The Erik Bedard saga took another turn in Baltimore, when he said it seems clear to him that all the trade talk makes it clear to him that the Orioles don’t want him anymore.
“If they don’t want me, (a trade) is the best thing to do,” Bedard told the Baltimore Sun. “Obviously, they don’t want to keep me because there are a lot more talks [about] trading me than signing me. What am I supposed to do? I just go with the flow. I’ll keep it as it is, and go with it, day by day.”
To that, the baseball world probably is saying, “Well, duh!!”
Amid the deafening silence concerning Johan Santana, the ace pitcher who is considered the biggest prize of the offseason if the Twins choose to trade him, Bedard is considered a close second in his desirability.
The Seattle Mariners seem to be Bedard’s most active pursuers, having offered a better trade package than any other team has put on the Orioles’ table, according to M’s general manager Bill Bavasi. So far, Orioles president Andy MacPhail hasn’t budged on his apparent demand for more young prospects than the Mariners are willing to trade, and the offseason has dragged on with neither team doing what they really want.
For the Mariners, that’s upgrading the starting pitching staff with one more quality starter. For the Orioles, it’s trading a player like Bedard — who will be a free agent in 2010 — in exchange for prospects in MacPhail’s stated goal of rebuilding the team with young talent.
MacPhail said last week that he could wait until the beginning of spring training on Feb. 13 to make a trade, but it seems clear people are getting impatient.
The Mariners would like to get on with things and, based on Bedard’s comments, so is the star of this show.
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