Is Dan Duquette leaving the Baltimore Orioles?

In a way, Baltimore Orioles fans shouldn’t be surprised that another team (Toronto, in this case) is interested in hiring Dan Duquette. However the troubling thing is that Duquette is still under contract with the O’s – until after the 2018 season. In sports circles, that’s an eternity. However when reports surfaced yesterday to the effect that Toronto was interested in Duquette, the news was met with some shock. And I was as surprised as anyone. Quick clarification though; Duquette is the Orioles’ VP of Baseball Operations. Toronto wants him to be their Team President.

And let’s start there. In my view we’re talking semantics. Every team’s front office structure is different. I would submit that the job function is all but identical (perhaps with a bit of nuance – as I said, each team’s structure is different). The term General Manager is now seen as somewhat archaic in sports, however I think we all know who the GM is when we see him. Dan Duquette is the Orioles’ GM. Toronto has a vacancy in that spot, and they want him.

And thus Toronto is also exploiting that to their advantage. Technically (on paper), the Toronto job would be a promotion in a sense. Even though we all know that both jobs are functionally General Manager positions, on paper it’s seen as a step upwards (due to nothing more than different organizational structures). In general, when another team is interested in one of your people for a higher position, you’re supposed to grant him permission to speak with them.

Photo: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

That’s one of baseball’s unwritten codes to which I’m always referring. (Although obviously it doesn’t have anything to do with the integrity of the game or anything on the field.) So if in fact these rumors are true, the Orioles really find themselves in a quandry in a sense. They certainly have the right to block Toronto from speaking to Duquette, however odds are they’d be marketed as the villains if they did so. But…is that a bad thing?

Dan Duquette has of course been instrumental in the Orioles’ resurrgence over the past few years. That’s why the Orioles gave him a contract extension through 2018 after only one season. And I don’t need to remind fans why the Orioles gave him that extension. So…does it not strike some of us as unfair that another team is using semantics to attempt to gain the right to interview Duquette?

You’ll recall that Duquette (and Showalter) kind of ticked Toronto off last spring when they used a loophole to keep Steve Pearce when Toronto wanted to claim him off of waivers. However that aside, if it looks like a GM, acts like a GM, and talks like a GM, it’s a GM. That’s in effect what Dan Duquette is doing in Baltimore. And that’s in effect what he’d be doing in Toronto.

Ultimately, to my knowledge there’s been no formal request of the Orioles from Toronto to interview Duquette. However that might come this week during the winter meetings. My recommendation would be for the Orioles to run the risk of bad publicity and deny that permission. If last year’s situation with Grant Blafour is any indication, I suspect the national media would be all over the Orioles for that.

But it’s tough enough to win in sports without adding to your own demise. That’s exactly what the Orioles would be doing by allowing Duquette to tak to Toronto. Furthermore, it shouldn’t be lost on anyone (least of all Toronto) that this is a team within the Orioles’ division. The flip side of course is that the Orioles might then have to attest to what could amount to a somewhat salty Dan Duquette, as they’d be seen as standing in the way of him moving up in his career.

At the end of the day, my prediction is that Duquette will go on acting as the GM of the Orioles. However consider this; as bad as it would look for the Orioles to block Toronto from speaking to him, is it not also fair to point out that Toronto’s being just as petty by using the semantics of a title and/or front office structure to rip Duquette away from the Orioles?

Incidentally, Dan Duquette himself declined to comment on this matter yesterday, and said that he’d address the Baltimore media today. I’m sure that Orioles fans are hoping that he says he has no interest in going to Toronto. Owner Peter Angelos said yesterday that he’s very happy with the job Duquette’s done, and he’s counting on him to fulfill his contract. Having said that, if this story grows more legs than it already has how does that affect what Duquette does (or is allowed to do) at the winter meetings?