Jeremy Accardo has cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk today. This was probably not a surprise due to his marginal performance. The question now is: will the Orioles spend what's necessary to bring him to Spring Training on a minor league contract?
Under Andy MacPhail there was a good chance that we would have "allowed the market to play itself out". Which is a nice way of saying we would have offered him a bottom dollar contract. IMO Jeremy Accardo is not worth a ML contract and won't get such an offer this winter; however, he is worth a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training.
The Orioles can probably lock him up right now with an offer of a 100K bonus if he takes a minor league assignment on Opening Day with a monthly salary of 20K against an ML contract of about 750K if he makes the team. We could even offer an opt out around June 1st if he isn't on the ML roster if he returns half of the bonus.
I don't think that Andy MacPhail would have made on offer like that but it is a win-win for both parties. Accardo has a spot secured for next year with a decent salary and the possibility of making a ML team. We get a veteran reliever hungry to make the team and/or veteran depth at AAA without the need to keep him on the 40 man roster this winter. The only risk is that we lose him in Rule 5 Draft.
Let's see if the thinking has changed in the Warehouse.
