It is February 4. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in less than two weeks. The Orioles interest in free agent starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo has not yet been put to bed at this late date. That's the latest according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, who writes that sources tell him the O's continue to be interested in Gallardo at this point in the game.
Seemingly all offseason we've been hearing about Gallardo. The cons of a signing have been discussed again and again. He would cost the #14 draft pick. His velocity and strikeout rate have been declining and potentially make giving him an Ubaldo Jimenez-type pact appear to be risky.
Still, he should be better at least for this year than having fifth starter options being Vance Worley, Tyler Wilson, Mike Wright, or whoever else might bubble up from the Triple-A ranks. If Gallardo's asking price falls as he gets more interested in signing quickly with spring training approaching, there must be a point where the value of signing Gallardo - if he really signs at a bargain price - is greater than the value of keeping the draft pick.
You or I may end up disagreeing with the O's assessment of where that point may be. Their judgement is the one that will count. We'll see where that point ends up. If other teams are still out there bargain-hunting, the price may not be depressed too much. There'd still be multiple bidders.
What helped the O's when they netted Jimenez and also Nelson Cruz is basically that teams had shut off the money spigot at that point in the offseason. The O's were the only ones left open for business. If that's what plays out with Gallardo, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the O's sign him.
Rosenthal floats the notion that the O's could instead take the draft pool money from a hypothetically-sacrificed #14 pick and instead spend it in the Latin American amateur market. The #14 pick's value in the 2015 draft was about $2.8 million. That'll get you at least a decently-regarded prospect from that part of the world.
Whether the O's would actually do so is another story. The O's have mostly sat out that market, a trend that has carried over from the Andy MacPhail days on into the present Dan Duquette regime. They still make occasional, modest signings, such as Jonathan Schoop and burgeoning prospect Jomar Reyes, but they've not spent big dollars.
Are you unenthused by the idea of Gallardo? Look, me too. But the other name Rosenthal brings up in his column, which I also heard mentioned on MASN's Mid-Atlantic Sports Report the other night, is former Oriole Alfredo "Weak Sauce" Simon. Now Gallardo doesn't sound so bad after all, does he?