Major League

The Orioles have added to their outfield surplus by announcing the minor league signing of Chris Dickerson. The 30-year-old Dickerson, who will receive a spring training invite, joins a crowded Orioles roster of veteran outfielders not on the 40-man roster:  holdovers Steve Pearce and Lew Ford, as well as Jason Pridie and infielder/outfielder Conor Jackson. In addition, Adam Greenberg, who made headlines last year with one at-bat for the Miami Marlins, was signed to a minor league deal.

The Orioles' acquisition of Jair Jurrjens won't become official until he has a physical this week, but all signs point to the right-hander joining the O's cluttered starting rotation mix. Jurrjens, who turns 27 tomorrow, will make a $1.5 million base salary in the one-year deal and could make up to $4 million with incentives. From what I've seen, his addition has been welcomed by the Orioles' fan base. Many fans see Jurrjens as a low-risk, high-reward player who fits Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette's method of reaping the rewards from giving players second-chance opportunities.

When right-hander Jair Jurrjens is in Baltimore to take a physical next week -- seemingly the final step before the Orioles' one-year major league deal with the former Atlanta Braves pitcher comes to fruition -- he expects to speak with team officials about whether he will participate in the World Baseball Classic this spring. Jurrjens, who agreed to a $1.5 million deal that could be worth up to $4 million with incentives, is listed on the Netherlands' provisional roster for the WBC, but said Friday that he's "50/50" whether he will play.

Fifteen months ago, Dan Duquette was still outside looking in, trying to get back into major league baseball after nearly a decade away. Now, after a whirlwind stretch in which he was the surprise hire for the Orioles' top executive post and then put together a patchwork roster that made the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, Duquette is near the top of the fraternity that had shut him out. On Thursday morning at a news conference at...

When the Orioles claimed catcher Luis Martinez last week, placing four catchers on their 40-man roster, I received a number of inquiries about why the organization needed to protect so many backstops. It is rare to have that many, but the Orioles have been looking to improve organizational catching depth this offseason. Keep in mind that last year, the club's catching was thin enough that non-roster invitee Ronny Paulino, who arrived to spring training three weeks late, made the Orioles' Opening Day roster as the backup catcher.

Former Orioles infielder Omar Quintanilla has signed a minor league deal with the Mets, according to a report from ESPNNewYork.com. The Orioles acquired Quintanilla from the Mets in July for cash and he immediately became a contributor at second base, becoming the everyday starter there from late July through mid-August. But as Quintanilla's bat cooled, he made just four starts over the regular season's final six weeks. Quintanilla recorded a .232/.284/.354 batting line with three homers and 12 RBIs in 36 games with the Orioles while providing steady defense at second.

The Orioles continued to add first base depth on Wednesday, signing Travis Ishikawa, as well as left-handed relievers Daniel Schlereth and Zach Braddock, to minor league contracts with invitations to major league spring training. Ishikawa, 29, recorded a .257/.329/.428 line in 94 games (49 starts) last season with the Brewers, hitting four homers and 30 RBIs in 174 plate appearances. He spent the previous three seasons as a mostly part-time player with the Giants. The left-handed hitting Ishikawa hit .266/.333/.416 and 18 of his 19 career homers against right-handed pitching.

If this is December, then there are a lot of Orioles fans who are wondering the same thing. Why is it that every year at this time, the other American League East teams do their holiday shopping at Lord &Taylor and the Orioles seem to do most of theirs at the dollar store? It's a fair question, considering that the Toronto Blue Jays are on a spending spree of such magnitude that it might impact the currency exchange rate between the United States and Canada, and the Boston Red Sox are buying up average players for $13 million apiece per season.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Orioles added their latest reclamation project Wednesday, agreeing to terms with first baseman Conor Jackson on a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring training, executive vice president Dan Duquette announced. Jackson, a 2003 first-round draft pick of the Diamondbacks, put together three straight seasons of at least a .294 average, .368 on-base percentage, 12 homers and 60 RBIs from 2006 to 2008 with Arizona. But he's played in more than 60 big league games in a season just once since 2008, shuffling between the majors and minors within four different organizations during that span.

When the 2012 baseball season started, the consensus about the Baltimore Orioles, as expressed by one blogger, was that they would "finish fifth in the American League East. Only because they can't finish sixth. " The Orioles were coming off 14 consecutive losing seasons, and they played in the toughest division in baseball, behind the big-money teams in New York and Boston and the "moneyball" players in Tampa Bay. Even the Toronto Blue Jays seemed to be looking up. But not the Orioles, a team that appeared to have given up on the idea of bringing in the kind of big-name talent that wins pennants.