clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Rumor: Orioles and Grant Balfour close to multi-year deal

Twitter is ablaze with rumors of Grant Balfour to the Orioles, but it's not yet a done deal.

Could this be the Orioles new closer?
Could this be the Orioles new closer?
Leon Halip

The Orioles are rumored to be close to signing a deal with Grant Balfour to be the Orioles closer for 2014 and maybe more. If you're following the madness that is Twitter right now you may have seen reports that he is signed, but that is not yet the case.

My first instinct is that it seems odd to go after a player like Balfour when the Orioles just traded Jim Johnson because he makes too much money. If Balfour signs for less than what Johnson will earn in arbitration, it won't be much less. As this train of thought began to surface on Twitter, your trusty beat writers came back with some rationale:

Meanwhile, Eddie Encina from the Baltimore Sun is pushing that the Orioles are pursing John Axford, and has this to say about a possible Balfour deal:

Roch Kubatko is reporting that the Orioles are the leaders to get Balfour and that an offer is likely to come today. If it does and Balfour does become an Oriole, that seems like an interesting (and in my opinion, bad) way to spend some of the O's limited resources. But we'll have to wait and see 1) if a deal happens, and 2) what the terms are.

I'm sitting home today due to the snow so I'll keep you updated as soon as I hear something.