The Washington Nationals today agreed to terms with super utility player Jerry Hairston Jr. on a one-year contract. Nationals Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Hairston Jr. is a career .257 (927-for-3608) hitter with 192 doubles, 59 home runs and 341 RBI in 1148 games with San Diego, New York (AL), Cincinnati, Texas, Chicago (NL) and Baltimore spanning 13 big league seasons. The 34 year-old Hairston Jr. has hit a career-best...

The Washington Nationals today agreed to terms with right-handed reliever Todd Coffey on a one-year contract. Nationals Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Coffey, 30, is 19-17 with 66 holds, 11 saves and a 4.15 ERA in 369 games spanning six seasons with Milwaukee and Cincinnati. A ground-ball pitcher, Coffey's 605 ground balls induced beginning in 2005 rank fifth among all relief pitchers. Last season with Milwaukee, Coffey...

In our last article with O's scouting director Joe Jordan on some of the pitchers selected in the 2009 draft, he talks about Ryan Berry, Jake Cowan and Jarret Martin. Berry has been a success story to this point, despite the fact he was a pitcher the O's selected even though he had been hurt as a college pitcher that year at Rice. He missed some time during Rice's 2009 season with a strained shoulder. The Orioles took Berry in round nine and he was signed to an over slot bonus and they...

The Orioles' search for a left-handed reliever won't lead them to Joe Beimel. He's apparently decided to sign with the Pirates, according to this tweet from Troy Renck of the Denver Post. Beimel was born in St. Marys, Pa. and pitched at Duquesne. He spent his first three major league seasons in Pittsburgh. Sounds like he wants to go home. We'll find out later how much the Pirates are paying him for that warm and fuzzy feeling. Yes, they beat out the Orioles. They also beat out the Red...

Here is a followup to an article with O's scouting director Joe Jordan addressing some of the pitching injuries to hurlers the O's selected in the 2009 draft. In this post, he talks more specifically about some of those pitchers. Despite the injuries that impacted so many of the 2009 draftees last summer, Jordan remains quite hopeful for the pitchers taken in the top 10 rounds that June. Right-hander Randy Henry was the fourth-round pick that year from South Mountain Community College in...

After making another round of calls today, I can pass along the following nuggets on a few of your favorite free agents: The Orioles have, indeed, made an offer to Vladimir Guerrero this week, and it falls in the $3 million to $5 million range. They most certainly did not exceed $5 million. I'd say it's a lot closer to $3 million. Also, team officials don't expect a FanFest announcement similar to what transpired with Miguel Tejada last winter. In fact, while they understand that the...

FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, citing a major league source, says the Orioles have made an offer to free-agent designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero. Rosenthal estimates that the offer falls in the $3 million to $5 million range. If this is true, the offer must have come this week, because the two sides hadn't been in negotiations. The Orioles always left open the possibility of signing Guerrero, but only at a discount price. Guerrero has sought a multi-year deal, but he can forget it. And...

I was watching the MLB Network's "Top 50 Most Incredible Collisions" last night, and No. 8 was Bo Jackson plowing into Rick Dempsey and almost sending the former Orioles catcher flying into the dugout. I counted three backward somersaults. When I texted Dempsey, he replied, "Well, I've got that going for me." Which is nice. Dempsey, in his only season with the Cleveland Indians in 1987, missed the last six weeks with a broken left thumb. And get this: A proctologist in Kansas City set...

Nationals right-hander Garrett Mock is excited to get started with the 2011 season after an injury-filled 2010 campaign that included neck surgery. Mock has been working out and throwing in his hometown of Houston and plans to report to Viera, Fla., the Nationals' spring training home, next Friday so he can find an apartment and get an early start. "I just got done with a throwing session," Mock said. "I did some long toss, nothing strenuous. I will have a longer bullpen session...

If some baseball prospects fly under the radar, Orioles pitching prospect Zach Britton isn't one of them. Maybe fans didn't know much about Britton when he was drafted in the third round out of a Texas high school in 2006, pitching at Rookie League Bluefield that summer. But it seems everyone now knows his name. Britton was named Carolina League pitcher of the year in 2009 and he pitched for Team USA in the Futures Game last July. He ended the 2010 season thriving at Triple-A and was named...