Baltimore Orioles: Duquette’s roster filler becoming problematic

Baltimore Orioles GM Dan Duquette brought back Logan Ondrusek for $650,000, which begs the question — could that money be put to better use?

In a move that probably did not move the needle outside of Baltimore Orioles country, free-agent reliever Logan Ondrusek agreed to a contract for 2017 with a team option for 2018 yesterday. The deal was first reported by Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports, and will pay the right-hander close to the league minimum next year. Ondrusek had been pitching in Japan last year before signing with the Orioles, pitching to a 9.95 ERA in 6.1 IP.

Great, great stuff by the master of filling out a roster, Dan Duquette.

Under Duquette, the Orioles have had more than their fair share of AAA roster filler on the MLB roster. Last year, Ondrusek, Brian Duensing, and Odrisamer Despaigne all pitched for the big-league club. Duquette trotted out Travis Snider as a full-time replacement for Nick Markakis in 2015, and the Orioles Triple-A club in Norfolk has been heavily composed of 27-30-year-old almost major leaguers.

This approach has brought the Orioles some production over the past six years. Nate McLouth, Steve Pearce, and Miguel Gonzalez come to mind as great under-the-radar pickups made by Duquette that panned out, but there have been just as many bargain-bin signings that did nothing for the Orioles, think Chris Parmelee, Julio Borbon, and Zach Phillips.

As this roster filler parades through Norfolk, the rest of the Orioles’ farm system has consistently ranked in the bottom ten or even bottom five of the league. The system is completely devoid of high-level talent outside of catcher Chance Sisco. Jomar Reyes is the only prospect signed as an international free agent of note. On the current Orioles roster, only Jonathan Schoop signed as an IFA and rose through the system.

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To make matters worse, Duquette has actually used his international bonus pool money to dump pitchers like Ryan Webb and Brian Matusz. This from an executive who cut his teeth with the Montreal Expos as the director of player development building what may have been the best farm system of the 1990s. With the Orioles, Duquette has done very little in the player development department.

With the Orioles, almost all of Duquette’s focus has been on improving the major-league roster. This has led him to continue looking for hidden gems like Pearce, at the detriment to the farm system. It is obvious that he is looking to do all that he can to maximize the current window of contention that will be violently slammed shut after the 2018 season.

It’s hard to put all the blame for the current state of the farm system on Duquette. We don’t know what type of budget the Angelos family gives him to spend on international free agents, but it is clear that they don’t give him enough to sign prospects and the type of potential MLB contributors that he needs. Even during their lengthy rebuild, the Orioles lacked great international prospects. As an owner, Angelos has done enough to pay for and field a contending roster (even if he lucked into this current iteration), but he has not done enough to build a scouting infrastructure and farm system that will keep the big club loaded.

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Already this offseason, the Orioles have added to their stockpile of replacement-level talent, including Ondrusek, David Washington, Logan Verrett, Logan Schafer, and Adam Walker. There has been a similar list of retreads every offseason under Duquette, but no high-level prospects. This is not how you build a foundation for a sustainable winner. This is how you build a team that goes belly-up after the current core hits free agency.

The Orioles and Duquette can win for now with this approach, but when the other shoe falls, it will get ugly in a hurry.