Dan Duquette: Orioles are rebuilding, intend to improve organizational weaknesses

The Orioles want to catch up in scouting and technology

On Wednesday, the Baltimore Orioles traded shortstop Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for five players. (You can read our coverage of the deal here, including a prospect expert's thoughts on the return.)

The Machado trade is the first of many potential changes for the franchise. The Orioles are expected to trade off more veterans in the coming weeks, and have yet to address the expiring contracts of manager Buck Showalter and general manager Dan Duquette. Yet despite Duquette's shaky contractual status, he talked on Thursday like a new hire -- mentioning the world "rebuild" multiple times and talking about the improvements the organization needs to make to catch up with the rest of the league.

Ponder some of Duquette's comments, courtesy of Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun:

"We had identified the areas that we needed to improve in -- technology, international scouting, facilities, the draft, strengthening our analytics, investing in international scouting, investing in more front office staff to be more in line with our competitors, expanding our nutrition and wellness resources at every level of the organization. Those are areas that we identified that we could improve in, and the ownership understands those are areas that we need to put more resources into."

Reads like a snippet from an introductory press conference, right?

Duquette's comments certainly read like someone viewing the Orioles with fresh eyes. Baltimore's reluctance to dip into the international amatuer free-agent market has been a notorious shortcoming. Too often Duquette has had to resort to trading his bonus-pool slots for down-list prospects. It's harder to know where the Orioles stand in the other aspects mentioned, though an inability to develop many starting pitchers has also become an unfortunate franchise staple.

For as trying as this season has been, Orioles fans can at least take solace that someone in the organization is aware of team's shortcomings and wants to fix things. Whether or not things get fixed remains to be seen.