Baltimore Orioles Wiretap

Orioles Could Bring Tejada Back

It's not out of the realm of possibility that the Orioles could bring free-agent Miguel Tejada back.

As ESPN's Buster Olney writes, Tejada didn't burn any bridges in his departure from Baltimore after four successful seasons with the club.

He could be a fit at third base to replace Melvin Mora and Olney reports that Orioles president Andy MacPhail is at the very least "open" to the idea.

Via ESPN

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Orioles Using Teixeira Offer To Show Willingness To Spend

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."

Via MASN

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Orioles Have Money To Spend

The Orioles could be big players in free agency.

Baltimore has just $29.5 million committed to six players for next season. After salary arbitration and renewals, their payroll should be around $45 million.

"It's the fun part of the job. This is the time for us to go up and hit," Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said. "Last year, we made a couple of trades, we signed five free agents. We were pretty active. Numerically, I think we'll be more active dollar-wise than we were last year. We're organized, we have our targets that we're going to go after, and we'll see how it goes and how the market unfolds."

Via Baltimore Sun

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