Miguel Tejada, 2004 Topps Finest #55

I took my time in addressing Miguel Tejada's return to the Orioles organization, as I was holding out hope that it was some sort of mad fever dream. There was also a lot of conflicting information being bandied about, and it was tough to pin down the details. Anyhow, this is my understanding of the situation:

The O's are allowing Tejada to work out at their Sarasota complex for a week or two, and assuming he doesn't crumble into dust, he'll officially be brought aboard on a minor-league deal. Dan Duquette seems to have reached an agreement with Miggi due to some misguided belief that he could provide an upgrade at third base. I don't agree, obviously. He did some great things in Baltimore, but he'll be 38 on May 25 and his talents seemed to have been just about exhausted last season when he hit .239/.270/.326 with the Giants and was released in early September. That's an awful 69 OPS+ in the National League. I don't remember being dazzled by his defense at the hot corner back when he came back to the Birds in 2010, either. So what gives?

This is a big wait-and-see. He hasn't played so much as an actual minor league game, so he's not close to the big league roster yet. It looks like Bill Hall and/or Steve Tolleson are getting their turn on the Wheel O' Third Base, and I suppose one of them could perform well enough to pull Duquette's finger away from the panic button. But this has the makings of one of the more bizarre personnel moves that I've seen in recent years.