Rob Long: Orioles' Davis & Wieters - To Spend Or Not To Spend?
The Baltimore Orioles have earned the doubt that some of their fans have about their spending practices.
We've seen free agents offered token deals in the off-season but nothing to really challenge the market. We've even seen the team make genuine offers to players only to be used to set the market for other teams to come in and seal the deal.
For some reason, that's not the case with The Birds now.
In the past, the Club took care of Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis to lock them up to market-friendly deals and recently did the same with Adam Jones with a six-year/$85 million contract.
Now, the question is, what happens with soon to be free-agents like Chris Davis and Matt Wieters?
The O's offered Davis a four-year/ $60 million deal before the 2014 season and he and (his agent) Scott Boras turned it down. The team also offered Wieters a yearly salary that resembles the Yadier Molina deal (5 years, 75 Million in '12), but once again Boras shot that down, seeking in the neighborhood of $150 million according to a team source.
So the 1st question is, are the Baltimore Orioles really cheap or just victims of their own success?
The BIG question is, will Davis and Wieters be around in 2016?
My guess is fans better enjoy these two players because there's a good chance they will not dress in the home clubhouse after 2015.
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