Report: Blue Jays walk away from Dan Duquette bid

When it comes to negotiating a trade for an executive, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles have two very different opinions on the matter. As such, the Blue Jays have opted to discontinue their pursuit of Orioles general manager Dan Duquette.

The Blue Jays wanted to make Duquette their team president and replace Paul Beeston, who is expected to be done after the 2015 season. However, according to a report from Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, the Blue Jays will no longer negotiate with the Orioles for Duquette after determining the asking price to be much too rich for their blood.

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With Duquette under contract with the Orioles through the 2018 season, and a divisional rival trying to acquire him, Baltimore owner Peter Angelos was understandably asking for the moon. Unfortunately in this case, the moon entailed not only first round pick Jeff Hoffman (as discussed earlier this week), but also fellow first-rounder Max Pentecost, and Mitch Nay, who ranks 7th on the team’s prospect rankings according to MLB.com.

Yup, you can signal the jaw dropping….now.

Needless to say, the Blue Jays finally realized that Angelos was going to negotiate from a position of strength and essentially lay out a price-tag that the Blue Jays would ultimately walk away from, which they have. The request was significantly higher than previously negotiated deals for John Farrell (Blue Jays to Red Sox), Theo Epstein (Red Sox to Cubs), or Ozzie Guillen (White Sox to Marlins).

As Davidi notes, the Blue Jays may now turn their attention back to Ken Williams. The Blue Jays were previously tied to Williams during the MLB Owners’ Meetings, but were denied their request to speak with Williams b ChiSox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Another potential option remains Terry Ryan of the Minnesota Twins, although he said earlier this winter that he was not interested in the job.