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answering my own Q:
Duquette leaves Mets in good favor
By Marty Noble / MLB.com
NEW YORK -- What appeared to be an increasing inevitability finally happened Wednesday when Jim Duquette left the Mets. Some 13 months after he was unseated as Mets general manager, Duquette now sits at the head table at Camden Yards as the vice president of baseball operations for the Orioles.
Announcement of his hiring came Wednesday in Baltimore, one week after the Orioles dismissed Jim Beattie as the executive vice president of operations and without Duquette ever hearing officially from the Phillies, who are seeking a successor to dismissed GM Ed Wade.
Duquette's departure creates a void, though not one the Mets will fill per se. John Ricco, assistant general manager since April 2004, assumes Duquette's responsibilities, Mets general manager Omar Minaya said Wednesday.
Duquette, 39, assumes the position former pitcher Mike Flanagan held, and Flanagan takes Beattie's title and responsibility. Although he reports to Flanagan and acknowledges he doesn't have responsibilities comparable to what he once had with the Mets, Duquette considers the move "more than lateral" and says he wouldn't have left the Mets if it weren't.
"I don't have a GM title," he said. "But I have more autonomy, responsibility and decision-making than I have here [with the Mets}."
He said he had been told to expect to hear from the Phillies and that he would be on a short list of candidates for a position that -- on the surface, at least -- offered more authority than the one he accepted. But he also noted that "sitting around, waiting for the ideal, sole-GM job" wasn't necessarily a sensible course of action "because they don't come around very often."
He has agreed to a three-year contract for more than he was to earn with the Mets -- $1.35 million for three years. That contract was put in effect when Duquette was named Mets general manager Oct. 28, 2003. He already had served as interim GM for 4 1/2 months at that point, taking on that role after the dismissal of Steve Phillips.
Minaya was hired as general manager Sept. 30, 2004, after he had served in a comparable capacity with the Expos for nearly three years. His appointment made it appear inevitable Duquette would leave even though, according to a person familiar with the Mets' long-term plans, Duquette was in line to succeed Minaya at some point.
Duquette already was held in high regard within the game and several clubs had approached him before and after Phillips' dismissal. He leaves in good favor and without rancor. Although he lost his title and whatever autonomy a Mets general manager has, Duquette had retained the same salary and even the same office.
"I wanted him to feel that he was the general manager too so I wanted him to keep the office he had," Minaya said Wednesday. "I have a lot of respect for Jim. He brought a lot to the table, and he was in on everything. He was important to me. He made my transition back to the Mets so easy for me. But I understand he had a good opportunity. I told him, he's always welcome with the Mets."
Duquette said "the way Omar handled it ... I really appreciate what he did. I couldn't have asked for the situation to be handled any better. He made a potentially difficult situation very positive."
The Mets issued a statement that read, in part: "We appreciate [Duquette's] loyalty and his dedicated service throughout the years. We wish Jim, his wife Pam and their entire family all the best in Baltimore."
Leaving the Mets -- he had worked for 14 of the last 15 years -- wasn't an easy move to make for Duquette, for family, as well as professional reasons. His nine-year-old daughter, Lauren, was concerned about the move. "She said 'You've been with the Mets my whole life,'" he said. "And I said 'I feel the same way.' She was afraid that I'd be away for a thousand years."
Minaya acknowledged Ricco's responsibilities will be more administrative and less on-field-related than Duquette's had been and noted he will lean on Sandy Johnson and Tony Bernazard.
Duquette's departure -- he intends to be on the job in Baltimore on Monday -- comes some six weeks after the Mets restructured the amateur scouting department, eliminating the position of vice president of player development and scouting, the position Gary LaRocque had filled since March 1, 2004, and reassigning LaRocque and Russ Bove who had served as director of amateur scouting for less than a year.
LaRocque, the organization's primary amateur scouting executive since the days following the 1997 season, now serves as a special assistant to Minaya. Bove now works in professional scouting. Two other men, national crosscheckers Paul Fryer and Terry Tripp, who have worked for the club for 10 and 20 years respectively, were not to be retained after the December expiration of their contracts.
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