There’s little certainty regarding the future outlook among Orioles leadership, with both general manager Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter in the final few weeks of their contracts. Duquette said last night on 105.7 FM The Fan that he’s not sure what the future holds but expressed a desire to remain with the O’s throughout their rebuild and beyond (via Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com). “My heart’s here,” said Duquette. “And I’m happy to lead the rebuild and looking forward to it. But I don’t control those things.”
Meanwhile, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal speculates in his latest notes column that team legend Cal Ripken could find a role with the team (subscription link). While Ripken has “no interest in managing,” per Rosenthal, the O’s did bring another club legend, Eddie Murray, on board as a special advisor to ownership. Rosenthal briefly explores a hypothetical but drastically more influential position more along the lines of Derek Jeter’s role with the Marlins, though he ultimately tabs the scenario is a “long shot.”
More out of Baltimore…
- Melewski also quotes Duquette with regard to the team’s interest in top Cuban outfielder Victor Victor Mesa, who was recently declared a free agent by Major League Baseball. The GM declined to call his club any sort of favorite to sign Mesa, despite the fact that the Orioles have the top international bonus pool available, but he did reaffirm the Orioles’ philosophical shift on the international market and once again voice a strong commitment to continuing to add international amateurs, as the O’s have over the past six weeks. As for Mesa specifically, Duquette acknowledged some intrigue but added that the O’s still need to do some homework. “We don’t have that significant a scouting portfolio on him,” said Duquette. “We saw him in the (World Baseball Classic), so we’re going to have to get up to speed.”
- Showalter is in something of a tough spot with venerable club leader Adam Jones, a free agent at season’s end whose future with the club is uncertain. The O’s recently benched Jones for an entire three-game series on the road, in favor of younger players with more control. Jones has played more for the Orioles at home as the season winds down, and Showalter discussed the difficulties and the varying factors that play into the decisions with Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun. Showalter said both he and the front office “have always wanted to play” Jones. The Orioles do need to get looks at younger players, though, and Showalter spoke broadly and somewhat vaguely about the need to balance his desire to play Jones with other factors, including what type of crowd will be on hand the day in question and whether the Orioles’ opponent is in a playoff race.
No commitments, no real direction. Is there anybody behind the wheel? Looks like the only thing they are really concerned about right now is who will turn the lights out and lock the door at the end of the season.
They never had a direction to begin with. Over the years they haven’t developed prospects into starts let alone good mlb players exception of machado and schoop who’ve they traded away. They gave contracts to players that they shouldn’t have and let players they needed to sign walk they will never rebuild this team with them
I think you guys are really overlooking how much of an influence over these decisions Peter Angelos had. Angelos spearheaded the Chris Davis signing. Angelos was the one who didn’t want money spent on international talent. Angelos was the one who wanted to trade young talent to try to contend in seasons they should have been rebuilding. Duquette’s hands have been tied most of his tenure with the club. That’s why he tried to leave for Toronto. He knew he was getting a bad reputation for stuff he had no control over. This team would look significantly different if Duquette had been allowed to actually run this team the way he wanted. As a lifelong Orioles fan, I hope he gets some time to show what he’s capable of without being restrained by ownership.
Most people intuitively knew Angelos was running the show.
In the end of things the owners do run things. Anything their gm does they run it past them.
You don’t really think a gm can basically do whatever they want as long as they stay within a pre-set budget?
Common man.
The O’s are also, apparently, way behind everyone in incorporating a contemporary analytics department into their operations. It makes sense if you think about how many old-school baseball guys are running the show along with the owner’s reluctance to spend money in lots of those kinds of contemporary areas (scouting, Int’l market, etc).
Hoping they make a run for 115. Also, I don’t think a team has ever finished over 65 games out. We got records to shoot for.
Not in the modern era, but the 1899 Cleveland Spiders finished 84 games back (and 35 games behind the next worse team).
1909 Boston Doves (now the Braves) are the only modern era team at 65.5 games out
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worst_Major_League_B…
Others:
1899 Cleveland Spiders 84
1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys 66.5
1889 Louisville Colonels 66.5
We don’t want Duquette here anymore. As far as Buck, if you are going to rebuild you might as well rebuild everything. Coach’s and players. Buck is a great guy and all but i think you need to start fresh with every spot
Speak for yourself. I think both guys deserve to be back. Yep, this year has been awful awful, but I’ll judge them on more than that—much more than that.
Were you being serious? DD is the worst (outside of Queens anyway). Buck is a good manager, but this team is horribly run. No international spending. Horrible drafting. Chris Davis. Definitely time to start over in BMore.
Peter Angelos is the reason for all of those things
Angelos is definitely the #1 reason BAL is in their current state, and their mild success a few years ago happened despite Angelos’ meddling. You won’t see or hear anyone in the media pointing the finger at an owner no matter how severely detached from reality he is, though.
O’s fans have to just be thankful for the few years of competitiveness they somehow recently managed to have, that whole stretch appears farfetched in hindsight. And the next few years don’t look very promising.
That being said, it’s baseball and in baseball any team can surprise and outperform expectations any year, see Rays A’s Braves Phillies and Red Sox amongst probably others this year.
Not sure what you mean by far fetched. Between 2012-16 they had the highest winning percentage in baseball, all while competing in a brutally tough division.
No they didn’t
Revision: highest pct. during that span in the AL. Impressive regardless.
Both the O’s and their friends across the river (Nats) would be best served by having Buck take over the Nats next year. Both organizations save face, and he probably wins over there.
He can win again in Baltimore—and will—if given the chance.
Lol this isnt’t MLB:The Show dynasty mode dude. Their farm is weak sauce. I say that as an Angel’s fan. DD said it himself “we’ve only seen Mesa in the WBC” so if they are a million miles behind on the clear cut #1, how far behind are they on everybody else? The 4 years , 92 million still owed to Chris Davis can not be talked about enough, they just traded the best infielder in baseball for the Dodgers #5 prospect when they should have traded him last winter when desperation is at it’shighest,etc. I can keep going. Did I mention you can multiply Davis’ hits this season x2 and he still has 14 more strikeouts?
Really their farm is weak? You sure about that?
I’ve noted before that even BA admitted this year, during the spring, that they chronically underrate the O’s (and the Giants, BTW) farm system. And while DD didn’t get any IMPACT talent back on July 31, (teams that have Vlad Jr.-types seldom trade them) he did add a lot of depth.
They’ll be back. The division is the biggest problem, with the youth of the Sox, the systems in NY and TOR, and that team in Tampa that checks both those boxes…..
Hit the bricks, Duquette…
Pizza Pizza!
How the Mets make a total team trade with the Orioles? At least we’d get to look at different ways to lose.
And then we could take the Mets’ pitching and make a disaster out of it. Lol.
I believe these two gentlemen are more than capable of being successful if they were only allowed the freedom to do their jobs. You can be angry at the results you see but only a blind person would not see the barriers these two have had to deal with on an every day basis. You can fire them but Neither of them will be unemployed for very long! And I am a Yankees fan!
Can’t blame Angelos for everything. There were too many bad signings/guys not signed that have been because DD. I think the development of pitcher needs a major overhaul. Too much talent has passed through without one turning out to be decent
Just a note on the games behind. Since division play began in 1969, the 1998 Tampa Bay squad finished 51 games out for the most. This Oriole team is gong to crush that.
It is a skewed stat. Most divisions don’t have a team win 100 games in any given year. That would be like grading a pitcher on wins.
I know Angelos is all about saving money so I’ll be ur GM and all u gotta do is pay my $10k annual tuition until I graduate (2021) and Ill turn the O’s into a winner in no time.
Can you guys find another picture of Dan Duquette? One that doesn’t look like he is ready to sing “Rubber Biscquit”? Or Joe Friday, GM?
The orioles need to get a look at some young guys but Jones can still play every single day. Mancini can play first and Davis can deservedly ride the pine. Mullins starts in center, Jones in RF or LF or even DH. It Doesn’t matter. That leaves room for plenty of looks for Rickard, Stewart, Andreoli and the like. I’m not sure guys like Andreoli even need to be played.
Rickard has had a ton of looks over the last 3 years and nearly 800 plate appearances. He is a replacement level player. The kind of guy who teams leave available for a rule 5 pick. He is 27 and is not a prospect at this point.
Agreed. I think he’s a better ball player than Andreoli though. DJ Stewart didn’t really earn a call up and Mullins is obviously already playing regardless. Benching Jones is completely unnecessary.