Dan Duquette on the current market, Brian Roberts and dealing prospects

LAKE BUENVA VISTA, Fla. - Through most of the first two days of the Winter Meetings, we have seen much less activity throughout baseball than we saw in the week or two leading up to this gathering. Why is that the case? One theory is with the price high for free agents, teams have turned more toward trade options and more trade partners makes that avenue difficult as well. There is some level of gridlock in that regard. This afternoon, during our daily video interview with Dan Duquette here on MASNSports.com, the Orioles executive vice president talked about that topic. "That is an interesting theory," he said. "I think that a lot of teams paired up early and they went and made their deals and some free agents came off the board early. That has reset the market. "The trade market is not entirely reset yet. So I think once that people understand what their options are within the trade market, then I think you might see more of these teams making deals." At the moment, the Orioles don't have any deal in place with Brian Roberts for next season, but manager Buck Showalter expressed his hope to see the second baseman return. As for Duquette, he has not addressed that yet and probably will not during these meetings. "Well, we've been working this week mostly on looking for a left-handed hitter and a DH and we've also been trying to add to our pitching staff, so that is something we can get to later on," Duquette said. "We are still open to (re-signing Roberts). Let's see how out team shapes up and we'll address that at an appropriate time." Duquette mentioned that some teams are inquiring about the Orioles' young minor league players and he was encouraged by that level of interest. "Well, I think the good news is that we have more depth to our farm system," he said. "If other teams are identifying players they like, we can then trade those players to help our major league team or they'll come up and help our major league team like (Manny) Machado and (Kevin) Gausman did."