Baltimore Orioles lose Wei-Yin Chen

The Baltimore Orioles lost free agent Wei-Yin Chen, who heads to Miami.

You knew at a certain point that one of the Baltimore Orioles’ free agents would fly the coup. Yesterday the news broke that Wei-Yin Chen had signed with Miami – making him the first free agent to leave the Birds. Chen signed a five-year deal for a reported $80 million, with a vesting option for a sixth year.

The O’s weren’t comfortable bringing Chen back for that amount of time, although initially Scott Boras was looking for a $100 million contract. While I do think that the Orioles might have considered the five year deal for $80 million, there’s another part of the deal with which I wouldn’t be comfortable if I were a…