Baltimore Orioles: Interest in Chris Carter is "exaggerated"

While the Baltimore Orioles would like to sign free agent Chris Carter for next season, their interest in him is slightly exaggerated.

The Baltimore Orioles are reportedly interested in free agent first baseman Chris Carter. However just because the Orioles are showing interest, doesn’t mean that they are desperate enough to sign him.

According to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, the interest in Chris Carter is more or less “exaggerated”, although signing him or former Oriole Pedro Alvarez is still not out of the question.

The team is still interested in signing free agent Mark Trumbo despite pulling a four-year offer from the table last week. The Orioles revealed they will only turn to Carter or Pedro Alvarez if Trumbo decides to sign elsewhere.

Even though the Orioles no longer have an offer on the table for Trumbo, they’re still interested in him and removing the contract seems to be a bargaining tactic. The Orioles removed a offer from the table last season when they were negotiating a new contract with Chris Davis. Davis eventually signed with the Orioles on a seven-year, $161 Million contract.

Despite Trumbo possibly landing a multi-year deal with either the Orioles or another team, Carter and Alvarez would only command a one-year deal. Alvarez accepted a one-year deal with the Orioles last offseason, and ended up making a commanding $5.75 Million.

Carter could rebuild his free agent value next offseason by accepting a one-year deal, and based on his 2017 numbers, it could land him a bigger contract from a big-market team.

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If the Orioles aren’t able to sign Trumbo and Carter and if they were to land Alvarez this year, he would share the DH duties with Trey Mancini.