The next few days should produce some intrigue as the Orioles continue the process of getting permission to speak to the candidates on their list to replace departed president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail. Depending on the law office schedule of owner Peter Angelos, the interviews could start pretty quickly.

Manager Buck Showalter certainly has reason to want the ball to get rolling, since he's back in town to help in the search and work on the composition of next year's coaching staff. He's got a couple of slots to fill but might hold off on making any final announcement on the 2012 staff until the team is closer to having a new head of baseball operations. It appears most of his current coaches will remain in place.

The GM search obviously will supersede pretty much anything else on the club's offseason schedule, and judging from the reaction to the departure of Joe Jordan, you have to believe that any significant front office decision is on hold until the new guy gets to weigh in on it. Club officials stressed Wednesday that -- while they likely would have encouraged Jordan to stay if the front office situation had remained unchanged -- his departure may help convince a top-quality candidate to take the baseball operations post, since the new guy will have the ability to construct the player development department in his own image.

That might not bode well for player-development execs John and David Stockstill. They are under contract through the 2012 season but appear likely to be re-assigned under the new regime.