Leftovers on Thanksgiving

I want to start my day by wishing all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. Let's agree to be thankful for everything we have, both big and small, for more than just one Thursday in November. The Orioles would like to give thanks to Chong Tae-Hyon for signing with them, but it hasn't happened. As I told you yesterday, executive vice president Dan Duquette said no deal would be announced before next week. Nothing's going to happen over the weekend. Duquette told me that he's hoping to have a deal by "the end" of next week. I guess that's one way of saying that nothing is imminent. I asked Duquette yesterday whether he's confident that he'll leave the Winter Meetings in Dallas with some new additions to the roster. "We've been meeting with a number of clubs and we're going to follow up with them, and I'm looking forward to meeting with them at the Winter Meetings," he said. "Hopefully, we can add some players via the trade market." Interesting that he singled out the trade market rather than free agency. Feel free to read as much or as little into it as you'd like. Is starting pitching a priority? "Yes," he replied. "We need to build our pitching staff, so we'll be looking for some opportunities there." Trading for a pitcher? Again, read as much or as little ... I was looking to pass along quotes yesterday from Matt Klentak, who left the Orioles to become assistant GM with the Angels, but two calls went unreturned. Sorry. I'm sure most of you heard about the tragic death of Mariners outfielder Greg Halman. I found out a few days ago that Halman had made plans to work out next week with former Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson. I told you yesterday that the Orioles declined to offer arbitration to Vladimir Guerrero. The same is true with infielder Cesar Izturis. I didn't want him to feel left out. Technically, the Orioles could re-sign both of them. Realistically, they won't. I'll close with a trivia question that was passed along to me yesterday. I'll assume that it's accurate. The man gave me his word. Name the last switch-hitter to win the American League's Most Valuable Player Award. No fair looking it up.