Orioles President of baseball operations Andy MacPhail cleared up the Adam LaRoche talk on Wednesday in a blog post from Roch Kubatko.
MacPhail said that the he doesn’t impose deadlines on free agents, but that the Orioles have resumed talks with other players, likely free agents to fill the first base position.
MacPhail didn’t reveal names, but it’s clear that LaRoche hasn’t been given a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum.
“I’m not a big deadline guy,” MacPhail said. “There’s nothing to prevent you from talking to other people in certain scenarios. I don’t know that you gain a lot with deadlines. There are some circumstances where deadlines are probably appropriate, but we’re still months away from spring training.”
MacPhail emphasized that the O’s have a “variety of options” for the position, but did not specify who specifically would fill the role.
Who do you think will play first for the Orioles in 2011?
It should be, i believe, Derek Lee. he never wanted to come to this organization before for good reason. i think after last seasons ending with buck showalter as our new leader should change Derek's opinion of our team. i still think he will look elsewhere first as our past speaks for itself. in the end if all else fails for Derek and he sees a glimmar of optomism with us at least for one year and some convincing from mcfail,a.k.a. angelos's puppet, ugh, that we would welcome his professionalism to our team and players, then Derek Lee will i think see the light at the end of season if not with us definately a team that will give him a contract until he has to retire. LETS HAVE FUN IN '11 Derek….and change this atmosphere of disappointment.
If I'm Andy or Peter, I can certainly understand why they wouldn't want to sign a 100-RBI guy to a three-year deal…That would pretty much be the pits, huh? After all, we have the 345-pound Walter Jones somewhere in the Minors as our 1B of the future, right?