Edwin Jackson to the Orioles?

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports tweeted this morning that free agent pitcher Edwin Jackson has multiple three-year contract offers on the table. He also said that Jackson would consider a one-year offer which would allow him to hit the market again in 2013. The Orioles have in theory expressed interest in Jackson; the question is how much interest do they have, and how likely is it that the O’s will land Jackson?

The wild card in all of this is that Jackson is a Boras client. Therefore it’s certainly possible that Rosenthal’s tweet in itself is simply Boras posturing on behalf of his client. In my opinion the one-year deal sounds a lot more like the Orioles than a three-year deal. I’m not suggesting that Rosenthal isn’t on the level in what he said, however who’s to say that Boras (or a representative of him) is telling him the truth?

I suppose what I’m saying is that I wouldn’t be surprised if the Orioles have a decent one-year offer on the table for Jackson. While we heard this week that the Birds wouldn’t be opposed to a longer deal, I think that’s still more in their comfort range than anything else. Some people would look at that statement and say that the Orioles are afraid to offer a longer deal, and they may well be right. However the Orioles are probably also ofnthe belief that their pitching staff is going to be a lot more stable in a year’s time.

As was the case with Prince Fielder, posturing for these free agents can often be a game of chicken. If Boras has a decent one-year deal on the table from someone, he puts out via the media that he has multiple three-year deals…and a one-year offer. That might either make the team who’s made the one-year offer up the years, or it might make another team step up to the plate. Quite honestly I think that signing a free agent such as Edwin Jackson would go a lot further to making the 2012 season a success for the Orioles than Prince Fielder would have. The O’s didn’t have trouble scoring last season for the most part, they had trouble keeping other teams from scoring. Prince Fielder would have been entertaining and he would have provided about 40 more big bops than what we saw last season. However Jackson would stablize the rotation a bit, adding one extra veteran arm to what the Orioles already have. Granted there’s a bit of a log jam in the rotation right now, however Jackson would immediately be put into the rotation in ink.

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