Duquette says he left a strong foundation for Orioles

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• Agreed. Dan was an integral part towards the rebuilding of the Expos. What impressed me was the organizational commitment to rebuilding through scouting, drafting, and player development. Also, the commitment to see their strategy through. It took them 6 years from when they committed to 1993, when they almost caught the Phillies in the NL East that year. By 1994, you could see all over the roster the fruits of their sacrifice. I know, I was one of the 5,000 people who used to go to Expos game by the time they left in 2004.

• Let the haters hate, thx DD...go O’s...

• I think that it's pretty common for successful GMs to have rosters with a lot of the talent that their predecessor acquired.

  One thing that can change is coaching and player development techniques.

  "I’ll tell you what really impressed me also about Ryan Mountcastle was his raw speed." It sounds like Dan was surprised by something he should have been aware of several years ago. In fact, I'd like to know a prospect's raw speed capabilities before I drafted him. Maybe I'm reading it wrong.

  Dan's "foundation" looks to me like a lot of incomplete players, questionable pitching and Mountcastle.

  • Are you impressed with the "Boy Genius"? Let's see how many of his draftees make the bigs.

• I'm not as negative on Duquette as much as the common fan seems to be. I'd give him.a B- and an incomplete(for present prospects). He did have Davis,Jones,JJ brought on early. Machado,Wieters coming up. Pitching that pitched over their collective heads and a GREAT Mgr in Buck. What he didn't have was a minor league talent line,the freedom to spend freely(other than the Davis fiasco--which he didn't endorse),the developmental tools of modern day baseball,and the permission to indulge in the International market(a big anchor). Duquette did well with what he was 'allowed" to do from a meddling/cheap miser of an owner. Sad because he did have talent in 2017 but for some reason his team decided to under achieve. That "cupboard is bare" minor league system will always be his downfall whether his fault or not. That being said Duquette and Buck fell to the old "going in a new direction" syndrome.

• Dan Duquette was/is a pretty dang good GM. The cupboard was definitely not bare when he left, despite what some of our less enlightened fans believe. Like CalPals says ... let he haters hate. Maybe it was time to move on, but personally, I would have kept the man on for another run.

  • Thanks, Rich for giving Dan his due. He did leave some good prospects and a solid foundation. McPhail left him with a solid foundation too. Overall, he did a very good job. Like all of us, he made mistakes too. Just as Buck lost the team's support in Toronto for his inexplicable decision to not use Britton, DD lost the confidence of the team and the front office, campaigning for the promotion in Toronto. The dynamic between Buck, Dan and Brady, plus the on field selfishness with Machado and others, required a true fresh start. Unfortunate, but many times, it is the only way. Regardless, Dan should feel proud of the job he did. It was a great run. Dan took the job when others, less qualified, wouldn't. I will always appreciate what he did.

    • Everybody always complains that Buck did not bring Britton in the Toronto game. They forget that THE GAME WAS TIED!!!!!!
      Buck did not fail to bring Britton into a save situation. How many straight innings had the O's failed to score? If Zach had come in and pitched 1 or 2 scoreless innings and the O's had not scored, then what?

      • Then they lose and Buck did everything he could. Saving Britton to get the last three outs at an indeterminate time in the future was the wrong decision.

        • You can't win if you can't score. Blame the hitters for that loss.

      • I disagree Victortee. Save situation doesn't matter one iota. Generally, I loved how Buck handled his staff, but in this case it mattered not how many innings it had been since the O's had scored ... it was sudden death. Should have put the best out there until the best couldn't go any more and then worried about it.

        • Bancells, Boog and Tony each added depth to the right answer. Two more tho be to keep in mind, IMHO. Buck brought in Jimenez and not Zack, and second, he lost the team with that decision.

        • I agree with BRR. You don't leave a pitcher who only gave up four runs all year in the bullpen when its 'lose and go home' playoff game. Britton should of pitched the ninth, tenth, and possibly the eleventh inning.

      • Disagree 100%. In my mind anyway, I believe Buck made one of the worst decisions in his entire career.Just my take. He made some real good managing moves during his time,but not on that day.

  • Allow me try to explain my "cupboards bare" comment. While building a fine major League team from 2014-2017 Duquette had very little to add talentwise from the minors to implement or add to the big roster resulting in mid level FA signings. The pipeline was thin. BUT yes he did ironically add more to the 2020 team via the pipeline just not in 2015.

• Thanks, Rich, for coming up with columns of interest and substance in the off-season of an off-season.
  Maybe it's my age, but I always find it rewarding to revisit key people and dynamic situations from
  subsequent perspectives. Clarity and proportion improve over time.

  • Where's my dictionary?

    • Can't fool me, Boog. I know your enamored with the sesquipedalian.

      • I bet you think I had to look that one up as well, 'eh WM?

  • Thank you, Will.

  • LMAO, needed that, I think...go O’s...

    • Say, where's our Superscout Mortimer to rebuke all this Duquette love?

  • Lil Richard will join shortly, he can’t help himself...go O’s...

  • Too many syllables for me...go O’s...

• Duquette did some good thing. They found some gems but also missed a lot like on Stewart could’ve had walker buehler. There lack of development of the guys they drafted was what hurt duquette. Also think ownership was to blame for some of that but that doesn’t appear to be the issue anymore. I thought with the machado trade that they could’ve gotten back one more elite piece given how deep the dodgers are. I do think at the time of his firing it was time for a new direction. Elias seems to have the team on the right track and has definitely put the resources into developing the talent whether it’s the guys he’s drafted or duquette. Duquette did make some bad trades like Zach Davies for Gerardo Parra. Another thing I think hurt duquette was the Brady Anderson thing which I never really understood.

• Interesting to read Dan Duquette's comments. I think his performance in Baltimore was a mixed bag.

  On the one hand, Duquette probably deserves less credit for the Orioles 2012-2016 success than some give him. Most of the top players on those 2012-2016 teams - Adam Jones, Chris Tillman, JJ Hardy, Chris Davis, Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, Zach Britton - were traded for, or drafted, by his predecessor, Andy MacPhail ... and Duquette's two big free agent signings (over $100 million) of Ubaldo and Cobb turned out to be massive flops.

  On the other hand, Duquette appears to have made some really good draft picks in his last few seasons with the Orioles, as well as an excellent Rule 5 acquisition in Santander. And it looks like some of the prospects he acquired at the end of his tenure, Kremer, Tate, Diaz, could be significant contributors to the rebuild.

• DD was a smart and interesting "Get," Rich. And this is an excellent interview. Every GM has successes and failures. DD did inherit some very good players from the McPhail Regime. And now he passes some on. I agree that he did better than most with the limits placed on him by Peter A about spending in the Latin American market. That's the main reason the farm system could not replenish itself and that's the main reason why his legacy seems so mixed. That and the near miss versus Detroit. Meddling by PA also caused the O's to make the mistake of NOT signing Nellie Cruz to a longterm contract and, instead, giving one to "Crush." What an albatross! But compare him with some of the other recently canned GM's, from Dick Williams in Cincy to Dombrowski in Boston to Neal Huntingdon in PGH (him of the Meadows-Glasnow-Baz [3 #1 Draft picks] for Chris Archer debacle) and he comes off looking pretty good.

  • Thank you, Harold.

• Thanks for connecting w Dan and putting your Interview with him here on your site.

  Dan was in many regards a tragic figure in the Orioles recent history; he is very good at identifying talent and turning teams around. Too bad for him that he lost the confidence of the Owner with the Toronto Blue Jays fiasco.

  It is also unfortunate for him that he was paired with Buck Showalter--- a weasel who deliberately tried to undermine him and backstab him every chance he could (along with weasel #2 in Brady Anderson).

  It's a paradox that the man who took a chance on him after being exiled from Baseball for 10 years (Angelos) also stunted Dan's ability to succeed by refusing to allow him to play in the International Markets and also allowing Showalter (weasel #1) to whisper in his ear and undermine Dan's authority..

  Such is the way of our recent history...

  • Pretty harsh on Buck, by your definition, Dan had some weasel in him too. He wanted to replace Buck with his own guy from the git-go. And I will always believe that not signing Cruz and Markakis was a DD decision. PA was such a jerk of an owner, he was easy to blame. Dan signed Jimenez and Cobb to 4 year deals, both over market.

  • Thank you, Mr. Thompson.

• Spending 100 million on Ubo and Cobb just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. He drafted ok and I didn’t realize club ownership did not let him complete for international players. Shouldn’t Buck have said something to ownership about not being able to invest in the international market.

• Dan is quite the prognosticator regarding both players and the team. Means is a good example, set the world of fire in 2019 and not so hot in 2020. Hays has been even more wildly inconsistent and one has to wonder if he can even stay on the field more often than not. If significant contributions aren't realized from the international market years from now, the team will struggle to make the playoffs.

  • I dunno PeanutMan ... I think you're being a bit tough on a couple of our young keepers!

    Means was awfully good once he got healthy and his head on straight after experiencing a personal tragedy. And I don't think Hays was at all inconsistent. He only had played a few weeks before he got pelted in the ribs by an errant fastball. Once he came back, it was all positive. Remember the words of the immortal Lou Brown that "even the toughest guys have aches and pains". Once he came back, it was all positive. Granted, Hays has had his share of downtime over the past to years, but really, stuff happens that are sometimes out of anybody's control.

• Rich... you listed nine players from this year’s team that have DD’s fingerprints on them. But just getting to the ML does not make them successful. Staying there and being productive over time does. Of those nine I can see maybe three, or four, who project to fill that category. If there is one common factor for most of them is their inconsistency. In the case of both Mullins and Stewart I just can’t foresee them being everyday players. Akin and Scott are two more that have talent but lack the consistency to be front line players. Kremer could also fall into that category but he hasn’t been around long enough to pass judgment on like with the other four. Means, Santander and Mountcastle are quality, everyday (Means, every fifth day) players. Hays will still have to prove he’s an everyday quality without getting injured.

  So, as far as DD goes I’m still not all that impressed but, after reading the above posts & being reminded of the Angelos “factor”, I’m willing to back down a bit.

  • Jump back Jack ... this is a Danny Ducks lovefest going on!!

• ONLY EIGHT MORE MEASLY GAMES!

  This is what separates the reality of where we are today when debating Dan Duquette’s legacy with the O’s vs. an entirely different fairy tale ending.

  Had the O’s managed to win ONLY EIGHT MORE MEASLY GAMES at the end of 2014, then DD pulls off the ultimate accomplishment that last happened in 1983 and 99.99% of us today would agree that he was one of the best GMs we’ve ever had, if not the best. I also believe the same holds true for Buck’s legacy as Manager, even taking into account his poor decision in the 2016 wild card loss to Toronto.

  As history would have it, the O’s unfortunately lost four straight games against a red-hot Royals team to end the 2014 run and we now have topics for debate.

  In my opinion, Dan Duquette has done an outstanding job with the O’s (as well as with the Expos and Red Sox) and he definitely deserves much more credit for turning things around and for leaving very good building blocks for the rebuild. I totally appreciate Andy MacPhail’s contributions to the success that followed his time in the organization, and DD definitely made some mistakes along the way, but overall DD still gets very high marks from me.

  Let’s try to keep things in perspective…ONLY EIGHT MORE MEASLY GAMES!

  On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to have met Dan Duquette on a summer trip in 2016 and I found him to be a super nice individual. My son’s Tel-Aviv Little League coach has ties with DD and together they hooked my son and I up with on-field passes to watch the batting practice prior to the O’s game vs. the Red Sox on August 16, 2016. If that wasn’t awesome enough, DD walked over to us and generously gave us a few minutes of his time, which was super cool. Class act on his part!!

  • Believe that you are right that they are all nice guys in a basic sense.

    The problems arose from the Owner not having a formal hierarchy of authority/chain-of-command which dictated who had authority over the others.

    Most Other teams have the Manager reporting through the GM, but not Angelos. He wanted everyone reporting to him because of his lack of Leadership ability and desire to have everyone snitching the others out.... total BS set-up and of course we saw where it lead to.

    And so it went under his active days as the owner.

• Nice story. Thanks for reminding all of us that DD, Buck, Brady are really good guys. Dan did more good than not so good, it was a good run.

  • Thank you, Phil.

• I really enjoyed this interview and all the subsequent discussion it generated. I guess I have mixed feelings about Dan’s legacy in Baltimore. On the plus side, I think about the diamonds in the rough that he brought in such as Miguel Gonzalez and Wei-Yin Chen. On the down side I think about the guys who never fulfilled their potential in Baltimore... especially Jake Arrieta. I want to blame it on poor coaching and development which is ultimately the responsibility of the GM.

  • Thank you, Ray.

• Thanks for the great interview, Rich. I've always felt that during his time with the O's, DD had far more hits than misses.I wish you could follow this one up with an interview with Buck.

  • Thank you, John.

• Players on the 2012-16 teams like Adam Jones, Nick Marjakis, Matt Wieters, Chris Tillman, JJ Hardy, Chris Davis, Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, Zach Britton, were all obtained by his predecessor, Andy MacPhail. And in the height of this time when the Orioles were on the rise and were doing well, he tried to use that as a means to jump ship to division rival Blue Jay's. Nice guy! He had the highest Orioles team payroll in their history at 163,676,616 mm and never used any of it to go out and get an ace number 1 starter.

  Went out and got 30 year old Ulbaldo Jimenez and lost their number 1 pick. One of the other moves turned out poorly however, when he inked teenage Korean pitcher Seong-Min Kim to a contract. It turned out that he had failed to clear the signing with Korean baseball authorities, as protocol demands, and the Korea Baseball Association was incensed, making a formal protest to Major League Baseball and announcing that it would exclude Orioles scouts from any future events it was organizing. MLB then ruled in favor of the Koreans, voiding the signing on February 15, 2012, with the O's facing possible further sanctions.

  He also signed Yovani Gallardo to a three-year contract worth $35 million. The deal, which was first reported by Jon Heyman of MLB Network, is said to include a $13 million option for 2019. The signing will require the O's to forfeit their 1st round pick number 14th overall pick in the Draft, because Gallardo turned down a qualifying offer from the Rangers. That's 2 first round picks, one for Ulbaldo and another for Yovani.

  He didn't develop Jake Arrieta then traded him and then Jake Arrieta became known as CY Young all for a 2 month rental on a 5th starter at his best. Nice trade! He did create the feast-or-famine Orioles lineup that is too often prone to deep slumps and then wondered why!

  Trying to replace Markakis in right field, Duquette sent pitchers Steven Brault and Stephen Tarpley to Pittsburgh for underperforming outfielder Travis Snider. When that didn’t work, he doubled down and traded minor league starter Zach Davies to Milwaukee for Gerardo Parra, long before “Baby Shark.” Brault, Davies and Tarpley all became useful major league pitchers.

  Then he missed on like drafting DJ Stewart when we could have had Dodgers ace in Walker Buehler. And most losses in team history, all under his watch! Wow!

  But he wasn't a total bust. He did find Wei Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzales Chen was good his entire time here. And did find rule 5 pick Anthony Santander!

  • O's #1 Fan

    You make some very truthful observations here. DD did make some bad signings in his time here.

    There are two issues to make here though;

    - you reference the Toronto fiasco. DD should have notified Angelos immediately when he was approached by them. I do not fault DD for his interest in that position. It was a substantially higher-paying and more prestigious position. It also would have sprung him from being stuck in the Bermuda Triangle of him w Angelos and Showalter/Anderson. Alas, he whiffed and incurred the permanent wrath of Angelos.. It also badly damaged the chemistry that existed throughout the franchise in the Warehouse, Clubhouse and Owner's Office on Charles Street.

    - As for Andy MacPhail (AM) you could have done at least as good a job as he did in his time here; his drafts were totally predictable, he did NOTHING to build a "one company" Playbook for Player Development throughout the Minor Leagues and Big League Club, stacking Staff Positions with Family Members and Friends, not obtaining any International Players and otherwise not making any waves (which greatly pleased Mr. Angelos),

    - the trade for the SS JJ Hardy was brilliant, though....

    The Proof Point here is that Owner of the Phillies is praying for AM to leave a year early so that he can begin the Phillie's rebuild in earnest...also on the heals of his fellow Roland Park Whiz Kid Matt Klentak....

    And so it goes in the Orioles beautifully tormented path...

    • As Rich pointed out, #1 made a few not-very-truthful observations as well.

  • Actually, Markakis was drafted in 2003, four years before MacPhail. Wieters was drafted a few days before Andy was hired, though he did sign him.

  • I blame it on Boog...dammit man...lol...go O’s...

    • Exemplary examples of the use of google, spellcheck and plagiarism. Give the boy credit for putting some serious weekend time into this one ....

  • Thought exactly the same thing...go O’s...

  • I also should point out that Walker Buehler was selected 24th in the draft--one position before DJ Stewart was--and that the Orioles could not have drafted him.

  • Nice catch Rich...go O’s...

• A good test of Duquette's accomplishments and reputation is whether he has been hired by another club. The article made it sound like he was still unemployed. Is he?

  • Brilliant observation Cap't Snark.... there is a grand total of 30 of these such jobs in the World.. There are likely 30+ other similarly experienced and credentialed GMs that have not been hired by other teams either.

    • FYI Castaway: DD could be hired elsewhere as an assistant general manager, director of player development, director of scouting, director of minor league operations, etc. They would be a step down from GM, but surely beat unemployment for someone who said "I’ve got a young family, so I’m going to continue to work.”
      Would like to see your list of the 30+ ex-GMs of high repute that have not been hired.

      • Here's a list for you to ponder....

        List of Major League Baseball general managers - Wikipedia

        Reference the column of the previous GM...

        This doesn't include any one of the "up and coming Whiz Kids that are quickly rising to the fore...of which there are many more than 30...

        Kind regards.