One of the pleasantries of being in Arizona the week before spring training begins is the opportunity to feel the warm sunshine (OK, it’s sunny, but the temperature hasn’t been out of the 50s since last week) after a wet, cool winter back home.
There’s also the opportunity to stop by the Mariners’ spring training facility in Peoria, which I did Tuesday morning in order to interview Mariners manager John McLaren for a spring training preview story that will run next week.
The question on everybody’s mind is The Trade. Is Erik Bedard coming to the Mariners or not? Are Adam Jones, George Sherrill and three minor league pitchers going to the Orioles? Or is something completely different now in the works?
McLaren said Tuesday he had no idea where the trade stood and no clue if Bedard was headed to Seattle for a physical exam.
Jones wasn’t at the complex, but Sherrill was back working out with the relief pitchers one day after he and Jones spent Monday in Baltimore undergoing physical exams.
Sherrill can’t discuss the trade, although there’s not a lot he can say anyway because he doesn’t know where the deal stands. Naturally, he just wants it to be resolved.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, all we know is this:
Pitchers and catchers will report to spring training a week from Wednesday, and the practice fields in Peoria are pristine. Reporters are writing their spring training previews without knowing what the Mariners’ starting rotation will be, much less who will play right field. Even McLaren wouldn’t mind knowing what his lineup will be — Jones or Brad Wilkerson in right field? — although he’s prepared to write a lineup card either way.
The only thing that seemed clear was that Bedard was not in Seattle for a physical exam.
What’s taking so long?
It could be as simple as the Orioles taking their time to carefully review the exams of Jones and Sherrill. Until the O’s determine that Jones and Sherrill are healthy, Bedard will stay at his home in Canada waiting for word on when he can fly to Seattle for his exam. Makes sense, but nobody knows when that will be, and there’s some thought that things may not be settled until next week.
But the longer this thing drags out, more theories will surface. There already are a couple that, in the least, make you go, “Hmmm, very interesting.”
There’s the one that says the Mariners and Orioles are working to make this much more than a 5-for-1 trade. This theory includes second baseman Jose Lopez and possibly another minor leaguer going to the Orioles with veteran second baseman Brian Roberts coming to the M’s along with Bedard.
Then there’s the one that has the Mariners and Orioles agreeing to the 5-for-1 deal, but having a third team involved — possibly the Cubs or Braves — that would get Sherrill. And, to add a local twist, the Braves would send infield prospect Brent Lillibridge, who starred at Jackson High School, to the Orioles. Lillibridge’s name also has been connected in trade rumors involving the Braves and Rangers.
It’s a little easier to see a three-team trade being the reason it’s taking so long to get Bedard to Seattle, especially with one of those teams being the Orioles, who apparently can make the sunrise a complicated process.
The longer the trade drags on without resolution, the more believable some of these other theories will get.
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