Orioles put Pat Connaughton on minor league restricted list for now, still hopeful he returns

Pat Connaughton is currently playing basketball for the Portland Trail Blazers summer league team. While he is trying to make that team's roster for the coming NBA season, the Orioles still hold out hope that one day he will be pitching in the major leagues for them.

They seem to feel Connaughton has a better future in baseball and the door remains open for him to return. The Orioles drafted Connaughton out of Notre Dame in the fourth round last summer. He then pitched 14 2/3 innings to an ERA of 2.45 at short-season Single-A Aberdeen.

In that short sample, Connaughton impressed the O's brass with a fastball that touched 96 mph and he did enough to be ranked No. 11 among all O's prospects after the 2014 season by Baseball America.

But Connaughton had a big senior season in basketball at Notre Dame and led the Irish to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. He was then drafted in the second round of the NBA draft last month, 41st overall by the Brooklyn Nets, before he was traded to Portland. Last week he signed with the Trail Blazers and joined their summer league team.

I asked Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette where Connaughton stands with the organization right now?

"His contract is currently on the Aberdeen roster and he is on the suspended (restricted) list, because he didn't report. Our position is that he has a future in major league baseball and eventually he will come to that realization," Duquette said.

Placing Connaughton on the suspended list, also known as the restricted list, seems to be only a procedural move, not a punitive one. It simply means Connaughton is under contract with the Orioles, but is not getting a 2015 minor league salary.

Through the process of yearly renewal of minor league contracts, the Orioles hold the baseball rights to Connaughton through the 2020 season.

Duquette would not confirm or deny a report that the Orioles would seek to recoup some or all of Connaughton's $428,100 signing bonus if he plays in the NBA.

"I think that he still has a future in major league baseball and I think eventually he will come to that realization," is all Duquette would say when asked about getting any of that bonus money back.

In an interview with the Portland Oregonian, Connaughton indicated it would be easier to return to baseball after pursuing a basketball career than the other way around.

"The way I look at it at this point in my life I could never stop playing basketball and then ever come back to it," he said. "It just wouldn't work with the skills you need, the athleticism you need and things of that nature. That's not to say it's easy to ever go back to a professional sport such as baseball. But at the same time you have a better chance if you don't make it in basketball going back to trying to re-fire up the arm than vice versa."

I asked Duquette if he is concerned that Connaughton will not return to the Orioles.

"I don't have a sense for how gifted a basketball player he is, but I do know that, with a little bit of time in the minors, that he could develop into a good pitcher. He has all the equipment to be a good major league starting pitcher. He has a lot of good qualities and were he to apply himself to baseball, he could develop the skills to be a major league starter. I believe he has a better future in baseball. I have always believed that," Duquette said.

When the Orioles introduced Connaughton at a press conference on June 12, 2014 at Camden Yards, Connaughton told the reporters there he intended to return to Notre Dame, but he also planned to play baseball full-time after his senior season of hoops at Notre Dame.

He said that day: "I will take a little pause when I go back to school, play basketball and get my degree. I'll graduate in December (of 2014) and when basketball season is over I'll have no more obligation to Notre Dame. I'll have degree in hand and basketball obligation complete and be able to attack this thing (baseball) full-time."

I recently reminded Duquette of that quote and asked him if Connaughton said the same to the Orioles when the microphones were not around?

"Interesting," he said. "Interesting. He signed a contract with the team. Doesn't matter what he says. It is really what the contract says. I generally go by what people do rather than what they say. But I still believe in Pat Connaughton as a major league baseball player. The sooner that he resumes his career in baseball, the sooner he will be able to monetize those skills," Duquette said.