According to Jayson Stark's "Rumblings & Grumblings", the Trembley-less Orioles are interested in Trevor Plouffe. This is intriguing, given all of the rumors about Wigginton and Tejada being more than available. Unfortunately, the Orioles are much more interested in unloading said players than the Twins (or us here at TT) are in acquiring them. Here is the quote from today's article, and the link is at the bottom of the post.

An executive of yet another team that has spoken with the Orioles say they're "sniffing around for a shortstop."

"Of course, they've been looking for two years," the exec said. "But what they'd love to do is something like what Tampa Bay did a couple of years ago when they got Jason Bartlett -- find a guy who hasn't quite made it where he is now but who they project just needs a change of scenery."

One shortstop prospect who is rumored to have piqued their interest: Minnesota's Trevor Plouffe.

Assuming we aren't swindled for Plouffe as we were swindled in the Bartlett trade, this is not a bad thing. Considering that Hardy is our shortstop for, at the very least, the next two years, losing Plouffe would only hurt in organizational depth and the loss of a former #1 pick. But its not like he is still our shortstop of the future.

That said, I'm not overly excited about acquiring either Wigginton or Tejada. Then again, Andy MacPhail isn't often the one doing the swindling, and I'd like to think that Billy Smith could come out on top if a trade was agreed upon.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&page=rumblings100604