An ex-GM wrote a long defense of his track record in response to one word in a story
The former general manager of the Baltimore Orioles took offense to one word in a report this week in the Baltimore Sun.
He wrote a 355-word letter to the newspaper in response.
Mike Elias, the Orioles’ current president of baseball operations, spoke with reporters after the team made a flurry of moves leading up to the Aug. 3 trade deadline. The Orioles surprisingly traded several key players, notably former first-round draft pick Adley Rutschman.
The Sun‘s story about Elias’ comments included one line that irked Dan Duquette, whose contract was not renewed by the Orioles at the end of the 2018 season: “(Elias) took over a mess of an organization, tore it down to its studs, built it back up and turned it into a contender quicker than expected,” Jacob Calvin Meyer wrote.
Duquette’s letter made his intention clear: “I have to set the record straight regarding Jacob Calvin Meyer’s charge that Mike Elias ‘took over a mess of an organization’ when he was hired as the Orioles’ general manager in 2018.”
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Duquette went on to offer a multi-pronged defense of his seven seasons in charge of the Orioles’ baseball operations department. Among the facts he highlighted:
• The team had a losing record in 14 consecutive seasons when he took over.
• The Orioles made the postseason in his second year in charge, and reached the American League Championship Series two years after that.
• During Duquette’s first five seasons in charge, Baltimore had the best regular-season record in the AL.
• The failed seven-year, $161 million contract for first baseman Chris Davis was offered against Duquette’s advice.
“Yes, there was a somewhat messy transition in ownership related to our principal’s health, but our intellectual infrastructure was strong — though only some of it was retained,” Duquette wrote. “My director of analytics (Sarah Gelles), for example, is now assistant general manager in Pittsburgh while one of my statistical analysts (Kevin Tenenbaum) is now director of research and development there.”
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Duquette concluded by noting a handful of players he bequeathed to Elias: Felix Bautista, Austin Hays, Dean Kremer, Trey Mancini, John Means, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Grayson Rodriguez, Anthony Santander, Tanner Scott and Mike Yastrzemski.
“This was one reason the 2019-21 tear-down, during which the team won only 34% of its games, was blessedly shorter than everyone expected,” Duquette wrote.
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Even if your definition of the word “mess” doesn’t comport with Meyer’s, his description comports with others that surrounded the organization Elias inherited from Duquette.
In November 2018, the Orioles were coming off a 115-loss season. The Orioles received many “D”s and “F”s when The Athletic graded the various components of the team’s operations at the time. Some of those failures were ownership-induced, or imposed on Duquette as Peter Angelos handed off control of the team to his family.
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Change was swift after Elias replaced Duquette. According to MLB.com, “under Elias, the Orioles’ previously bare analytics and international scouting departments (grew) tenfold and fivefold, respectively. Their domestic scouting operations are in the process of drastic restructuring, and overhaul on the player development side, from philosophy to personnel, will soon be plain to see.”
The change in ownership was no less dramatic, albeit for different reasons.
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In January 2023, Louis Angelos accused his brother John, and mother, Georgia, of draining $65 million from a bank account that belonged to Peter Angelos, the majority owner of the Baltimore Orioles, and secretly buying additional shares of the team. It was, in a word, messy. Billionaire David Rubenstein bought the Orioles from the Angelos family in November 2024.
Perhaps there was plenty of blame to go around — then and now, with the team on track to miss the playoffs and finish below .500 for the second consecutive year.
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