The Baltimore Orioles and the rest of MLB are currently in the hot stove period, which in essence lasts until pitchers and catchers report in February. The Birds weren’t active in free agency last year, but in the past they have been. Whether they are this year or not remains to be seen.
However what we’ve seen the past two seasons is most of MLB waiting until the very end of the hot stove season to sign free agents. Presumably this was an agreement among GM’s with a wink-and-a-nod to keep costs down. The question is whether or not that will happen this year.
Incidentally, keeping costs down with a wink-and-a-nod is akin to collusion. However I would submit that we won’t see that this year. And not because the teams have suddenly stopped colluding.
The free agent pool this year is strong. The likes of Strasburg and Rendon are out there to be had. You could see a bidding war, if anything. Teams who are in a position to sign guys like that aren’t going to want to wait out of sheer principle to save money. They’d be afraid that those players would sign elsewhere.
Time will tell, but I predict an active hot stove period. And sooner rather than later.
Birdland Crush 