The Orioles acknowledged Saturday that they are close to a two-year contract extension with Brian Roberts, a deal that would take him through his final arbitration years. The second baseman recently signed a one-year deal for $4.2 million, but his extension is reportedly worth more than $6 million per year. Mike Flanagan, the team's executive vice president of baseball operations, is normally very conservative on discussing deals that haven't reached fruition, but he issued a strong comment confirming the status of the negotiations on Saturday. Flanagan said that the second baseman is almost signed and that a physical examination shouldn't hold things up. "We're just working our way through. ... We're extremely optimistic," he said. "We're working our way through some of the contract language and there's a few other issues, but nothing that seems to be a potential snag at all."