The Baltimore Orioles face yet another daunting offseason, but it's at least reassuring that team owner Peter Angelos told reporters that manager Buck Showalter and GM Dan Duquette will "absolutely" be back in their current roles come 2016.
Recent rumors suggested there was a power struggle between Showalter and Duquette, with Showalter wanting more involvement in personnel decisions due to his frustrations with the general manager.
Last year the Orioles lost outfielders Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz in free agency, and the same could happen again in the next few months with Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, Darren O'Day, Wei-Yin Chen and Gerardo Parra. There is likely a lot of conflict this time around regarding the same matters.
But perhaps things have calmed in Baltimore after the O's won their final five games to finish 81-81 on the year. Angelos is insistent things will not be different in terms of the team's power structure.
"There's no reason for any change," Angelos told Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com. "We're pleased with their performances from the beginning to the present and they will continue until their contracts expire. And once those deals expire, we'll probably urge them to sign for additional years."
Showalter was hired before the 2011 season and Duquette came along before the 2012 season.
Duquette was fairly candid with the media on Sunday when asked about how the team will approach free agency this offseason, specifically with Davis, who led the MLB in home runs this season with 47.
"We have a very competitive market and we fund our payroll about in the middle and we have some flexibility in our payroll for next year. So the answer to that question is I believe yes. I believe yes," Duquette told Steve Melewski of MASNSports.com.
"We've had discussions with some of our free agents," he added. "Obviously, we'd like to re-sign some of our players that have had good years...
"We're going to sign some free agents to help our team and we're going to continue to build our team to be competitive year in and year out. But this focus in the offseason on payroll and free agents."
Baltimore lost a lot of offensive production this season without Cruz (.302/.369/.566 with 90 runs scored, 44 home runs and 93 RBIs with Seattle Mariners) and Markakis (.296/.370/.376 with 73 runs scored, 3 home runs and 53 RBIs with Atlanta Braves), which could certainly be attributed to their 15-game drop off from last year.
It's likely the Orioles won't let that happen again, and it seems as if that thought process is easing the alleged tension between Showalter and Duquette.
