Orioles unwilling to forfeit draft pick to sign Gallardo

Despite having a desperate need in their rotation, the Baltimore Orioles don't appear willing to sacrifice part of their future in order to ink the top remaining free-agent starter.

Earlier this month the Orioles were among a small group of teams said to be aggressively pursuing right-hander Yovani Gallardo, but the cost of having to surrender a first-round pick in order to sign him has turned general manager Dan Duquette off.

"The big question for us is are we willing to give up our number one pick - which is going to be somewhere in the middle of the first round - and so far that answer's been no," Duquette told MLB Network Radio on Friday. "We haven't been willing to do that.

"We made a number of trades to keep our team in contention and have winning clubs the last four years and when you do that you have to give up good pitching from your farm system and we need the draft picks this year to help restock the farm system. I think we're gonna hold on to that pick."

Gallardo went 13-11 with a career-best 3.42 ERA over 33 starts last season with the Texas Rangers, but also posted a career-worst 1.42 WHIP while only striking out 121. He rejected a qualifying offer from the team, tying him to draft-pick compensation.

The Orioles spent $207 million this winter to retain Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, and Darren O'Day, though they were forced to watch left-hander Wei-Yin Chen sign with the Miami Marlins.

Duquette hasn't ruled out adding another starter prior to spring training, but acknowledged the value has escalated significantly with more teams chasing fewer pitchers. Out on Gallardo, Duquette was asked about Doug Fister, who's reportedly asking for a deal in the two-year, $22-million range.

"Fister's interesting," Duquette said. "He's had a couple good years - last year wasn't one of his good years, but he's an interesting guy. He's a bounce-back candidate. I can't say we've made an offer to him but we've been monitoring his market."