Short stop J.J. Hardy will be a free agent after this season, but the Baltimore Orioles would like to keep him around. Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun says that Orioles President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail reached out to Hardy’s agent this week to begin talks about a potential contract extension for him.

Zrebiec adds that talks haven’t reached the serious level to this point, but that should change as the Orioles get closer to the July 31 trade deadline. Hardy is hitting .303/.367/.548 with 11 HR’s and 30 RBI’s in 188 AB’s for the Orioles this season.

Image by Keith Allison under the Creative Commons License.