On his third team in as many seasons, J.J. Hardy said he would like to stay in one spot for a while. The Orioles have seen enough from the shortstop over the past couple of months to want to accommodate his wishes.
Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail acknowledged that the club has had internal discussions about a potential extension for Hardy and he's hoping to initiate contract talks with the shortstop's agent before next month's All-Star break.
"There's no reason why he wouldn't be an asset here for years to come," MacPhail said. "I definitely think we'll have conversations. There's no question about it. The closer you get [to] free agency, the more difficult it is for players to want that extension. I think it's something that we definitely targeted before the All-Star break to talk about."
Hardy, who said during spring training that he would like to play with his new team for a couple of months before making any decisions about his future, said he and his agent are open to discussions about an extension.
"I think some of it has to do with what my agent thinks, but I do like it here. I'm not afraid to say that," said Hardy, who was acquired from the Minnesota Twins in December for minor league relievers Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson. "I like all the guys, I like playing for [manager Buck Showalter], I like all the coaches. I like the direction that this organization is going. But I've always said that it has to be brought up in order to figure out what I want to do. It's never really been brought up either way, so I don't know. I feel like something has to happen. I think everyone knows that something has to happen here in the next couple of months."
Hardy, 28, will be a free agent after the season, so it stands to reason that if the Orioles don't feel like they can sign him to an extension — and that is their priority — then they'll try to move him before the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline.
Hardy, who missed nearly a month with an oblique injury, has played well enough to garner interest from contenders. After getting two more hits Sunday, Hardy is batting .287 with six homers and 19 RBIs in 36 games. He has reached base safely in 19 of his past 20 games and has hit .375 (6-for-16) with two homers since being inserted into the leadoff spot in Brian Roberts' absence.
Defensively, Hardy has yet to make an error, the only American League shortstop who has started 15 or more games at the position and can make that claim.
"I just didn't know how solid he was," Showalter said. "He is a baseball player. He gets the game. You watch him in between pitches, between innings. He always has an intelligent answer to any question about baseball. He doesn't make many mental mistakes, and when he does, he knows exactly what happened. He's just steady. You like the idea of the ball rolling out there to him. I think that's what really caught me since Day One of spring training, how true his arm is."
Said Orioles hitting coach Jim Presley: "Defensively, he's as sound as I've ever seen. Now that I've seen him play for two months, he's pretty impressive. He's a better player than what I thought he was."
The strong defense has been a bonus for an Orioles team that had grown accustomed to getting little or no offensive production from its shortstop. Though Cesar Izturis did a fine job defensively the past two years, Orioles shortstops ranked in the bottom four in the 14-team American League in just about every significant offensive category since 2008. Last year, Orioles shortstops, which included Izturis, Robert Andino and Julio Lugo, were second to last in the AL in batting average (.236), on-base percentage (.277) and homers (one) and last in slugging percentage (.272), on-base plus slugging percentage (.549) and RBIs (31).
Hardy, meanwhile, has rediscovered the power stroke that allowed him to total 50 home runs and 154 RBIs in 2007-2008 for the Milwaukee Brewers.
He credits a conversation he had with Presley after arriving at spring training. The shortstop said that while with the Twins last year, he was mostly instructed to hit the ball the other way and keep the ball on the ground. That's pretty much what he did during his first Orioles batting practice session.
