Free Agent

Jonathan Ogden stood in the hallway at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, his Afro nearly scraping the ceiling. The towering former offensive tackle fiddled with a tiny new phone in his massive hands, nonchalantly describing one of the toughest positions in football and how Michael Oher was faring at it. Ogden, the first draft pick in Ravens history, could soon become the franchise's first homegrown player to be enshrined in the...

The Orioles need a power hitter for the middle of their lineup. They have a vacant spot at first base, if they can get someone that's better defensively than Chris Davis. The club has tried to make a trade to bolster those spots, but they haven't been able to consummate anything yet. So, until they do, one name is going to keep coming up: free agent first baseman Adam LaRoche, who won a Gold Glove and hit 33 homers for the Washington Nationals last season. LaRoche is by far the best fit available on the open market.

The last time Orioles fans heard from Nate McLouth  - just after a towering fly ball off his bat was lost, along with the Orioles' season, somewhere near the right-field foul pole at Yankee Stadium in Game 5 of the American League Division Series - the soon-to-be free agent outfielder said he wanted to remain in Baltimore. On Thursday, that wish officially became reality as the Orioles announced a one-year deal with McLouth that will pay him $2 million with $500,000 of performance-based incentives.

The Orioles and representatives for free agent right-handed pitcher Brett Myers have not had any conversations since the groups arrived in Nashville on Sunday night and no meetings have been set up at this point. If the Orioles have any interest in Myers, as was reported Sunday by FoxSports.com, it would be considered minimal and preliminary, the source said. That could change as the market develops, but at this point the 32-year-old Myers does not seem to be a priority for the Orioles.

In what has become somewhat of a tradition in the first full day of baseball's winter meetings - both for the Orioles and the league as a whole - plenty of rumors swirled around the massive hallways and lobbies of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel on Monday but little news surfaced. The first, and perhaps most interesting news conference Monday, was held by New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who announced that lightning rod third baseman Alex Rodriguez will undergo hip surgery and will miss a chunk of the 2013 season.

I'm about to board a flight to Nashville in a bit to cover the Winter Meetings, where Dan Connolly and I will be spending countless hours inside the Opryland Hotel reporting on all things regarding the Orioles. You'll hear a lot of names this week. You may hear about the Orioles' revived interest in Josh Hamilton. Don't believe it. Covering my first Winter Meetings in Dallas, I don't think I left the hotel once. It's that hectic chasing down all the rumors. So while I'm on my way to Nashville, here's some hot stove breakfast.

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said the club tried to find a way to figure Mark Reynolds' impending 2013 salary into its budget, but couldn't. So instead of paying him roughly $9 million in arbitration, the Orioles did not tender the first baseman a contract Friday night, allowing him to be a free agent. "We had determined that his value in arbitration was beyond our resources to bring him back to the team," Duquette said. "We like Mark and he gave a good effort for the team, so we certainly appreciated that.

It's late November and all is relatively quiet on the Orioles front, which has got to be frustrating for a still-wary fan base that has watched the Toronto Blue Jays undergo a startling competitive transformation over the past few weeks and knows that the checkbooks will be coming out in New York and Boston any minute now. There's no need for alarm, at least not yet. This is pretty much standard operating procedure for baseball operations chief...

Happy Black Friday. It's the biggest shopping day of the year and at this hour, you're likely either running through the aisle of a department store to snag that $99 high-definition TV or you're at home laughing at the thought of it. First off, some full disclosure here. I was among the masses who spent the early morning hours chasing doorbusters and trying to get a leg up on holiday shopping. Part of it is to get some deals - or at least the idea of them - and the other part is the experience.

Several media outlets, led by the Boston Herald, reported Wednesday that the Boston Red Sox have a two-year deal in place for right-handed slugger Jonny Gomes. Gomes, 31, hit .262 with 18 homers, a .377 on-base percentage and .491 slugging percentage in 99 games for the Oakland A's last season. A designated hitter and outfielder who demolishes left-handed pitching, he looked like he'd be a good fit for the Orioles' vacant DH/unclaimed left field spot. And as Eduardo A. Encina reported last week, the Orioles had legitimate interest in Gomes, but only on a one-year deal.