Peter Schmuck

Now that Orioles president Andy MacPhail has made it clear the club wants to sign Brian Roberts to a long-term extension, there’s just one more question and it has been hanging out there for much of the past year: Does Roberts really want to come back?

Though I think he really does, the situation is complicated enough that the relationship between Roberts and the front office could unravel all by itself.

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The Orioles have a number of needs to fill this winter, and how they go about filling those needs has to depend in some measure on whether Roberts is going to stay or go. If he’s going to stay, MacPhail needs to move aggressively into the free agent market to fill gaping holes at shortstop and in the starting rotation. If Brian is going to leave, then the club can try to find a trade package that fills at least one of those holes while continuing to restock the player development system.

Roberts has been diplomatic about the situation, so it’s hard to tell just what he’s planning to do. He probably wants to see what the team is going to do this winter before fully committing himself to MacPhail’s rebuilding effort. And it’s fair to speculate that any interested free agent players will want to see what the Orioles do with Roberts before deciding whether they want to jump onboard.