Baltimore Orioles – All Quiet on the Baseball Front
By Nate Wardle
Right now, Baltimore is not exactly a quiet town. There is the aftermath of a trial that was long-awaited, a trial without a true verdict. There is the myriad of injuries to the team’s proud football franchise, which has not seen times this hard in years.
UPDATE: Of course I write about all being quiet, then Dan Duquette makes a move. The Orioles signed Hyun-Soo Kim to a two year, $7 million dollar deal on Wednesday night, which will be made official on either Thursday or Friday. Kim is a player who could very well be a starting outfielder and lead-off hitter next season, possessing the strong on-base percentage the team so desperately needed. More on this signing to come from The Baltimore Wire.
Now…back to the regular programming —
To borrow from the historical book and movie, all is quiet on the baseball front.
The team signed Darren O’Day, which was expected to happen about a week earlier. Other than that, the team is waiting.
That isn’t to say all of baseball is quiet as we approach the Christmas holiday.
On Wednesday, the Reds traded All-Star and Home Run Derby Champion Todd Frazier to the Chicago White Sox in a three-team deal that also involved the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mark Reynolds also signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Rockies. These was some talk here of Frazier possibly being a fit, and Reynolds of course is still adored by some O’s fans, although I don’t think there was any interest in a reunion.
On Tuesday, the Jason Heyward signing with the Chicago Cubs was made official. Also, reliever Jerry Blevins re-signed with the New York Mets
On Monday, the O’s made the O’Day signing official, as mentioned above. The Philadelphia Phillies signed former Oriole J.P. Arencibia to a minor league deal with a Spring Training Invite. Steve Cishek, a reliever who would have been a good fit if O’Day did not return, signed in Seattle.
On Saturday, the Philadelphia Philles made a big trade official, and made another trade as well. The team traded for Charlie Morton from the Pittsburgh Pirates for a minor leaguer, and also traded closer Ken Giles to Houston, along with a minor leaguer, for Brett Oberholtzer, Vincent Velazquez, two top of the draft pitchers; Mark Appel and Thomas Eshelman, and another minor leaguer.
As you can see, the baseball world is not sitting on its hands, waiting for January to come. Teams are still making moves.
Dan Duquette is still making moves, they just aren’t visible.
I’m still holding him to his comment of having a lot of the team built by Christmas. Well, yesterday he said the baseball world kind of shuts down after December 23rd.
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That gives Duquette one week to start to form his team. There are numerous players linked to the O’s. We’ve been over them ad nauseam.
If it was me, I would sign Hyun-soo Kim, the Japanese outfielder the team has offered a contract to << Breaking news on Wednesday night – it has been done >>. I would sign Alex Gordon. And then I would sign Scott Kazmir. And, if there is still money left (which, if Duquette’s offer to Davis and need for pitching are accurate, there should be), then I would go get Henderson Alvarez.
What would you do to fill the gaps on the Baltimore Orioles roster?