Did you want the Orioles to keep the coaching staff intact? Well, too bad.
You can't really fault them for losing pitching coach Dave Wallace, who "retire[d] from active major league coaching" and recently joined the Atlanta Braves as a pitching instructor and adviser. That role comes with a much more flexible schedule, which Wallace was seeking. Wallace occasionally had to be away from the team during the season, and it's a priority for him to be able to spend more time at home.
You can't really fault them for losing pitching coach Dave Wallace, who "retire[d] from active major league coaching" and recently joined the Atlanta Braves as a pitching instructor and adviser. That role comes with a much more flexible schedule, which Wallace was seeking. Wallace occasionally had to be away from the team during the season, and it's a priority for him to be able to spend more time at home.
The case of bullpen coach Dom Chiti is, however, more peculiar. Buck Showalter wanted Chiti to stay. Chiti not only wanted to stay, but also was "at least a candidate for the pitching coach job."And yet, Chiti said he didn't hear anything from Dan Duquette or the Orioles, so he followed Wallace to Atlanta. Chiti will serve as the Braves' director of pitching.
Disagreements happen, and coaches move on. But for someone as popular as Chiti among players and other coaches -- and who has helped to actually get promising O's pitchers to perform well -- it seems weird, even for the Orioles, for him to be left hanging in the wind.
As Chiti told Dan Connolly, he even tried reaching out to Duquette to see what was going on:
Chiti, however, said he contacted Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette on multiple occasions to ask about the status of his employment, but never received a response.Who knows exactly what happened, but it does seem odd for the Orioles not to make Chiti a priority. Again, he was apparently a candidate for the vacated pitching coach spot. Maybe in Duquette's eyes, though, he wasn't. But this does seem par for the course for someone with Duquette's track record of aloofness.
"I called and left three messages for Dan Duquette and he never called me back. I left three messages for the man. 'This is Dominic, can I get a couple minutes of your time?'" Chiti said.
That was the most disappointing part of this process, said Chiti, who is not shy in voicing his opinions, which could have rubbed some higher-ups the wrong way.
"If you don’t think you want me (back), if you don’t like me, I'm OK with that. But just call me and tell me. 'Dominic, we're not going to have you back.' I'm a big boy. I've been in the game a long time. I know how it works."
When asked about Chiti's comments, Duquette said he was unaware of any phone messages.
"I'm not sure who he was trying to contact," Duquette said. "It wasn't me."
Don't place all the blame on Duquette, though. Connolly reminded fans in a separate post that this is what the Orioles' front office does. Connolly added, "Getting coaches’ contracts situated never seems to be a priority, though it usually seems to get done. I’m not sure exactly whose fault it is and why the delay happens, but this isn’t new."
It does seem like an annual thing, when Orioles' coaches' contracts expire, which leads to worrying that they aren't going to be renewed. That uncertainty has to be awkward and discomforting, and no one should fault Chiti for taking the sure thing in Atlanta.
The important thing is that Showalter is still around. The Orioles now have three coaching spots to fill, but Showalter will always be the straw that stirs the drink. Still, this wouldn't be the Orioles if strange things weren't happening. Just throw this latest example on top of the pile.