Our long national nightmare seems to be over, Birdland. For now, anyway.
Yesterday, the Toronto Blue Jays announced that CEO Paul Beeston had signed an extension to remain in his position through 2015.
Cue my favorite gif!
Thus “ends,” I suppose, the ongoing rumors about Dan Duquette flying one coop for another. However, Beeston is already set to retire at the end of 2015, so perhaps we’ll get to go down this same road once again next year.
And all this just a few days after some were reporting that the O’s and Jays were close on a compensation package for Duquette that would have possibly included the Jays’ 2014 first-round draft pick, pitcher Jeff Hoffman.
That was Friday. Sunday, the Jays promptly cut off negotiations.
Duquette, of course, never offered much more than a token “no comment” throughout the entire ordeal, while the Blue Jays were being ripped apart by their own local media as well.
The way Jays ownership has handled this has been a disgrace. They have tarnished the legacy of Beeston, who was only going to stay on for one more season anyways. They have disrespected all Canadian presidential possibilities like current business exec Stephen Brooks. They have made a silent statement about, and thus made it difficult and uncomfortable for, current GM Alex Anthopoulos, who has not commented on the situation, perhaps too busy looking over his shoulder.
The next step in the drama is that many O’s reporters are saying the team may still consider tampering charges against Toronto. Who knows what, if any, good would come of that, but as we all know, hell hath no fury like an Angelos scorned.
If Petey feels he can get something from the Jays for this, he’ll damn sure try (and will drag it out for years if need be).
Now Duquette returns to work with the O’s…
Those FanFest forums on Saturday should be quite interesting. At this point, fans have pretty much zero confidence that Dan has the best interest of the Orioles at heart, and is capable of doing his job to the best of his ability. Most everyone I’ve talked to agrees that if he already has one foot out the door, it would have been best for the Birds to just be done with him.
Instead, we have what appears to be a lame duck GM. A few weeks ago, Roch Kubatko quoted one O’s source as saying the situation in the Warehouse was “toxic” over the Duquette drama.
Does all that just get erased now that Toronto has walked away from the table? Doubtful.
Until next time on, “As the Bird Turns….”
