Slugger talk: Notes on Bautista, Ortiz and Trumbo

Jose Bautista on the Orioles? Yeah, that is really not a very good fit and is not going to happen. Probably not. But what if Bautista's market completely bottoms out and he is still looking for work in February or even March?

Would the Orioles go for Bautista if he came at an enormous discount? That seems unlikely since they've already said they are not going there and a team will have to give up a first-round draft pick to sign Bautista, who perhaps unwisely turned down the qualifying offer from Toronto. So even at a discounted price, the loss of a draft pick makes it less of a chance.

In 2015, Baustisa hit 40 home runs, drove in 114, had a .913 OPS and an OPS+ of 145. But last year, he hit .234/.366/.452 with 22 homers and 69 RBIs. He has a career .368 OBP and one of the best walk rates in the game, but the Orioles are still not going there.

"Jose Bautista's agent has been knocking on the Orioles door for a while and I told him, 'Look, our fans don't really like Jose Bautista.' And they don't. Not to mention that he has a qualifying offer attached to him," O's vice president Dan Duquette said Wednesday afternoon at the Winter Meetings.

"I just made a comment that we weren't going to be pursuing their client. It's true, the guy's a villain in Baltimore."

Well, he is a villain in Baltimore, but paying big dollars for a player with declining skills and giving up a draft pick at the same time are the real reasons the Orioles have no interest in Bautista. By the way, if he's been knocking on the Orioles door, he really doesn't have much of a market going.

MLBTradeRumors.com ranked Bautista as the No. 12 free agent entering the offseason and projected he would get a three-year contract for $51 million. That seems unlikely now. Even more unlikely is that he will be an Oriole in 2017.

Is David Ortiz still retired?: Well, let's hope so. After a year-long celebration of his career, is there any chance the Boston Red Sox try to talk Ortiz out of retiring?

After the Red Sox acquired pitcher Chris Sale in a trade with the Chicago White Sox, Ortiz wrote this on his Instagram account:

"My boy Sale to Btown? You guys got me thinking," Ortiz wrote, although Boston's president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said he thinks Ortiz was joking, and adds that the team will not initiate talks designed to lead to his return.

Ortiz had a remarkable last season with 38 homers, 127 RBIs, an OPS of 1.021 and sixth-place finish in the MVP vote. His critics and other skeptics wondered how a player could do that at 40, and we all know what they were thinking.

O's fans have likely had their fill of Ortiz and then some and his endless goodbyes last year. Time for him to spend some time out of the limelight for a while.

Trumbo talk: The Orioles continue to pursue a deal with free agent Mark Trumbo, while at the same time appearing interested in getting the draft pick if he signs with another team.

You have to wonder how much money the Orioles have offered Trumbo? How far will they go to bring him back and would he come back as more of a DH than a right fielder, which seems likely?

Last year, Trumbo got 62 percent of his at-bats in the field, mostly in right field. He got 38 percent as the DH. It would seem he would see much less time in the field next year should he re-sign. What exactly that could mean for Trey Mancini, we are not sure.

One scout at the Winter Meetings said he thought the best lineup with those two and Chris Davis in it would have Mancini at first base, Davis in right field and Trumbo at DH. But so far, the Orioles seem to have little to no interest in putting Davis in right field.

So the Orioles continue to pursue Trumbo. If he comes back, that could have ramifications for others on the 2017 Orioles.