There’s No Turning Back on the Dan Duquette Road

In one corner, there’s a man vying to make his way up to the final rung in the corporate ladder. In the other, there’s a man who’s undoubtedly built a lasting legacy, but doesn’t appear to want to exit his post as president any time soon.

Seem a little awkward?

The rumours have been brewing for months linking Dan Duquette as the successor to Paul Beeston as the next Blue Jays president, but in recent weeks things have ramped up significantly; almost to the point of return, according to Ken Rosenthal.

Moments ago on @FAN590 @Ken_Rosenthal was asked if Duquette is headed to the Jays, he said “100%. There is no turning back.”
— Ben Ennis (@BennisSnet) January 15, 2015

Whether it’s in the very near future or one to two years down the road, one way or another, the Toronto Blue Jays will have a new president and CEO. It is eventually going to happen, and the successor to Paul Beeston could very well be Dan Duquette.

If that’s the case, just how ugly will Duquette’s exit from Baltimore be, and how messy could Beeston’s end as Blue Jays’ CEO get? On both sides, the potential is there for things to get very turbulent very quickly.

Many insiders believe it’s only a matter of time before Dan Duquette leaves Baltimore, but Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos seemingly won’t let him go at all costs. It’s almost like Angelos as Emperor Palpatine is using his powers of the force in an attempt to keep Duquette from escaping his clutches in Baltimore.

But the truth is if Dan Duquette wants to go elsewhere, he’ll get there. If an opportunity exists for him to move up and get promoted from GM to president, the O’s really have no choice but to let him go. It doesn’t really matter if he has four years left on his contract or not.

I kind of feel bad for Orioles fans because their team has basically been stuck in limbo this entire offseason. Admittedly, it’s difficult for Dan Duquette to focus his energy on running the day-to-day operations of a ball club if he’s actively seeking a job within another organization.

Blue Jays fans can sympathize with Orioles fans in this instance. Go back a few years ago, and Toronto experienced a very similar situation with the John Farrell debacle; except it was drawn out over the course of two years rather than a few months.

The Blue Jays tried to prevent Farrell from going to the Red Sox by instilling a “no lateral moves” policy, when clearly they should’ve sent him to Boston the moment he expressed a desire to return to the Red Sox organization.

It was a long and drawn out process which ended up much uglier than it should have. The optics were horrible and John Farrell eventually just went back to Boston anyway. In the meantime, a year was arguably wasted with a manager who really didn’t want to be in Toronto.

Peter Angelos can dig his heels in all he wants when it comes to Dan Duquette, but I think it will be difficult for Duquette to continue to run the club when he’s sitting in his GM’s chair daydreaming of occupying the president’s post in Toronto.

Dan Duquette is only one part of the equation; Paul Beeston’s position with the Blue Jays organization is the other. To give you a primer, if you haven’t already, Drew’s latest at Ghostrunner on First sheds some light onto what might perhaps be the muddied legacy of Paul Beeston.

List of things Beeston accomplished without Gillick is short. List of things Gillick accomplished without Beeston is long.
— Drew Fairservice (@DrewGROF) October 3, 2014

It’s interesting to note that ever since Beeston’s return to the helm as president in 2008, virtually no one has questioned his position with the club. And yet the Blue Jays have continued to struggle, but the club’s string of managers and GMs have taken the brunt of the blame.

Not to discount what Paul Beeston has done for the Blue Jays organization; he’s been a friendly face all these years and never shies away from the media or controversy. Beeston is very well-liked by fans and his peers, but garnering admiration doesn’t always translate to success.

I’m not sure of the dynamic between Paul Beeston and ownership, but I’d be very interested to see how Dan Duquette might do things differently within the Blue Jays organization.

After all, if you do the same things year after year, you’ll likely get the same results. It’s been 21 years since the on-field product has been relatively successful, so now seems like as good a time as any to make a change at the very top.

Paul Beeston seems like a businessman who’s running a
baseball team. On the other hand, Dan Duquette seems like he’d be a baseball guy
running a business. Given the choice, which would you prefer?