Making his annual appearance on the team’s hot-stove radio show in November, Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette took a tack quite different from the one he does now.
Rebuilds, he said three times in the span of a minute-long answer that night, are “not very much fun.” The Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, the two most recent World Series champions, had set out to lose for years on end and stockpile top draft picks before they finally won, but the downside of that was painful, and everyone prefers winning.