Acccording to Ken Rosenthal, the Baltimore Orioles have offered Vlad Guerrero a one year deal worth somewhere between $3-5M. While the team hopes he accepts their offer, they are fully prepared for him to turn it down. Considering the reports of Vlad's recent change in contract demands (at least one year at $8M), I'm not surprised the Orioles are taking that mentality.
As Rosenthal reports in his piece today, Guerrero may have no choice but to sign with the Orioles. As I failed to point out yesterday, the Angels actually have a DH in Bobby Abreu. If the Angels ponied up and signed Vlad, they would have to move the defensively challenged Abreu back to LF and Wells over to CF. This would essentially destroy the benefit (and I use that term loosely) of making the Vernon Wells trade in the first place.
As I pointed out yesterday, now that the Rangers have traded for C/1B/DH Mike Napoli, Vlad isn't a fit in Texas either. For the Rangers to clear a roster spot for Guerrero, they would have to find a team willing to take on Michael Young and $48M remaining on his contract. That could prove to be incredibly difficult. Seriously, who would take on that albatross of a contract? Hmmm... Um...maybe...the Angels? I hear they're always willing to take on a bad contract or two.
That leaves the Orioles. Considering Guerrero's obvious lack of options, the Orioles are in a great position to name their price, and let him come to them. Based on the reports coming out of Vlad's camp, he has no intention of sitting out the season. Eventually, he'll need to settle. When he does, the Orioles should be in a great position to pick up a good hitter for a bargain basement price.
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