Baltimore Orioles: Darren O’Day Will Stay

While most of America was watching the wretched Redskins v. Cowboys Monday Night Football game, the Orioles were wheeling and dealing. Darren O’Day, the Baltimore Orioles coveted right-handed reliever, agreed to a four-year, $31 million contract with the organization that will go into effect as soon as O’Day undergoes and passes a physical later this week.

This weekend was full of commentary between Darren O’Day, the Orioles and the media. Reports surfaced on Sunday claiming that O’Day had agreed to a deal with the Orioles. This inaccuracy was quickly pointed out via O’Day’s twitter account. Dan Duquette’s rebuttal to O’Day’s tweet was not all that telling and left most of us to remain in the dark. Duquette pretty much just explained that nothing was official yet and that they planned to continue talking with the reliever.

Contrary to the news, I have not reached an agreement with the O's yet. I am flattered by all the attention, but reports are premature.
— Darren O'Day (@DODay56) December 6, 2015

Talk they did and it must have been a rather quick chat. With this being said, the rumors and drama can be laid to rest. O’Day is an Oriole and another piece to the puzzle that is the off-season and free agency has been put in place.

What pieces are left to be solved remain to be corner outfield positions, starting (left-handed) pitching and oh, how could we forget, Chris Davis has yet to be signed. However, even though the O’s still have a ton left to accomplish, so far they have been doing fairly well. They were able to keep Wieters for another year and have secured an everyday first baseman in Mark Trumbo.

The biggest obstacle I see getting in the way of the Orioles this off-season is obviously their payroll limitations and how far they are willing to go in terms of paying for quality players. There is also the fact that Price is now in Boston and the remaining top-tier pitching talent is slim and unfortunately, the pitching that is available will be looking for checks that cannot be cashed in Baltimore. Put plainly, the Orioles will not be able to sign a top rotation pitcher and retain Chris Davis at the same time. The holes in the outfield are also concerning, but along with Trumbo the Orioles did agree to terms with Nolan Reimold.

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