joaquin benoit

The Baltimore Sun baseball experts deliver their predictions for the AL and NL division playoff series.

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.

Grant Balfour's two-year, $15 million deal with the Orioles is now in major jeopardy, after team doctors expressed concern with Balfour's right shoulder during his physical, according to industry sources.

The lobby at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort quickly emptied out as Major League Baseball's winter meetings ended Thursday. While the Orioles only added a pair of Rule 5 draft picks this week, the club continued efforts to land a free-agent closer.

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette suppressed speculation that the club was nearing a deal with a free-agent closer on Tuesday at baseball's winter meetings.

The Orioles continue their search for a new closer to replace Jim Johnson, but manager Buck Showalter said the club has yet to focus on a certain player.

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.

Brian Roberts said he had just experienced his first pain-free two weeks since the concussion. Friends were telling him he looks completely different from the way he did as recently as September. He and his doctors say he'll be recovered by spring and in the Oriole lineup for 2012.