Only days after ending a historically bad 115-loss season, the Baltimore Orioles are moving on without manager Buck Showalter and general manager Dan Duquette.
Contracts for both Showalter and Duquette expire at the end of October, and the team has decided not to renew them. Buck took the helm for the O's mid-season in 2010, taking over for Juan Samuel, who was interim manager after Dave Trembley was fired. Overall, Showalter produced a 669-684 record with the team.
Duquette joined Baltimore before the 2012 season. He is credited with making moves that brought Nelson Cruz, Delmon Young and Andrew Miller to the team. He had previously worked with the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox.
From 2012 to 2016, the Orioles had the most wins in the American League and made the postseason three times. In 2014, the O's won the AL East for the first time since 1997.
The Orioles say whomever they hire to become the team's new GM will make the decision to hire a new manager.
Baltimore will look like a completely different organization at the start of the 2019 season versus the start of 2018. The organization admitted halfway through the 2018 season that they were in "rebuild" mode, trading away fan favorite players like Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Jonathan Schoop, Brad Brach, Darren O'Day, and Kevin Gausman. The end of 2018 also saw the likely departure of long-time outfielder Adam Jones who played the last 11 seasons with the Orioles.
Orioles fans who suffered with 14 straight seasons of losing records between 1998 and 2011 should sadly prepare for another significant stretch of losing.
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