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Dan Duquette Seems to Have No Plans to Sell or Rebuild

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With the Orioles continuing to wallow in mediocrity (or worse), falling to 35-37 from their season high-water mark of 22-10 (that’s 13-27 over their last 40 games), many fans and pundits have started to seriously consider the prospect of the team being sellers at the trade deadline, and starting at least a re-tooling for 2018, if not a full-scale rebuild for 2019 and beyond.

Throw in the contract status of such key pieces as Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Zach Britton, and even Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter, and it’s clear that some hard decisions may have to be made very soon in Birdland.

However, one guy who apparently has no interest in considering making said hard decisions is Duqutte himself.

As reported by FanRag’s Jon Heyman:

“We have a number of players who are capable of playing better and contributing more to the 2017 team than they have to date,” GM Dan Duquette said, listing Tillman, Gausman, Jimenez, Zach Britton, Darren O’Day, Mark Trumbo, Seth Smith and Manny Machado among the players who have a strong track record but haven’t played up to that level yet. “How do I know this?” Duquette continued. “Because it is in the book. They have all played to a much higher level than they have played at so far this season. We are still contenders and we look forward to these players contributing to the club.”

Maybe Dan is right. Perhaps the team won’t keep playing like a 53-win team, as they have been over the last month-plus. After all, they’re only 5.0 games out of first place, and 2.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. Crazier things have certainly happened. And while their pitching is obviously very bad, there’s no way it’s THIS bad, right? Kevin Gausman will likely rebound at least a bit, as will Chris Tillman. Britton will come off the disabled list eventually, and the same can be said for Darren O’Day and Chris Davis.

But consider this: even if the Birds pull out of their current tailspin and play their remaining 90 games like – and I’m admittedly being overly optimistic here – a 90-win team (a 0.556 winning percentage), that only gets them to 85-77. And think of what would need to happen for this squad to play like a 90-win team: Gausman and Tillman would have to GREATLY improve. Dylan Bundy would need to bounce back and pitch like he did in April and May. O’Day, Britton, Davis, and even J.J. Hardy would likely need to get healthy, remain that way, and perform as they did over the past several seasons.

And of course, guys like Jones, Machado, Jonathan Schoop, Trey Mancini, and Welington Castillo would have to play at roughly the levels they have to date this season.

That’s a lot of puzzle pieces that need to fall in place, and 85 wins is hardly a lock for anything more than the second wild card spot, at best. If just a couple of those best-case scenarios fail to materialize, it’s hard to see this team even approaching the 85-win mark as currently constructed.

But hey, maybe Dan’s optimism will pay off. Or maybe he’s just sandbagging and declining to tip his hand; it’s only June, after all. If he was telling reporters that, “well, we’re cooked! Everybody is on the block,” there would very likely be a revolt among roughly half the team’s fans, attendance would plummet, and only the die-hards would be ready to settle in for what would surely be a bumpy rebuild.

Not to mention, how would that go over with players, the Angelos family, and Buck?

In the end, while I think Duquette’s words to Heyman are absolutely overly optimistic, I can’t really blame him for putting on a happy face in public, while admitting that I have no idea if that’s how he really feels.

Only time will tell.

0 Responses

  1. You answered your own question. What GM on the planet is going to say “we suck, everyone is available”? Come on man, you should know better than that.

  2. Best on O’s rotation would be starter 4 or 5 on most other teams or long relief. Been a O’s fan all my life,…I don’t remember a rotation this bad

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0 Responses

  1. You answered your own question. What GM on the planet is going to say “we suck, everyone is available”? Come on man, you should know better than that.

  2. Best on O’s rotation would be starter 4 or 5 on most other teams or long relief. Been a O’s fan all my life,…I don’t remember a rotation this bad

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