Baltimore Orioles: Just Say No

The premise of the movie Back to the Future was that it was based on the 1980’s – an era that’s very near and dear to my heart. I always loved in part II how the Doc told Marty to find Griff in the “Cafe 80’s” and to just say no – obviously a tip of the cap to a popular 1980’s anti-drug campaign slogan. So as you can see I’ve done the same thing with the title of today’s Baltimore Orioles column.

And again the topic is Dan Duquette to Toronto. One might submit that the story is dead, and that it’s only people such as myself who keep bringing it up. And that might be very true. However first off, I don’t think the fact that the Toronto Blue Jays acted/are acting kind of fiendishly in their pursuit of Duquette (among others) can be understated. Secondly, is the story really dead?

In the final episode of Wall to Wall Baseball of 2014 last Saturday, MASN’s Roch Kubatko said something in passing which peaked my interest. He said that Toronto was still interested in Duquette and that if they ended up getting him the Orioles would be compensated. I believe that this was in response to a viewer’s email question, but I saw it as a bit odd.

Mandatory Credit: David Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

I have no reason to doubt the validity of Kubatko’s statement, because he’s probably the best writer on the Orioles’ beat. Furthermore I don’t necessarily think that Toronto is outwardly courting Dan Duquette as it stands right now. He said that there’s still interest there. (And why shouldn’t there be, given Duquette’s body of work?) So for conversation’s sake, let’s take that at face value.

As you’ll recall, Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos said earlier this month that Toronto hasn’t contacted him and asked to speak to Duquette. Not only that, but if they did the answer would be no. (And keep thaet in mind, as this is the basis for tomorrow’s column!) My recommendation to Angelos would be to continue to take that stance. As we move towards January, we’re only a month and a half away from pitchers and catchers reporting. How exactly would it be fair to the Orioles to allow Toronto to interview Duqutte now?

Most likely, Toronto is potentially referring to next year with their passive-aggressive interest in Dan Duquette. Their current President of Baseball Operations’ contract is up following the 2015 season. So in their minds they could be putting the Orioles on notice to the effect that they’d better either consider giving Duquette a promotion (on paper, that is), or not to stand in the way of him being interviewed next year.

One more thing with Angelos, and again I intend to further explore this topic from his perspective tomorrow. However one thing that we’ve seen in recent years is Japanese teams requiring MLB teams to pay a posting fee if they want to have the opportunity to talk to a player from their league. IF Peter Angelos wanted to defy logic and allow Toronto to speak with Duquette, would it not be possible for him to take a page out of that book?