Nothing new with Markakis over the weekend

The weekend passed without the Orioles reaching agreement with right fielder Nick Markakis on a four-year contract.

It doesn't appear that the two sides have additional talks scheduled at the moment. Of course, that can change in a hurry, but it's pretty quiet.

Nothing was arranged heading into last week's general managers' meetings in Phoenix, but Markakis' agent, Jamie Murphy, and Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette spoke on Wednesday. The lines of communication can open up again without warning.

Meanwhile, FOXSports.com reported yesterday that the Blue Jays "had contact" with Murphy, but they aren't seriously pursuing Markakis at this time.

The challenge for Murphy is to make sure teams don't assume that Markakis is staying in Baltimore. It's hard to maintain a market if the industry figures there's no point in negotiating due to Markakis' well-publicized preference to remain with the Orioles.

Markakis, celebrating his 31st birthday today, won his second Gold Glove this year and center fielder Adam Jones won his fourth. They both expressed their gratitude to first base coach Wayne Kirby, who works with the outfielders.

"I'm very excited," Kirby said during a recent phone interview on "The Mid-Atlantic Sports Report" on MASN. "Watch those two guys go at it all year and listen and to perform at a high level every day and to do everything I ask them to do, I'm very proud of both of them."

It doesn't happen by accident.

"From Day One in spring training we get after it," Kirby said. "We're 55 minutes of straight defense when full squad is in. Day One we start running. There's no vacation. They're getting ready for the season, and I take pride in those guys being in the best shape ever because they have to be in shape. They do all the running.

"When we miss balls and we're not in the right position in the outfield, that's doubles, sometimes triples. It's a constant battle. Even new guys that come in. Working with Delmon Young, he's like, 'Man, I've never seen outfielders come in and start running right off the bat.'

"We do three things. We throw, we catch ground balls and we run. Bottom line."

Kirby said the outfielders throw every day except Sunday.

"That's the only way they can keep their arm strength," he said.