"Aubrey Huff, Melvin Mora and Danys Baez, three veterans in the final guaranteed years of their contracts, have cleared waivers, according to league sources, meaning they can be traded to any club if the Orioles find a suitor.

The two infielders and the reliever clearing waivers isn't at all surprising as the Orioles didn't find much interest in any of the veterans before last month's nonwaiver trade deadline. All three have struggled at times this season and are still owed a decent chunk of money for the rest of the season.

Mora, who is hitting .254 with three homers and 29 RBIs, is still owed about $2.7 million. Huff (.255 average 12 homers, 68 RBIs) is due approximately $2.4 million while Baez (4.33 ERA) will make an additional $1.8 million, plus a $500,000 assignment bonus if he is traded.

The Orioles would probably be willing to absorb some of the remaining money if they found an interested team as Mora and Baez almost certainly won't return next year and Huff's recent offensive struggles have increased the chances that he won't be back. The Detroit Tigers had some interest in Huff earlier this season.

Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail declined to comment when asked about his players clearing waivers. Teams have to pass players through revocable waivers if they want to move them after the July 31 trade deadline.

If a player gets claimed, a team can pull him off waivers, give the claiming team that player and the remainder of his contract, or work out a trade with the claiming team for the player.

Player to be named soon

MacPhail said that he expects to finalize the deal that sent catcher Gregg Zaun to the Tampa Bay Rays via a waiver claim early this week. As part of Friday's deal, the Orioles will get a player to be named, but that player hasn't been determined, largely because of the amount of roster juggling the Rays have done lately.

In the past couple of days, the Rays have designated pitchers John Meloan and R.J. Swindle, infielder Joe Dillon and catcher Michel Hernandez for assignment.

"There are some moving pieces," MacPhail said. "We might just let the waiver period sort out or we might just agree to a name. There are a couple of names that we've talked about.""