MILWAUKEE -- It's three months into the season, and the Orioles are already on their third starting shortstop. Baltimore elected to designate Freddie Bynum for assignment on Sunday, which essentially makes Alex Cintron the everyday starter at short. That alignment might be short-lived, though, because the Orioles will continue to search for a new solution.

"We're on an APB right now trying to find a shortstop as a front office," said Andy MacPhail, Baltimore's president of baseball operations. "We've sent the word out to our scouts. We're going to continue to evaluate our internal options, and we're going to continue to look outside the organization as well to see if we can find something."

When the Orioles jettisoned Miguel Tejada last winter, they knew that shortstop would pose a problem, but they thought they could get enough defense out of Luis Hernandez to offset his substandard bat. When that turned out to be a false assumption, they turned to Bynum, a former utilityman who was quickly overexposed as a starter.

Bynum hit just .192 with a .238 on-base percentage and a .242 slugging mark in his first 34 games, and he's been even worse of late. He went just 2-for-22 in his last eight games, and manager Dave Trembley's frustration with the position boiled over on Saturday, when he was forced to use Cintron as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning of a close game.

When asked how much concern he had about shortstop, Trembley attemped to lighten the mood with a quip.

"Can you see the bags under my eyes?" Trembley asked. "It hasn't been easy. You live with it. You hope it gets better. You give every opportunity that you can for it to get better, but when it doesn't, you have to make a change. It's that simple.

"You know the stats. He hit .118 the last 60-something at-bats," he added. "I think I kind of allowed you guys to get in my little cranium a little bit when I said I didn't want to play seven against nine. That was it. We need something that it is a little bit better than what we had, with all due respect."

The problem, at least as far as the Orioles are concerned, is that shortstop is a dead zone within the organization. Cintron, a former big-league starter, was signed on Opening Day to provide some upper-level depth. Hernandez is still in the system, but the Orioles might be hesitant to give him another try when they could be looking elsewhere.

MacPhail acknowledged that on Sunday, but he also said that he'd consider every possible alternative.

"I thought, to be honest with you, with Luis we'd get solid defense there," MacPhail said. "I was willing to give up some offense, but he struggled. We've tried many internal options, and we'll continue to try to fiddle with it as best we can. We'll keep looking. I think whatever surplus the sport had got eaten alive by injuries to that position around the league.

"It's been a challenge. We need to continue to work it to try to find something that gives us a little more."

Cintron, for his part, is regarded as an offense-first infielder with a questionable glove -- which is the complete opposite of Trembley's stated goal for the position. But Cintron is an adequate place-holder in that he has starting experience and has demonstrated an ability to hit Major League pitching better than either Hernandez or Bynum.

"Well, he's my option right now," said Trembley, choosing his words carefully. "For today, he's my option at shortstop. I don't really think I have anyone else that is an option right now. I'll think about other alternatives on the bus ride to Chicago."

Trembley also said that he wouldn't really consider using Oscar Salazar at shortstop, citing Salazar's lack of experience at the position.

And Cintron, who started the season with Triple-A Norfolk, is thankful for his new opportunity.

"That's baseball. That's life," said Cintron when asked about his changing role. "That's why this game is so exciting. Something can happen every day, every hour. Every minute can change everything. A lot of movement happens.

"I was a utility guy and went to Triple-A and played every day. I had a lot of fun doing that, knowing you're going to be in the lineup. But like I said, I'm here to do whatever the manager wants me to do. If that's to play, I'll play. If he wants me to come off the bench, I'll come off the bench. I'm going to approach the game the same way. I'll probably be more relaxed."

Trembley, a noted devotee of pitching and defense, regards shortstop as one of the most important positions on the field, and allowed that his team has overachieved to mitigate the lack of contributions from that slot.

"I think it says something about the other guys being able to pick up the slack, so to speak," he said. "Here, against National League clubs, it's probably become a little more apparent that we need to improve that area without a DH in the lineup. I think you can get by a little better with the DH in the lineup. In the National League, it's very difficult to do that."