Yesterday I wrote about how Dom Chiti will no longer be a part of the Baltimore Orioles’ organization moving forward. There is undoubtedly more than meets the eye to this, and probably a lot more than we’re ever going to know. And that’s good news in a way given the fact that it means that there are professionals on both sides. Neither Chiti or the Orioles is going to leak anything or bad mouth anyone to the press.
However again, there do appear to be conflicting stories. Chiti says that he left three messages for VP of Baseball Operations Dan Duquette. On the flip side, Duquette says that he never heard from Chiti. So where does the truth lie?
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Chiti did in fact reach out to Duquette at some point. And the reason I say that is because when given the option, Chiti didn’t appear to hesitate to jump over to the Atlanta Braves. In his mind the fact that Duquette didn’t return his calls was all he needed to know.
However as I made clear yesterday, Chiti isn’t without blame for him not to be in the Orioles’ organization any longer. He apparently was asked by Buck Showalter what his interest was in the pitching coach position. Chiti’s response was that he didn’t campaign for jobs but would do whatever the organization wanted.
At the end of the day, not even being willing to say yes I’m interested in the job might have indicated that Chiti wasn’t the guy they wanted. But nevertheless, this isn’t the first time there’ve been questions about how the Orioles manage the human side of things. I’d be the first one to tell you that in my view it’s gutless not to return someone’s phone call. Unfortunately however, it happens all the time – you ever applied for a job? Sometimes you’re calling and leaving messages for weeks about the status of your application, all for nothing.
So here’s my question; should the Orioles take a hard look at their own management style? And I’m not talking about perhaps lowering the standards of their physicals or anything like that. However the reputation that they’re tough to deal with is out there. Heck, the evidence is in the fact that Dan Duquette has fleeced so many other GM’s in trades. But do these things matter?
Perhaps they do and perhaps they don’t. As I said, it’s entirely possible that they decided to go in a different direction from Chiti. I would argue that they should have at least told him that, however it is what it is. And for what it’s worth, once again there are two sides to every story. Chiti’s never been shy about expressing his view on the direction of the organization. Is it possible that rubbed someone above the wrong way?
Birdland Crush 