Baltimore, MD (Sports Network) - The Baltimore Orioles agreed to contract extensions through 2018 with manager Buck Showalter and vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette.
Showalter took the Orioles on a surprising run last season as he guided the club to a playoff spot after the team went 93-69 and battled the New York Yankees for an AL East title up until the final day of the season.
The runner-up for the AL Manager of the Year, Showalter may have done his best work this season, as he used 12 different starting pitchers and had only one double-digit winner, a lineup that saw two castoffs (Nate McLouth and Lew Ford) play prominent roles because of injuries, a third baseman playing first base (Mark Reynolds), a first baseman playing right field (Chris Davis) and a 20-year-old rookie shortstop playing third base (Manny Machado).
Despite all of that, Showalter turned a 93-loss team from 2011 into a 93-win team in 2012 and got the Orioles back into the postseason for the first time since 1997.
In Showalter's two-plus seasons in Baltimore, the Orioles are 196-185, a .514 winning percentage, which is seventh all-time for modern day Orioles managers.
A two-time manager of the year winner, with Texas in 2004 and 1994 with the Yankees, he is 49th all-time with 1,078 wins and sixth among active managers.
Duquette has been vice president of baseball operations since being hired by Baltimore following the 2011 season. Prior to his hiring, Duquette had been out of Major League Baseball since 2002, when he was fired as general manager of the Boston Red Sox soon after new ownership took over.
