Dontrelle Willis Situation: Another black eye for the Orioles



Last time you'll see Willis in an O's uniform

For fifteen years the Orioles have been what many consider as the laughing stock of baseball.  Being an Orioles fan as much as I want to dispute it I cant.  Whether it be horrible free agent signings, terrible draft picks or god awful trades the O's have been tough to love.  This off season in my opinion was not any different.  First Dan Duquette gets hired a guy who hasn't worked in baseball in 10 years, and there is probably a reason for that.  Then for a time the Orioles were rumored to be interested in Manny Ramirez, someone who is currently serving a 50 game suspension.  Now for the icing on the cake Dontrelle Willis was signed to a minor league deal.  This seemed harmless until this week.
First of all let me start by saying Dontrelle Willis is lucky to have any sort of contract in baseball.  In the early 2000s Willis looked to be the next great lefty in the game.  However since 2006 Willis hasn't had an ERA lower than 5.00 and has only won 14 games in that same time.  Willis signed with the Phillies early in the spring and didn't last too long and was quickly released.  That's when the Orioles swooped in and signed the well traveled lefty.  Much wasn't thought of the deal and it looked to be a low risk move, that was until this week.

Apparently Willis thinks hes better than the Orioles think he is.  Willis wants to be a starter, whereas the O's see him as a situational lefty, hes actually neither but that's another discussion.  Willis isn't exactly lighting the world on fire either at Norfolk, hes 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA in just 3.2 innings pitched.  With those numbers how can you not make him a starter.  So after a disagreement Willis just left.  That's right got up and left the Tides without any explanation.  Oddly enough that is not the worst part of this whole debacle.  In his infinite wisdom Orioles GM said he would welcome Willis back if he decided to return.  ARE YOU F#%&!$^ KIDDING ME!?!?!  Why in the world would you welcome someone back who walked out on your team.  What kind of message does that send to not only your team but the entire organization.  Willis is a selfish player who is only worried about himself and could care less about the good of the team.

Now to makes matters even better Willis has filed a grievance against the Orioles for putting him on the restricted list.  This seems like an awful lot of trouble for a mediocre player at best.  The reason this is a black eye for the Orioles is because they refuse to cut ties with him.  Would the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies (obviously not they already cut him)or any other good team put up with this crap? I doubt it.  In fact knowing the way the Orioles do things they will probably promote him to starter, call him up to the majors and put him in the rotation.  Look I'm no genius and I'm not saying that i could run a ball team but this one seems easy to me.  Willis is washed up and is not worth the trouble just cut him now before this gets any uglier or more embarrassing.

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