Baltimore Orioles: Pulse of the fans on Chris Davis

What do Baltimore Orioles fans think of how they have handled the Chris Davis situation?

First off, the Baltimore Orioles participated in the coveted Rule 5 draft yesterday – which is the closing act of the annual winter meetings. They selected Joey Rickard from the Tampa Rays’ organization. Rickard is an outfielder who’s hit .283 in the minors with Tampa. They also added two pitchers in the minor league phase of the draft, and had three players drafted out of their organization. Rickard must remain on the roster all season or be offered back to Tampa.

The big story all week however has been Chris Davis. (And I say that with all due respect to Darren O’Day, who of course re-signed with the Orioles at the very beginning of the week.) In a nutshell, the Orioles have had a $150 million offer over seven years on the table for a few weeks. That offer leaked out into the media this week, which makes sense given the fact that the baseball world was all together in one place. Agent Scott Boras expressed that he was looking for something in the neighborhood of $200 million over eight years.

So the sides remained at an impasse of sorts. The Orioles believed that if any other offers were on the table, theirs was the best. However they also made it clear that at a certain point they’d have to move on if they didn’t get anywhere in the negotiations. There were rumors that the O’s had upped the offer to $168 million on Wednesday evening, a rumor that was later refuted by the Orioles.

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Then yesterday afternoon the Orioles went to the point of withdrawing their $150

Courtesy of Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

million dollar offer. And I’ll be honest; that kind of surprised me. Again, it goes without saying that the Orioles at a certain point will have to either sign Davis or move on. But I honestly didn’t think that point was now.

And whether or not this is just posturing or whether it’s in fact the truth remains to be seen. Mind you, if the Orioles fill that gap elsewhere and then Davis signs a contract in the $150 million neighborhood, there will be a portion of the fan base that will crucify Dan Duquette and the organization – despite the facts that they did literally everything they could to sign Davis.

However also keep in mind that the fact remains that officially the Orioles have pulled their offer back. That means that unless there are offers which aren’t public, Boras is coming home from the winter meetings with no offers for his client. Now with that said, until the Orioles have spent their money elsewhere maybe the offer isn’t truly gone. But needless to say their attitude and decorum has to be making Boras think a bit.

So here’s my question to the fans: do you approve of how the Orioles are playing this? I’ve had a lot of comments on this site which seems to indicate that many fans do. However I’ve also seen tweets from people suggesting that ownership is cheap and thus not willing to do what it takes to sign the player they want. Where do you stand?

In a nutshell, it appears that ownership isn’t in fact willing to pay what it takes to get Davis – if they’re asking for $200 million. And that’s a stance that I would submit is fair. Is Davis a good deal at $150 million? Expensive for sure, but probably on par. But at $200 million? In my view that’s a different story.

Next: Baltimore Orioles did their part for Chris Davis

Keep in mind that it was Davis who said at the end of the season that he’d like to see the Orioles keep everyone together, and that he liked Baltimore. So unless that was lip service (and honestly I don’t think it was), the Orioles put a very competitive offer on the table for Davis in an attempt to do just that. The ball’s in Davis’ and Boras’ court – I would submit that the offer isn’t truly off the table, yet that is. But again, where do you stack up on how the team’s handled things this week?