O's sign Hernandez / Tejada wants out

[Providence A's]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ck=1&cset=true

Dallas // Unhappy with the direction of the Orioles' franchise, Miguel Tejada, probably the club's best player since Cal Ripken's heyday, wants to play elsewhere next season.

In a telephone interview with the Associated Press in his native Dominican Republic, the All-Star shortstop, who is coming off a tumultuous season during which his name was intertwined with the Rafael Palmeiro steroid controversy, lamented the franchise's lack of progress and called for a "change of scenery."

"I've been with the Orioles for two years and things haven't gone in the direction that we were expecting, so I think the best thing will be a change of scenery," Tejada said. "I've done many things with the team and I haven't seen results and the other teams are getting stronger while the Orioles have not made any signings to strengthen the club."

Tejada, 29, was unavailable for comment last night. Diego Bentz, Tejada's agent, declined to react to his client's comments before speaking to him first. However, Orioles All-Star third baseman Melvin Mora ardently supported one of his closest friends on the team.

"I think he is right," said Mora, speaking from Puerto Rico, where he is on vacation with his family. He said he spoke to Tejada three days ago, but Tejada's apparent wishes to be traded never came up. "He says what he feels and that's pretty much what has happened. You let people go like nothing and you do nothing to help this club. And he wants to go someplace to compete. I don't blame him. We want [the front office] to do something."

Tejada's and Mora's comments came just hours after the Orioles' front office finished business at baseball's winter meetings. The Orioles, who have suffered through eight straight losing seasons, added setup reliever LaTroy Hawkins, acquired in a trade with San Francisco for Steve Kline, and San Diego free-agent catcher Ramon Hernandez.

"Who is going to pitch for us?" added Mora, who has one year left on his contract. "I don't care what people think of what Tejada says. We know exactly what he says because we feel it."

The timing of Tejada's declaration surprised Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan, who arrived home late last night to a slew of phone messages. He said earlier this week that the club talked to Tejada a couple of times to ask for input, and he was "on board with what we're doing."

Flanagan said late last night that he believes that Hernandez, a former teammate of Tejada's in Oakland, is a godfather of one of Tejada's two children.

"I can't make any comment on his comments tonight because I haven't spoken to him or his agents directly," said Flanagan, who said that neither Tejada nor his agents have voiced any unhappiness about the shortstop being with the Orioles. "It is a surprise."

Reached last night at his home, Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos declined to comment when asked if the Orioles would consider dealing Tejada, who hit .304 with 26 home runs and 98 RBIs this season, but whose numbers faded in the second half.

"He is an exciting player and he plays to win," said Angelos, who signed Tejada from Oakland to a six-year, $72 million contract before the 2004 season. "I am disappointed and surprised to hear him say that."

Earlier this week, Bentz acknowledged that Tejada, who went to the playoffs in four of his seven seasons with the A's, was frustrated from two straight losing seasons. "He was serious when he said he wants to win," Bentz said.

Tejada grew noticeably distant through the second half of the season as the once first-place Orioles plummeted to fourth in the American League East. One theory was that a spat with fellow Dominican Sammy Sosa led to Tejada's dour countenance. Several of his teammates also acknowledged that Tejada grew unhappy with former manager Lee Mazzilli.

But before the season ended, it was revealed Palmeiro, who failed a drug test and was suspended in August, suggested he may have received a tainted supply of the vitamin B-12 from Tejada.

Although Tejada's liquid vitamins were found to be clean by Major League Baseball, the cloud hung over the shortstop. He had to appear before a congressional committee to explain about the B-12 supply. Two of his teammates told Congress that they also received the injectable form of the vitamin, available only by prescription in the United States, from Tejada, who had brought it from the Dominican. One of the teammates said he had injected Tejada between 70 and 80 times in two seasons in the Orioles' clubhouse.

"Everybody knew he wasn't the same Miggy in the second half - the rah-rah stuff and on the field," said outfielder Jay Gibbons, who called Tejada's comments "out of character."

"We need Miggy on board with us and being our team leader like he has been."

And of course all the Boston writers are saying Boston will get him...

[Providence A's]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ck=1&cset=true

The Orioles have seldom displayed a sense of urgency during eight straight losing seasons. Attendance has never plummeted too far, after all.

Critical newspaper columns and angry talk show callers haven't stirred a significant response from them. Neither has a little booing from the home fans, or the odious sight of Red Sox and Yankees fans taking over Camden Yards.

As the losing seasons have piled up, the Orioles have continued to take few chances, sign primarily B-list players and avoid last place only because baseball expanded to Tampa Bay.

They desperately need a jolt, a slap in the face that actually stings, a thump to the head that makes them wake up and recognize how disappointing and depressing they've become.

Anyone who cares about the team can only hope that jolt came Thursday in the form of All-Star shortstop Miguel Tejada's comments about being so frustrated that he wants out.

The Red Sox go through such emergencies five times a year with Manny Ramirez because the unpredictable slugger lives in his own world, and the Yankees are forever dealing with similar (and usually pointless) brushfires because they play in a tabloid town, but the Orioles are unaccustomed to having their placid, see-no-evil world view contested.

Bully for Miggy, who just couldn't take it anymore, just couldn't keep spouting the party line.

With any major sports franchise, there is a perceived reality - the one in the media - and the actual reality played out behind the scenes. The public seldom gets a view of the real thing, but Tejada's comments, which third baseman Melvin Mora backed up and advanced ("Who is going to pitch for us?"), unmistakably offered a window into what is really going on.

The players are just as upset as the fans and media about the organization's perpetually sluggish response to losing.

When the team-oriented Tejada is upset enough to ask for a "change of scenery," things are bad.

Some people will say he should just shut up and be a well-paid employee; the team's conservative approach was already established when he signed in 2003, after all.

But anyone who believes that is just apologizing for a team that seemingly would rather shut down than overspend to sign a couple of pitchers who would make the season more interesting, as Toronto just did.

Don't get on Tejada - he's the messenger here. My guess is you could canvas the clubhouse and get the same response from most players.

Now that Tejada has said what he did, the front office should go ahead and check out the market for him, just so see if some team is willing to give up a couple of top pitching prospects. But I'm guessing nothing of the sort will happen. I'm guessing Tejada can be talked off the ledge and back into his role as the team's leader. I can think of 72 million reasons over six years that will help.

But there's no taking back the truth he just laid bare. He is unhappy with his organization's commitment to winning, and as Mora indicated, many of his teammates are, too.

The Orioles have a choice. They can be angry at Tejada for effectively sleepwalking through the second half of the 2005 season and then speaking out against them like this, or they can take a good, hard look at themselves and realize he was sleepwalking and is now complaining strictly because of the state of the team.

I'm guessing they won't commit to such harsh self-evaluation. Too bad. Tejada isn't upset with the city or its fans. He's happy with his contract. The only thing driving his displeasure is the sad state of the Orioles.

Unlike the controversies that made news in 2005 - drunken-driving arrests, steroid busts, etc. - this headline is not off topic, not about character or off-field issues. This is right on the most important topic of all, the Orioles' potential to win.

Tejada, a winning player, expected a better effort from his employers - a more genuine effort. The fact that he's displeased doesn't make him an ungrateful brat. It makes him competitive, intolerant of losing - qualities that used to characterize the Orioles but now just reflect their past.

The fact that there are bright prospects in the pipeline doesn't satisfy such a player, who, not surprisingly, is averse to spending the prime of his career on a losing team that thinks it might be able to win at some point, if everything goes just right. He wants to win now, or actually, just have a better chance of winning.

If the Orioles' organization exhibited the same urgency, the same desire to win, Tejada would never have said a word.

[Providence A's]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ck=1&cset=true

The Orioles have received several inquiries about shortstop Miguel Tejada, but at this point, the club's focus is on persuading the All-Star to back off his trade demand.

Orioles officials spoke to Tejada at around 8:30 last night after they spent most of the day talking with Tejada's representatives, Diego Bentz and Fernando Cuza.

"We have spoken to Miguel Tejada and his representatives," executive vice president Mike Flanagan said. "We have spoken to his representatives for the better part of the day, and the only way we can categorize it at this time is that Miguel wants to win."

Asked if he was given the impression that Tejada feels that he can win in Baltimore, Flanagan declined to comment.

He also declined to offer any specifics on the talks and wouldn't say if anybody else was involved in the phone conversations. He described the talks as ongoing. Bentz declined to comment.

Though Flanagan wouldn't say if he is more optimistic after talking to Tejada, the fact that they got in touch with the player, who hadn't spoken to team officials since telling an Associated Press reporter Thursday that he would benefit from a "change of scenery," at least gives the Orioles a reason to be optimistic.

Flanagan and the Orioles have several things on their plate, including the status of catcher Javy Lopez, whose agent said yesterday that he, too, wouldn't object to a trade. But the Orioles spent most of the day trying to convince the agents of their most celebrated player that the organization is headed in the right direction.

The Orioles have gotten calls from at least eight teams about Tejada, according to industry sources. One of those teams is the shortstop-less Boston Red Sox, who reportedly have offered All-Star outfielder Manny Ramirez for Tejada.

The Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs are also among the teams believed to be interested.

Asked about a Ramirez-Tejada swap, a high-ranking Orioles official said, "It's not going to happen."

While the Orioles-Tejada standoff lingers, the club still has to decide what to do with Lopez, who will be pushed out of his every-day catcher position by the Ramon Hernandez signing expected this week.

"We've had discussions with Javy and we want him on this team," Flanagan said.

Chuck Berry, Lopez's agent, met with Orioles officials at the winter meetings Wednesday, when Hernandez's four-year, $27.5 million deal was quickly becoming a formality. Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo also spoke to Lopez recently, but the catcher remains uninterested in a new role.

"Javy was signed as a catcher, he has played his entire career as a catcher, he's in the last year of his contract assuming he was a catcher," Berry said. "It is a shock to him to have this happen. He's not real happy with this situation."

With Hernandez, who will have a physical tomorrow, on board, Lopez would likely play some at first base, designated hitter and backup catcher. That's not a situation he would endorse, especially not as the 35-year-old heads into the last year of his contract.

"We have requested over the last couple of years that Javy gets an opportunity to play a little first base figuring that would be a logical development for him as he gets older," Berry said. "But he never got that opportunity. For them to all of a sudden say they want him to play first base, DH and a little bit of catcher, that's not something that he is too thrilled about."

The Orioles talked to the Angels about a Lopez-Darin Erstad swap, but those talks have cooled. Berry said Lopez enjoys playing here and has no intention of demanding a trade. However, at this point, the former All-Star catcher feels it might be the best option.

"There are several months between now and spring training," Berry said. "One of the ways things can certainly work out is a trade. They realize it is a difficult situation. I have nothing against Mike Flanagan. Javy likes Sam Perlozzo and was very happy to have him as a manager. These things have a way of working themselves out. For right now, we'll see what happens. They certainly have a lot to do."