News, Notes, and Links

• The Nationals signed OF Jayson Werth to an absolutely ridiculous deal, for $126 MM total, spread out over the next seven seasons. Holy god.
• A bunch of nice updates on Orioles hot stove action, from Jeff Zrebiec at the Baltimore Sun.
• Zrebiec and Dan Connolly provide five Orioles storylines to watch at the winter meetings. This was written over the weekend, and in it they reference a potential Mark Reynolds trade, which as we reported earlier, is rumored to be a done-deal.
• Supposedly George Sherrill thinks he can still pitch, has a lot of respect for the Orioles' organization, and would definitely consider returning to Baltimore in 2011.
• Domenic Vadala at isportsweb.com thinks that the O's are definitely better off than they were 12 months ago, and are going to right the ship with Buck Showalter at the helm this season.
• Roch Kubatko at MASN was talking hitting with Jim Presley, the Orioles new hitting coach, and wondering whether the O's should pursue recently non-tendered Bobby Jenks.
• Former O's GM Pat Gillick, who was at the helm the last time the Orioles were good, back in the mid-late 1990's, was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's / Expansion Era Committee.
• Supposedly there are six teams interested in free agent Koji Uehara, who is looking for a two-year deal. Reportedly, those six include the O's, Mariners, Twins, Sox, Brewers, and Cards.