Baltimore Orioles: Accolades for Duquette

Baseball America named it’s 2014 Executive of the year yesterday, and the award went to Dan Duquette of the Baltimore Orioles. Duquette’s prowess is of course nothing new to Orioles fans and those of us who follow the team closely, as the results over the past three years (but especially in 2014) are undeniable. However it’s also nice to see that Duquette is getting the recognition he deserves for his efforts.

Photo: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Bearing that in mind, Duquette told MASN’s Roch Kubatko the following:

"It’s an organizational honor when you receive this recognition, but it’s really recognition of the good work of our major league team, our player development operation, which has improved over the last couple of years. We were in the bottom 10th and now we’re somewhere between 12th and 15th in terms of signing and developing ballplayers. But it’s a tribute to the work that our scouting director, Gary Rajsich, has done, along with his staff. And the work that Fred Ferreira has done in the international market, signing good players. And it’s a good reflection on (director of player development) Brian Graham and his staff, (director of minor league operations) Kent Qualls.It’s like the anchorman for the news team. It takes about 100 people to put him on the air, right? But he’s out there reading the news. It’s a recognition of the good work that everybody does within the Orioles organization to help us field a competitive team and a team that our fans can be proud of and we all can be proud of."

Duquette of course took over the duties as Vice-President of Baseball Operations following the 2011 season. In 2012 some of his moves helped the O’s to record their first winning season since 1997, qualifying for the post-season. The Orioles’ winning ways continued in 2013, and then of course this past season he helped guide the franchise to the AL East title.