Duquette on Bautista, trading core players and the WBC

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - The rivalry between the Orioles and Blue Jays took a comedic turn at the Winter Meetings, with executive vice president Dan Duquette pulling no punches while flattening any speculation that his club would pursue the veteran slugger in free agency.

The bat flips, glares and whatever power is left in the tank won't be transported to Baltimore.

"Jose Bautista's agent has been knocking on the Orioles door for a while and I told him, 'Look, our fans don't really like Jose Bautista.' And they don't. Not to mention that he has a qualifying offer attached to him," Duquette said this afternoon.

"I just made a comment that we weren't going to be pursuing their client. It's true, the guy's a villain in Baltimore."

What if the price drops on the villain?

"I'll have to check with the fans," he replied.

Perhaps no one elicits more boos at Camden Yards than Bautista, especially with David Ortiz, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez moving into retirement. But the qualifying offer and potential cost also are factoring into Duquette's decision to pass on a 36-year-old player who appeared in only 116 games this season and batted .234/366/.452 with 22 home runs. A player who's widely disliked in the organization.

Bautista and Darren O'Day have their own nasty history, and the Orioles remember how the slugger glared at Jason Garcia in 2015 and coasted around the bases after hitting a home run off the Rule 5 pick - the reaction stemming from an earlier close pitch deemed intentional. Ryan Flaherty and Adam Jones yelled at Bautista and Jones continued to jaw at him upon reaching the dugout.

"We have a good rivalry with several teams in the division," Duquette said. "We have a very spirited rivalry with the Jays, which I think is good. And most of the time it's healthy. Once in a while, people's emotions get the best of them and as a leader on the team, the leader is the focal point. But this is a tough division.

"The American League East is tough and you've got those two behemoths in the north and then you've got a whole country a little bit further north. You play these teams 18-19 times during the season. In addition to that, we play them another four or five in spring training, so we're in the same neighborhood with these people 24-25 times a year and it's very competitive, so these things are going to happen. But it's a pretty wide number of fans who don't like this guy."

Duquette likes third baseman Manny Machado and closer Zach Britton, and they're off the table during trade talks.

"We have some real good core players on our roster that had great years and we consider them core players, but we're looking to put our team together around those core players," Duquette said. "We're trying to assemble our team around those core players."

No matter how many teams check on their availability, knowing they're both free agents following the 2018 season.

"There's always interest in your best players, but I don't really talk about our best players in trade talks because people take that the wrong way," Duquette said. "They don't take it the way that it's intended to be, and that is we like this player on our team and we're putting our team together with them on the team. As soon as they're mentioned in a trade discussion, it's always the team is marketing them, and we're not. We're putting together our team around our closer and our best everyday ballplayer."

As I wrote in the last entry, Britton declined an invitation to pitch for Team USA.

"I want to spend more time with my wife, son and newborn daughter," he wrote in a text message to MASNsports.com. "I didn't want to be on the road any more than I have to once the regular season starts. I hope I have the opportunity to play in the WBC when it next comes around again. This year just wasn't ideal for me and my family."

Hyun Soo Kim is on Korea's preliminary roster, sparking a debate over whether leaving camp to participate in the games would be beneficial or a detriment in his second season in the U.S.

"That's an interesting question because one of the things about Kim last year, he didn't get off to a very good start because he was used to a much longer preparation period and spring training was much longer in Korea," Duquette said.

"There's two ways to look at that. If he's out playing competitive games early on in spring training, he's probably getting the reps there to get ready for the season. But I don't know what his decision is going to be. That's a personal decision and the club is going to support whatever he decides. I know he's competed with Korea in just about all the international tournaments since he's been a pro, so I don't really know how important it is or where he will come down on it, but I can see how the WBC could help him by giving him a longer period. And this year there's a built-in longer training period for the teams."

ESPN reported today that reliever Mychal Givens is joining the Team USA roster, but the Orioles haven't confirmed it.

"I don't know that for a fact," Duquette said. "I saw the report, but I'm not sure what Mychal's interest is."

Givens would be the fifth Oriole committed to the WBC, though final rosters aren't set until February. And here's where it gets complicated.

"Each team I guess is required to provide four players. I think it's the max. But they're encouraging teams to send players, but no more than four," Duquette said.

"I think where you have a diverse roster, you can send more than four if you want, but under the guidelines set up by MLB, they're encouraging teams to send four, but no more than four."