Erik Bedard and the Orioles reached an agreement on a one-year contract worth $3.4 million on Saturday, an accord that will keep the two sides from attending an arbitration hearing later in the month. The deal represented a small victory for Bedard, who had asked for a $4 million salary for the upcoming season. Baltimore countered with a $2.7 million offer, and the midpoint between the two proposals would've been $3.35 million. Bedard, the team's likely Opening Day starter, seemed glad to be done with the process. The southpaw said it wasn't much of a distraction, but he admitted that he didn't want to hear the team plead its case against him. "It's always hard," he said. "Obviously, you're not going to take everything seriously. But some things I'm sure they would've said would've stuck forever. That's hard to forget, but we didn't go through that process and I'm happy for it."