In some late news today, Ken Rosenthal of FOX is reporting that Tony LaCava of the Toronto Blue Jays has turned down the Baltimore Orioles offer to be their next general manager. LaCava will apparently stay with the Blue Jays as their assistant GM.
Now, why LaCava turned down the job is anyone’s best guess, and it would be irresponsible of me to point to any one reason. But you have to think that LaCava realized he would have had a long-term rebuilding project in his future with the Orioles. By turning down the job, which he was the prime candidate for, things must be worse in Baltimore than we really know. Another possible explanation is that Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who is notoriously hands-on with the team, wouldn’t give LaCava full authority to do what he felt like he needed to do to turn the franchise around.
If Angelos did in fact refuse to cede control to LaCava, you have to think that whoever the Orioles end up turning to for their GM position is going to have a lot of work ahead of themselves. This team really does need a lot of work, and Angelos needs to let someone work their magic on the Orioles and completely overhaul everything if they feel that is necessary. The status quo isn’t cutting it in Baltimore right now.
