Duquette talks dollars and sense during one-on-one interview

SAN DIEGO - During his press briefing with Baltimore reporters today, executive vice president Dan Duquette said, "Very rarely do we sign high-profile free agents."

The Orioles did sign Nelson Cruz and Ubaldo Jimenez last year for a combined $58 million and gave up two draft picks to get that pair. But the messages seems to be pretty clear. While the Orioles are handing out millions in raises to their own arbitration-eligible players, they are very unlikely to dip into the deep end of the free agent pool and hand out a big-dollar contract.

They feel they have enough budget to win and did win 96 games lat year. During MASNSports.com's daily one-on-one interview with Duquette he talked further on this topic.

"If you take a look at how we've built our team, we've signed a number of players, but we haven't signed a lot of players to long-term commitments. A lot of these high-profile free agents demand long-term (contracts) and high salaries and that's not really the way we've gone about building our team.

"We've been building our team through the draft, through trades, through free agent signings, through the Rule 5 draft and international scouting, and that's the route we are going to continue on."

I asked Duquette if part of that is tied into other factors to include potential long-term contracts for his own players and looking at payrolls one, two and three years down the road.

"That's a good way to look at it," he said. "You have to take a look at your team from all those different angles. If you take a look at the number of players we have in the arbitration process and the raises they are getting.

"There is over $30 million in raises going to players through the arbitration system. Because they had great years, right?

"Steve Pearce had a good year. Buddy Norris had a good year, they're going to get good raises. (Brian) Matusz, (Tommy) Hunter. Matt Wieters and Chris Davis will make a lot of money. So there are a number of contracts that have to be funded that are in the arbitration system that we have to consider.

"We are going to sign some free agent players to supplement our team, but I still feel we have the foundation of a good team here."

But do the Orioles have enough budget to win the American League East again and make a run at the World Series?

"We have plenty of resources here to field a good, solid competitive team and it looks like we're on track to have another good, solid, competitive team in 2015 on the basis of the players that are returning," Duquette said. "Like I said, we're going to add some pieces here and there to help us in the outfield and help us with on-base capability and also some pitching.

"We have a good talent base and we have a good farm system. The more I look at some of these outfielders, the better Dariel Alvarez and Christian Walker look to us. Because I think these guys are hungry and they are going to want to make a contribution to our team."

I asked Duquette to clarify the club's pursuit of a backup catcher. Are they looking for a catcher to compete for the No. 2 job behind Matt Wieters or someone to add depth? Will there be a camp competition for the backup catcher job?

"We'd like to have a competition situation in camp, but we always have to be prepared if Matt Wieters isn't ready to start Day One of the season, so we need more catching depth," Duquette said.

Duquette told reporters today the Orioles came close to adding a pitcher through a trade, but the deal fell through late in the process.

"We hoped to bring a pitcher in through a trade, but it fell apart at the end. It's like selling cars. The car isn't solid until you've got it across the curb. I don't like to talk about these possibilities, but we had a trade that we liked that we just couldn't close on so now we'll have to look for another opportunity," he said.

Check back later to watch the video of today's interview with Duquette.