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Baltimore Orioles poised to re-sign Darren O’Day

By Domenic A. Vadala

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The Baltimore Orioles appear poised to return reliever Darren O’Day to the team.

The Baltimore Orioles appear to have a deal in place to return star reliever Darren O’Day to Baltimore next year. Yesterday morning the news broke that the team had come to terms with the free agent reliever, to the tune of four years, $31 million. There’s just one problem…

…O’Day sent out a tweet later in the day rebuking the report. Translated, this all means that the aforementioned deal is on the table and it’s been agreed to in principle. However as is always the case with the Orioles, it’s pending a physical.

And we all know that there have been several high-profile situations in which a physical has made the Orioles change their mind. At this time, the physical hasn’t yet been scheduled, although the Orioles’ team doctors are in Nashville this week for the winter meetings. It’s possible that it could be conducted there, or at least scheduled for some point. Incidentally, it’s not uncommon for deals to be agreed to at the winter meetings but not consumated until some point down the road.

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    This is kind of where the Orioles get spun into looking like the bad guys. Or at least somewhat petty. However keep in mind that this deal would pay O’Day just under $8 million per year for the next four seasons. That’s not chump change, especially for a reliever. When you look at it from that perspective, the caution is entirely understandable. And smart, incidentally.

    Speaking for myself, I would say this is a lot to pay for a reliever. Now having said that, O’Day was a fan favorite the past few years, and he certainly earned his keep. His presumed return gives the Orioles potentially the best back end bullpen in baseball. Ultimately however, time will tell whether they overpaid. But financial figured be darned, a lot of fans are going to be happy that he’s back on the Orioles. And the O’s are without a doubt a better team with Darren O’Day than they are without him.

    Mind you also, O’Day’s agent is Scott Boras – who’s known to have a frosty relationship with the O’s. Boras also represents one of O’Day’s close friends from the Orioles, Chris Davis. Might this be a harbinger to Davis remaining with the Orioles also? The answer to that is no. Boras doesn’t operate in that manner. He’s nobody’s “friend” per se; the only thing he knows is green money. 

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    But I would also say that it can’t be a bad thing that the O’s were able to get through to Boras on O’Day. Obviously they made the best offer, which is why Boras is jumping on it. But needless to say, he’s obviously had productive conversations with the Orioles – again, not a bad thing.

    Ironically the other team that was interested reportedly were the Washington Nationals. They were only willing to offer three years, and O’Day wanted four. The O’s stepped up to the plate on the fourth year, which is why he’s apparently coming back.

    Next: Baltimore Orioles make offer on Darren O'Day

    Again, O’Day technically hasn’t signed anything. So if Washington or any other franchise wants to jump in and offer a comparable deal, they can still do so. My recommendation to the Orioles would be to get that physical scheduled and ink on that contract ASAP. I wouldn’t put it past Boras to reneg on the deal – especially on a deal that’s technically not a deal yet.

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