It’s been two weeks since Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette said he thought Joe Saunders was close to signing and yet the left-hander remains a free agent.
Minnesota has been linked to Saunders a lot recently and Twins president Dave St. Peter told me himself that they have plenty of payroll room available for a late signing, but Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN.com has an update on the Twins’ pursuit:
The Twins continue to await word from pitcher Joe Saunders’ agent, Greg Genske. The belief internally continues to be that Saunders prefers to be somewhere else. But it’s possible he’ll soon run out of options. The Twins want Saunders on a one-year deal, but could be willing to go to two years.
That jibes with what Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun speculated earlier this week, which is that if Saunders can only get a one-year deal he’ll probably just decide to re-sign with the Orioles.