The Orioles say they are willing to spend money this winter and are using their offer to Mark Teixeira as an example. Teixeira, who eventually signed with the Yankees for $180 million last December, received a $140 million offer from Baltimore. "People are free to speculate about what (our payroll) it is. You can make educated guesses on where we might be. Those estimates that were written about are not terribly off the mark," president Andy MacPhail said. "We have some flexibility, we are not really saddled with any contracts at this point that we don't think we are getting production for. So we do think we have some flexibility going forward." MacPhail also spoke against critics that claim the franchise won't shell out the money for star players. "We offered over 140 million dollars to Teixeira, who could have just as easily accepted it and I wish he had. To think we wouldn't go out there or that offer somehow is not genuine is absurd. It's over twice what was offered in the history of the franchise before. "People should see now why we thought that was a legitimate get. If we could have had a switch-hitting, good defensive first baseman in the middle of a lineup that already had Roberts and Jones with Markakis, Reimold and Wieters, we would have had something special going forward for a while. "We have to be careful about who those (big dollar) players are. And I have to be responsible. Contracts of that magnitude, unless you are an extraordinarily wealthy club, can sink a franchise. You have to be judicious when you go out there. But we were out there a year ago."