes Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun. Morales, a starter such as Bronson Arroyo or A.J. Burnett, or a closer like Fernando Rodney remain realistic possibilities to land in Baltimore. Yet it remains fairly likely that the club will not ultimately add any of the better players left on the open market, Connolly opines.
- Otherwise, Duquette could focus on addressing the team's own players. J.J. Hardy is the most likely current player to land an extension in Connolly's estimation.
Kendrys Morales will go to yankees
No, he won’t. We have a very capable DH in Alfonso Soriano.
They have more than enough DHs already.
How do you know that?
He doesn’t.
That would be fantastic. Let them sign yet another bat who is limited in the field and ignore the pitching staff even further.
Any idea what the O’s budget is for 2014? Morales at DH on a short term deal & a one-year deal for Burnett would be huge. Closer wise I’d see if a combo of Hunter/O-Day can get it done.
Who closes against lefties? Hunter and O’Day both had lousy splits against them last year. Hunter does for his entire career, though O’Day was better against them before last year.
Webb has good splits. Wouldn’t rule him out.
Right now I’d say he would be a better choice than the other two
That’s my feeling as well. For some reason people seem to think it’ll be Hunter if we don’t sign anybody else, but I can’t understand why.
they will never go over 100 million.
The O’s should ink Joel Hanrahan to a minor league deal. Won’t cost much at all, and maybe they’ll get lucky
or maybe even a guy like Ryan Madson
As a fan of a division rival, I’d love for the Orioles to sign Joel Hanrahan
Why? It would be a very low-risk signing, and if he doesn’t look good this spring, he’d gone. Not like they are going to give him Papelbon money and say “you’re our guy”.
O’s is IMO one of very few clubs that could make sense for Morales. And they could probably get him pretty cheap. Turning down the QO wasn’t a very smart move.
3 years and 20 million total. That’s what I think he’ll have to settle with.
Is it really worth the draft pick? That’s my biggest concern.
Orioles pick 17th. The 17th picks since 2000 are: Ben Diggins, Dan Denham, Cole Hamels, David Murphy, Scott Elbert, CJ Henry, Matt Antonelli, Blake Beavan, David Cooper, AJ Pollock, Josh Sale, CJ Cron, DJ Davis, Tim Anderson. Other than Hamels, none of these guys comes close to Morales in value, though Murphy is a serviceable major-leaguer.
He will NOT sign for 3/$20M. No way, no how.
If he signs a 3 year deal it will be for at least $10M. More likely scenario is he signs a 1 year deal with a clause that prevents a QO next year. But even then the dollars won’t be less than $9M.
I assume you mean 10 million per year.
I seriously doubt that he can have a clause preventing a QO, as that is part of the CBA.
His other option is to sign a pillow contract for one year. I think that would land somewhere around 11 mil (Morales was “worth” 2.7 WAR in 2013 as per baseball-reference).
If Morales somehow improves his defence and proves he can play the field at least decent, I think he could get up to 14-15 mil per year on a shorter deal.
His power is legit.
What do you consider a “short term deal?” If any team is signing a player who requires draft pick compensation, inking that player to a deal anything less than four years would be a bit short-sighted. Realize that the signing team could lose the player and his replacement (draft pick player) and be forced into signing yet another free agent to fill the hole. That could start a nasty cycle that few teams can dig out of.
O’s in great shape for putting together an 82-85 win season. #Winning
How do you pronounce “Roch”?
Is it “Rotch” or is it “Rock”?
Rock
Rock
I think AJ Burnett makes to much sense for Baltimore. From there I agree with most that signing a “Big Name” closer does not make much sense. Rather I would like to roll the dice on Bailey, Madson, etc. a low risk high reward guy. And I disagree with signing Hardy to an extension, I think number one priority should be signing Machado long term, I don’t care about the knee and I think that could play into his mind about taking the guaranteed money and years now.
I like the idea of low risk, high reward closers for the O’s. Rodney scares me.
I’m surprised I haven’t heard any links of Morales to the Twins. They don’t have a regular DH. And as long as Mauer stays healthy, he won’t need to play much 1B at all.
Add in the fact that they recently traded Doumit to the Braves taking another potential DH/1B bat out of the mix for ABs.
They still need that DH spot open for Willingham and Arcia to rotate in there. Plus, the Twins aren’t a team that would usually give up a draft pick(2nd round) and pay pretty big money to a DH. Doumit was only making 3.5 million and Willingham is only making 7 next year!!!
Bummer. I was looking at them specifically because their first-rounder is protected. With Morneau gone I figured they’d have room for a DH. Really, that’s all Morales is good for. As an M’s fan I want the draft pick when Morales signs somewhere else. But if he ends up in Japan or something we get nada.
If the O’s are going to give up a draft pick, do it for an arm for the rotation. It isn’t too hard to fill a DH spot through free agency. And really, another bat would be nice, but I’d be more worried about the pitching first and then second base next. DH is low on the priorities to me.
Plus I just don’t like Morales as a fit. Unless the O’s don’t resign Davis next year, he would be stuck at DH and sucking up a good chunk of our budget. Plus he doesn’t really have any more upside. He’s a good hitter, but not for the contract he will demand.
I’d prefer Jimenez and Garza over Arroyo or Burnett due to their upside. But both are a bit of a head case. Santana may be the safest choice.
Morales isn’t going to cost much money. There really isn’t a market for the guy. My guess is he ends up signing for 2/15 or so, probably right before Spring Training when it’s clear he’s not getting the deal he wants.
He’d be much better off waiting until June and then signing with no strings attached. He will not eat that kind of money when he can sit out half a season and still score a better deal than that.
Orioles need pitching!! Why would they sign Morales if they have to give up there 1st round pick? That makes no sense at all to me.
Their hitting needs a lot of help too. They really don’t have any obp guys which = a lot of solo hrs.
Get Hardy and Davis resigned and then put a contract out to Arroyo and Morales. I think most fans would be happy with that.
Morales hitting behind Davis and Jones would give them some decent protection. I mean Kendrys is a solid bat. Can’t believe someone doesn’t give him a chance.
Only reason is most teams don’t want to give up a first round pick.
Britton for Ike Davis would make a lot sense to me.
If the O’s don’t do that and the gods decide to do something in “Charm City” and they sign Jimenez, then I would consider signing Morales.
A sandwich pick which isn’t that bad. I mean if you get a very solid player to help you win now I say go for it…signing Jimenez and Morales would IMO make Baltimore a legit favorite.
Orioles already traded their Sandwich pick, they’d lose their first which is the 17th pick.
Solid bat. Mostly a DH. Cost a draft pick because turned down $14+ mil guaranteed. I can see 3 years $33 mil or 4/ $44mil tops