edward mujica

The Orioles faced the Tigers at Camden Yards.

The Orioles face the Tigers at Camden Yards.

Winning two of three games this weekend at Fenway Park wasn't easy, but the Orioles had reason to celebrate after surviving their series finale Sunday afternoon with a 7-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox in 12 innings.

Opening a four-game wrap-around series at Fenway in a 39-degree New England chill at first pitch, the Orioles (8-7) won their third straight game and have won seven of their last 10.

As Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette sat in his office at the Ed Smith Stadium complex on a sunny afternoon earlier this month, overlooking a well-manicured cloverleaf of fields, a bitter winter seemed like an eternity ago in more ways than one.

The possibility of the Orioles opening spring training with Tommy Hunter as the team's closer is becoming more real by the day. Once the team dealt 50-save closer Jim Johnson to Oakland, the club saw Hunter as a fallback option. But now he's turning into much more of a possibility.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter faces the task of reshuffling a roster that took a severe hit this week in a five-day span in which the club traded All-Star closer Jim Johnson and former Orioles Nate McLouth and Scott Feldman, two of the team's top priorities to resign, signed elsewhere.

The Orioles traded Jim Johnson so they could use his projected salary elsewhere. But they won't have much left if they buy another closer.

A pitcher who could have possibly replaced Jim Johnson as the Orioles' closer came off the board on Thursday when the Boston Red Sox signed former St. Louis Cardinals reliever Edward Mujica to a two-year, $9.5-million deal.

While the Orioles' trade of closer Jim Johnson offered more questions than answers, Dan Duquette insisted Tuesday that the deal can't truly be evaluated for the next several weeks.

If you went to bed early last night, you woke up this morning to the news that the Orioles suddenly have an opening at closer.

Back in September, Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said definitively that closer Jim Johnson would be tendered a contract and return next season.