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AL East Notes: Bautista, Gurriels, Bruce, Snell

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Blue Jays president of baseball operations Mark Shapiro spoke with the media for the first time since reports of Jose Bautista’s staggering asking price of move than five years and $150MM, and downplayed the story to some extent, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet writes. “Every spring training there are contractual situations that come up,” said Shapiro. “You manage them as effectively as possible, always maintaining the focus on what we’re out here to do as a team, and to win a championship.” Shapiro went on to explain that any comments he would have regarding Bautista’s contract would be made directly to Bautista himself or to Bautista’s representation. “For me, respecting the process and the player means you don’t comment on any of those things publicly,” the longtime executive continued. As Shapiro notes, difficult decisions on franchise players nearing the expiration of their contract aren’t exactly uncharted waters for him. In his time at the helm for the Indians, Shapiro dealt with similar situations with franchise legends like Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel, he points out.

Here’s more from the AL East…

  • The Red Sox will likely take a pass on Cuban brothers Yulieski Gurriel and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., reports Sean McAdam of CSN New England. The Red Sox, of course, are barred from signing the younger Gurriel, Lourdes Jr., for more than $300K after shattering their bonus pool on Yoan Moncada last offseason, but even in the absence of spending restrictions, McAdam’s source indicates that Boston wouldn’t be much of a player. The Sox have expensive veterans in the infield (Dustin Pedroia and Pablo Sandoval) plus a large array of controllable talent at shortstop (Xander Bogaerts) and in the outfield (Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley and the well-compensated but unproven Rusney Castillo). As such, the team doesn’t have much room on the roster for any sort of additions in the short- or long-term at the brothers’ respective positions.
  • Dexter Fowler’s late demand of an opt-out clause from the Orioles and his subsequent decision to sign a one-year deal with the Cubs could end up being a break for the Reds, tweets Jon Heyman, as Baltimore’s focus could turn back to Jay Bruce, whose trade to the Blue Jays recently fell through due to one of the other players involved in the would-be swap.
  • How would an extension work between Blake Snell – a player without service time – and the Rays?  Craig Edwards of Fangraphs looked at the different possibilities.
  • On Thursday, Orioles exec Dan Duquette and agent Casey Close both commented on the Fowler situation.

Dan Duquette, Agent Casey Close Comment On Dexter Fowler Situation

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Fans and media members alike were shocked this morning when the Cubs announced that they had re-signed Dexter Fowler to a one-year deal, just days after the Baltimore media and a number of national reporters broke the news of a three-year agreement between Fowler and the Orioles. Fowler’s agent, Casey Close of Excel Sports Management, vehemently denies that an agreement was ever in place, however, and even went so far as to say that the two sides were ever even nearing a deal. Close felt strongly enough about what he terms “irresponsible behavior” on the team’s behalf to issue a release with the following statement:

“In my 25 years in this business, never before have I witnessed such irresponsible behavior on so many fronts. Both the Orioles front office and members of the media were so busy recklessly spreading rumors that they forgot or simply chose not to concern themselves with the truth. The Orioles’ willful disregard of collectively bargained rules governing free agency and the media’ eager complicity in helping the Orioles violate those rules are reprehensible. Dexter Fowler never reached agreement with the Orioles and did not come close to signing with the club; any suggestion otherwise is only a continuation of an already disturbing trend.”

Close’s comments are among the most scathing public-facing remarks from an agent or executive that I can recall seeing, and his clear intent is to communicate that his agency in no way contributed to any reports of Fowler’s alleged agreement with Baltimore. That, then, would imply that the information (or, rather, misinformation) came from the team’s side of the equation, though executive vice president and general manager Dan Duquette said today at Yovani Gallardo’s introductory press conference that he was never under the impression that a deal was in place. Via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko:

“We made a very competitive offer,” Duquette explained. “There was not an agreement to terms because they kept insisting on an opt-out. I don’t see, club ownership doesn’t see the value in that type of arrangement to the Orioles. If we are going to guarantee a contract, it should be a contract.”

The Orioles have reportedly been staunchly against opt-out clauses throughout the duration of the offseason, and while initial reports of talks with both Gallardo and Fowler included mention of opt-out provisions, the ultimately reported agreements (and, in Gallardo’s case, announced agreement) did not include opt-out clauses. Notably, Kubtako writes that while the Orioles will not publicly acknowledge that they believed an agreement to be in place, “multiple sources within the organization” confirmed to him earlier this week that there was an agreement in place, and other reporters followed suit with confirmation of the agreement.

Beyond all of that, the arguable face of the Orioles’ franchise, Adam Jones, went on record with multiple reporters (including ESPN’s Jayson Stark and the Baltimore Sun’s Eduardo A. Encina) discussing his excitement over the addition of Fowler. Jones went so far as to say that he spoke to Fowler himself. “I spoke to him,” Jones told Stark. “He’s excited. He should be on his way here now.” Whatever belief that the Orioles had that an agreement with Fowler had been reached, it trickled down out of the front office. And, if Jones’ comments are accurate, it would seem that Fowler himself at least seemed optimistic about the possibility of a deal being consummated.

What isn’t clear, then, is what specifically led those who believed a deal had been struck to come to that conclusion. Duquette’s comments today signified that the opt-out clause was a persistent sticking point from Fowler’s camp, and it should be noted that Close/Excel are the leaders in the opt-out charge; Close represents Zack Greinke, Masahiro Tanaka, Clayton Kershaw and Jason Heyward — each of whom has secured an opt-out clause in recent contracts (multiple opt-outs, in Heyward’s case). As such, it seems reasonable to expect that an opt-out clause was indeed a longstanding request from Fowler’s camp. However, reports today characterized the insistence on an opt-out as a last-minute wrench thrown into talks, thus serving as the impetus for Fowler’s return to Chicago.

Clearly, there’s no benefit for either involved party to have word of a deal leak out when it isn’t true, but something appears to have either been lost in translation during negotiations or been altered late in the game. The definitive level of transparency required to know exactly what transpired — if that level of clarity even exists one way or the other — isn’t likely to ever be publicly available, however.

Orioles, Yovani Gallardo Agree To Restructured Deal

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7:54am: The Orioles have announced the deal. A press conference is scheduled for 1:45pm. In a related move, Baltimore has designated Efren Navarro for assignment.

FEB 24, 6:24pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the option would bring the deal’s total value to $33MM, if exercised. Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports that Gallardo will earn $9MM in 2016 and $11MM in 2017 (Twitter link). The option is a $13MM club option with a $2MM buyout.

6:14pm: Jon Heyman reports that the new contract will guarantee Gallardo $22MM over two years (Twitter link).

5:52pm: The Orioles and right-hander Yovani Gallardo have agreed to a restructured contract, reports MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko (links to Twitter). The new contract is a two-year deal that contains a club option for a third year, per Kubatko, who adds that the contract “is done.” The Octagon client had originally agreed to a three-year, $35MM pact, but his physical exam revealed a shoulder issue that reportedly gave the Orioles trepidation about those terms.

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Gallardo, 30 on Saturday, will slot into an Orioles rotation that was in desperate need of some stability. While he won’t give Baltimore the front-end starter that many feel it requires (and that Gallardo looked to be earlier in his career), he’ll provide manager Buck Showalter with a durable arm to deploy alongside fellow right-handers Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman, Miguel Gonzalez and Ubaldo Jimenez. The addition of Gallardo likely pushes right-hander Vance Worley out of the rotation, creating somewhat of a crunch in the bullpen, where T.J. McFarland had been poised to be the team’s long man.

The 2015 campaign marked Gallardo’s first season in the American League after having spent his entire career with the Brewers. The Mexican-born righty worked to a strong 3.42 ERA in 184 1/3 innings of work, though his strikeout rate (5.9 K/9) and walk rate (3.3 BB/9) each took notable steps back from his final season with Milwuakee. That decline in strikeout rate marked the third consecutive season in which Gallardo’s K/9 rate had dipped, having fallen all the way from 9.0 back in 2012 to last year’s rate; on a perhaps related note, the 90.4 mph which Gallardo averaged on his fastball in 2015 was a career-low and a considerable departure from the 92.4 mph he averaged from 2009-12.

Statistical red flags aside, Gallardo maintained the improved ground-ball rate that he’s displayed over the past three seasons and he once again avoided the disabled list. Gallardo has never been on the DL due to an arm injury — his most notable injury was a torn ACL suffered in 2008, though he recovered and pitched excellently in the four seasons to follow — and he’s made 30 or more starts in each season since 2009. Critics will note that Gallardo, while durable, doesn’t necessarily profile as an innings eater due to the fact that he doesn’t go particularly deep into games (indeed, he averaged just under 5 2/3 innings per start last year), the Orioles do possess a rather solid bullpen that can help to mask any per-start innings questions that arise with Gallardo.

Once official, the Gallardo signing and the reported agreement with outfielder Dexter Fowler will mean that the Orioles are forfeiting their top two picks in the 2016 Rule 4 Draft this June. (The Rangers, in turn, will receive a compensatory pick between the first and second round of the draft.) For a club that recently rated among the worst farm systems in the game according to ESPN and Baseball America, that’s a significant blow, but the Orioles’ clear offseason message is that present-day winning takes precedence over the club’s minor league system at time. Baltimore has re-signed Chris Davis to a seven-year, $161MM contract, re-signed Darren O’Day to a four-year, $31MM contract, agreed to a three-year, $33MM deal with Fowler, seen Matt Wieters accept a $15.8MM qualifying offer and signed Korean outfielder Hyun Soo Kim to a two-year, $7MM pact. Add in Gallardo’s $22MM, and that creates a total free-agent spend of $269.8MM, which doesn’t even include the $9.15MM in payroll that Baltimore absorbed in trading for presumptive designated hitter Mark Trumbo.

Much has been and will continue to be made of the Orioles’ stringent standards when it comes to the requisite physical exams that come along with free-agent signings, but their physical being tough to pass is nothing new. As recently as the 2013-14 offseason, the O’s scrapped a two-year deal for reliever Grant Balfour and a one-year deal for Tyler Colvin due to concerns that arose with the duo’s medical evaluations, and their history of either restructuring contracts or backing out of them entirely based on physicals dates all the way back to their 1998 pursuit of right-hander Xavier Hernandez. Kubatko took a lengthy look at the club’s history of controversial physical exams this morning.

AL East Links: Teixeira, Orioles, Bautista

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Though Mark Teixeira has been plagued by injuries in recent years, the first baseman told reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch) that he’s hoping to play for five more seasons.  “My body feels so good, why not play until I’m 40? Being the kind of hitter I am, I can be a DH the last few years of my career, which could really prolong it. I would love to play that long,” Teixeira said, also noting that he wants to remain with the Yankees after his contract expires this winter.  That could be somewhat of a tricky prospect given that New York has Greg Bird as its first baseman of the future and Alex Rodriguez in the DH role through the 2017 season.  Still, Teixeira hit .255/.357/.548 with 31 homers in a fine bounce-back campaign last year, so he can shown that he can still produce if he can remain healthy.  Here’s some more from around the AL East…

  • The holdup in Yovani Gallardo’s agreement has delivered a fresh round of criticism towards the Orioles and their high (perhaps overly high) standards in player physicals.  As MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko observes, however, avoiding some of these contracts has often been to the club’s benefit.  Many of the players the O’s opted not to sign due to health reasons proceeded to decline, either due to injury or simply subpar performance.
  • An Orioles staff member also defended the team’s stance on physicals to Peter Gammons, noting that after the O’s backed out of an agreement with Grant Balfour two years ago, Balfour has since badly struggled.  Despite the criticism, the Orioles “were right. Dan [Duquette] didn’t deserve the grief he took,” the staff member said.  “And if this is what the doctor thinks, why would we pay Gallardo half the amount? If he’s hurt, Peter [Angelos] and Dan don’t owe him anything.”  Gammons also hears from two Orioles pitchers that Gallardo’s issue is “really unfortunate” and “apparently pretty serious.”
  • By setting a high and seemingly inflexible price on a contract extension, Jose Bautista has made it easy for the Blue Jays to part ways with the slugger after the season, Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star opines.
  • Dave Dombrowski has shown a willingness to cut ties with underperforming players regardless of contract status, as the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier recalls the Tigers’ 2003 release of Damion Easley when Dombrowski was Detroit’s general manager.  Now that Dombrowski is in charge of the Red Sox, his presence could put added pressure on 2015 struggles such as Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, Rick Porcello and Rusney Castillo to improve.  (Though with the obvious caveat that eating any of those contracts would cost Boston much more than it cost Detroit to part ways with Easley.)

Possible Snag In Deal Between Orioles, Yovani Gallardo

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TUESDAY: The Orioles are expected to try and restructure their agreement with Gallardo, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link), and it’s unlikely that the matter will be resolved quickly.  It’s a rather risky move on the Orioles’ part, as Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun observes that Gallardo’s camp may well not be willing to renegotiate terms.  The team would have to be confident it has the internal pitching depth to fill the rotation spot Gallardo would’ve filled, as other available free agent starters will likely come with more injury red flags than Gallardo and may have an even harder time passing the Orioles’ strict physical standards.

7:26pm: The Orioles’ issue with Gallardo is concern over his shoulder, according to Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun (links to Twitter). However, as Encina notes, Gallardo doesn’t have a history of shoulder problems, and it’s rare that a 30-year-old pitcher’s shoulder will be 100 percent clean. He further tweets that the Orioles are likely being “super cautious” due to the draft pick forfeiture that is associated with Gallardo, and if Gallardo did not come with that price, the shoulder may not be perceived as a significant issue. Kubatko tweets that the Orioles hope to get the results of additional testing on Gallardo back tomorrow.

2:29pm: It isn’t known whether the Orioles could try to restructure their agreement with Gallardo or back out of it altogether, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter links).  Beyond the $35MM commitment, the Orioles are also concerned at having to surrender the 14th overall pick for a player they may feel isn’t up to par physically.

11:23am: The status of the three-year, $35MM agreement between the Orioles and right-hander Yovani Gallardo is “unclear” following some questions that have arisen in Gallardo’s phyiscal, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter).  MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko tweeted word from a source that there was “more work to do” on the physical before anything was made official between the two sides, and the team wanted another look at Gallardo’s MRI.

As Passan noted, the Orioles are “notorious medical sticklers,” so it could that this is simply another case of the team being very careful before committing to a major contract.  While it’s unusual for a player physical to extend over two days, it’s perhaps not unexpected given Baltimore’s history.

This offseason’s signing splurge notwithstanding, the O’s have generally been hesitant about any sort of major free agent signing under Peter Angelos’ ownership.  On several occasions, the Orioles have backed out of agreements with players such as Will Clark, Aaron Sele, Grant Balfour and Jair Jurrjens due to complications that arose from those players’ physicals.  As Ken Rosenthal related in a 2013 column about the Balfour controversy, the now-standard practice of teams insisting on physicals before signing players stemmed from the Orioles voiding a 1998 contract with Xavier Hernandez when a post-signing examination revealed Hernandez had a torn rotator cuff.

It isn’t known what specific issue Baltimore has with Gallardo’s physical, as he has been more or less injury-free since a pair of knee injuries in 2008.  In fact, Gallardo has been one of the game’s more durable starters in recent years, averaging 191 innings per season since 2009.

Orioles To Sign Dexter Fowler

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7:15pm: Jon Heyman tweets that Fowler’s contract is worth $33MM over three years.

6:27pm:  In a full column, Kubatko adds that there is also not an opt-out clause in the deal, which is still pending the ever-important physical.

6:13pm: The Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck tweets that Fowler’s contract doesn’t contain any options. He also notes that the deal with Gallardo may yet survive the issues with his physical.

5:37pm: The Orioles and outfielder Dexter Fowler have agreed to terms on a three-year deal, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko reports (via Twitter). The contract will be worth about $35MM in total, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney (on Twitter). Fowler is a client of Excel Sports Management.

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Fowler becomes the second potentially significant free agent addition for the Orioles over the past week, as the team also agreed to a three-year pact with right-hander Yovani Gallardo over the weekend. However, there’s said to be a holdup in that deal relating to Gallardo’s medicals. It at least bears mentioning that Fowler’s agreement would seem to fall closely in line with the three-year, $35MM deal to which Gallardo agreed. However, a deal in this range for Fowler was rumored to be a possibility before the Orioles even reportedly agreed to terms with Gallardo, and there is not yet any indication that Fowler’s deal is some kind of reallocation of the funds that were to be allotted to Gallardo. Should both deals remain in place, the pair of late agreements will hearken back to the Orioles’ February additions of Nelson Cruz and Ubaldo Jimenez in 2014.

Fowler, 30 in March, should be penciled in as the everyday right fielder in Baltimore, as Adam Jones is locked into center field and offseason signee Hyun Soo Kim is said to be the team’s left fielder. (Baltimore reportedly doesn’t feel Kim has the arm strength for right field.) Fowler will bring to the top of the Orioles’ lineup a strong history of getting on base as well as moderate power and speed. The switch hitter is coming off a season in which he batted .250/.346/.411 with a career-best 17 home runs to go along with 20 stolen bases for the Cubs. He tacked on another pair of homers and another steal over the life of 39 postseason plate appearances with the Cubs, during which time he posted an .816 OPS. All told, Fowler is a career .267/.363/.418 hitter in 3830 Major League plate appearances. While he was at one time believed to be a product of Coors Field — his home park throughout the first four full seasons of his big league career — Fowler has quieted some of that talk by maintaining solid levels of production in Houston and Chicago after being traded in each of the past two offseasons.

From a defensive standpoint, metrics such as Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved have never been bullish on Fowler’s work in center field, though he could certainly profile more favorably with the shift to an outfield corner. Even if he doesn’t prove to be a standout defender in right field, he should provide superior glovework to internal candidates such as Mark Trumbo, Nolan Reimold and Ryan Flaherty.

If a deal is completed, the Orioles would forfeit their top unprotected draft pick by adding Fowler to the fold. Should the deal for Gallardo also be completed, Baltimore would be sacrificing the 14th and 28th overall picks in the upcoming Rule 4 Draft (their current second pick, No. 29 overall, would improve to No. 28 upon forfeiture of the No. 14 pick). The Cubs, in turn, would pick up a draft pick at the end of the first round. The loss of those two picks for the Orioles certainly further damages Baltimore’s minor league system, which was recently rated among the worst in the league by outlets such as Baseball America and ESPN. Then again, the Orioles are in a clear win-now mode after re-signing Chris Davis and Darren O’Day this offseason (to say nothing of the Kim signing and Matt Wieters’ acceptance of the qualifying offer); the organization’s current focus, as evidenced by the agreements with Gallardo and Fowler, is on the present-day roster and making a run at the AL East.

Furthermore, as I recently outlined in the MLBTR Mailbag and discussed with Jeff Todd on the MLBTR Podcast, the Orioles could always shift course and aim for an aggressive rebuild midway through the 2017 season or in the 2017-18 offseason if the next two years don’t go as planned. With Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Jones, Fowler and Gallardo all lined up to hit free agency following the 2018 campaign, they’d have a huge number of short-term assets to be flipped for long-term gain. And, if the Orioles enjoy a strong run buoyed by this pair of late signings, the hit to the farm system will become little more than a footnote.

Should both deals ultimately come to fruition at the reported $35MM price tag, the Orioles will finish up the offseason as baseball’s most prolific spenders. The price tags on Fowler, Gallardo, Davis ($161MM), O’Day ($31MM), Wieters ($15.8MM) and Kim ($7MM) would bring the team’s free-agent expenditures to a staggering $284.8MM, to say nothing of the $9.15MM worth of salary added in acquiring Trumbo from the Mariners and avoiding arbitration with him on a one-year deal.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

AL East Notes: Machado, Desmond, Rays, Atkins, Bautista

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Here’s the latest from around the AL East…

  • Manny Machado talked to reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko) about several topics in a media session today, including his happiness that Chris Davis, Matt Wieters and Darren O’Day are all still Orioles.  The team’s willingness to spend this offseason “brings out hope” that Machado will also be able to sign a new contract to remain in Baltimore, as he desires.  “They’re trying to keep everybody here.  That’s good for me.  I hope they keep me here for [the] long term,” Machado said.  “But the case is, you can’t really sign everybody.  You can’t bring everybody back.  But it’s just part of the business, people you can bring back, people who you can’t, people who won’t be.  But I think we’re making an effort of bringing everybody back, keeping the same clubhouse, the same core.”
  • It’s “still quite unlikely” that Ian Desmond will sign with the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  Desmond’s list of possible suitors got even thinner yesterday when the White Sox signed Jimmy Rollins to address the shortstop position.  The Rays have had some talks with Desmond, but the sticking point is the Rays’ unwillingness to surrender its first round draft pick (the 13th overall selection) to make the signing, as Desmond is a qualifying offer free agent.
  • In a session with reporters (including Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi) this morning, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins gave no comment on either Jose Bautista’s contract ultimatum or the reportedly off-the-table trade involving Jay Bruce and Michael Saunders.  In regards to Bautista, Atkins said any extension talks between the team and the slugger won’t be made public, as “in relation to the negotiation, out of respect for him, out of respect for the Blue Jays organization, we just can’t get into the specifics of it.”
  • In another piece from Davidi, he characterized the Blue Jays’ decision on Bautista as a bellwether of how the club plans to operate in the near future beyond the 2016 season, in regards to both spending and fielding a contender.

AL East Notes: Vazquez, Rays, O’s, Marmol, Shreve

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Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez seems to be ahead of schedule in his rehab from Tommy John surgery, writes WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford.  Vazquez tells Bradford that he had a scare last week when he felt some discomfort in his surgically repaired right elbow, but the doctors informed him that it stemmed from muscle pain and scar tissue as opposed to any sort of notable setback in his recovery.  Vazquez is already throwing to bases from behind the plate, though Bradford notes that it’s unclear if he’ll be ready for game action when games kick off on Feb. 29.  Here’s some more from around the AL East…

  • Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that the Rays’ focus on adding bats this winter will not only help the offense, but also help the pitching staff and bullpen by theoretically sparing them from so many close games.  “When we’re playing in one-run games every night, it’s tough. It’s tough to piece together the innings and make sure that we keep everyone fresh,” president of baseball operations Matt Silverman said.
  • There’s no reason to worry about Yovani Gallardo passing his physical with the Orioles, based on what Eduardo Encina of The Baltimore Sun hears.  Encina also points out that though Gallardo turns 30 later this month, the righty has a strong track record of durability.  Gallardo’s physical is said to have taken place around noon today, so the deal could potentially be finalized and formally announced by the team at some point this afternoon.
  • The Orioles have been heavily connected to Dexter Fowler, though they’re also looking at other position player options, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets.  Pedro Alvarez, who was rumored as a Baltimore target earlier this offseason, is still being considered by the team.
  • The Red Sox believe that Carlos Marmol can be a relief force again after correcting a flaw in his delivery, WEEI.com’s John Tomase writes.  Marmol’s already-shaky control was worsened by a high arm slot over the last two years, as observed by Boston director of pitching analysis and development Brian Bannister.  If this theory is correct and Marmol can get back on track, the Sox may have landed a big strikeout reliever at the cost of just a minor league deal.
  • The Yankees’ big three bullpen aces have drawn much of the attention this winter, though the rest of New York’s relief corps will also play an important role in the team’s success.  To this end, Chasen Shreve will be a big figure for the Yankees, though his late-season fade is a concern, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes.  Fatigue or over-thinking may have played a role in Shreve’s late-season struggles, though Brian McCann feels that Shreve was tipping his pitches.

AL East Notes: Dickey, Blue Jays, Orioles, Fowler

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Blue Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey revealed to reporters that he underwent surgery at the end of last year to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, as Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com tweets. Dickey was the subject of trade rumors over the winter but the club denied actively shopping him.  It’s also not clear if the Blue Jays could have gotten much for the knuckleballer considering that he is entering his age-41 season, only under contract for 2016 and earning $12MM.  News of Dickey’s knee surgery probably doesn’t do much to help his trade value going forward, either.

Here’s more from the AL East:

  • Orioles veterans are happy to see the team continuing to make free-agent acquisitions, Eduardo A. Encina of The Baltimore Sun writes.   “He’s an awesome guy,” Hardy said of Yovani Gallardo, who was his teammate for a time. “Good pitcher. Obviously, you guys can see his numbers. He’s only had one losing season in, what is it, nine years? Great guy, great teammate. He’ll fit right in.”    On Saturday night, the Orioles and Gallardo agreed to a three-year, $35MM deal with a $13MM club option for 2019.
  • The Orioles haven’t landed Dexter Fowler yet, but Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com says the O’s might as well part with two picks in order to fill the 2016 team’s main holes in the rotation and outfield.  Fowler would bring a capable leadoff hitter and table-setter with a healthy career on-base percentage and Melewski feels he would be well worth the draft pick compensation.
  • After signing Gallardo, Orioles manager Buck Showalter isn’t sure what the corresponding 40-man move will be, but he says it won’t necessarily be a pitcher, as Rich Dubroff of CSNMidAtlantic tweets.

Details On Orioles Pursuit Of Dexter Fowler

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The Orioles and Dexter Fowler are discussing a two-year, $24MM contract with an option, tweets Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. No word at this time if the two sides are nearing agreement or have only exchanged parameters.

Fowler, an on base threat with a career .363 OBP, would offer Baltimore much needed outfield and lineup depth. His presence would push Mark Trumbo to a much more comfortable designated hitter role. Fowler would also offer insurance – both in the field and atop the lineup – in case Korean import Hyun-soo Kim struggles to adjust to the majors.

Defensive metrics aren’t always a fan of Fowler’s work afield. For example, he posted -1.7 UZR last season but -21.8 UZR in 2014 (or if you prefer on a rate basis, -36.2 UZR/150). It’s worth noting that he’s spent his entire career in center field. Baltimore would likely use him in right or left field flanking Adam Jones. Even below average center fielders tend to be assets in the corners, and Fowler only needs to outperform the always shaky Trumbo to be a net defensive gain.

As mentioned, Fowler is an on base threat who could help to set the table for Jones, Chris Davis, and Manny Machado. His .346 OBP last season was one of the lowest of his career, but that mostly ties back to a career-worst .308 BABIP. He typically reaches base at a well above average rate on balls in play. His 12.2% walk rate was right in line with his career norms.

Notably, the Orioles have already agreed to sign free agent starter Yovani Gallardo earlier tonight. Both Fowler and Gallardo were extended a qualifying offer, meaning the O’s have to surrender a draft pick to sign them. If they ink Fowler, they’ll lose the 28th overall selection.

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