Former Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Montreal Expos General Manager
Sandwich, Massachusetts, United States
Dan Duquette is the former General Manager of the Baltimore Orioles. He was previously the General Manager of the Montreal Expos (1991–1994) and the Boston Red Sox (1994–2002). He is also the founder of the Dan Duquette Sports Academy. He has twice been named the Major League Baseball Executive of the Year by Sporting News (1992 with the Expos and 2014
with the Orioles).
He attended Amherst College where he was a catcher on the varsity baseball team and a linebacker on the football team. In the summer of 1977 at the age of 19, Duquette helped organize the Dalton Collegians, a semi-pro baseball team that operated out of his hometown. In
college, Duquette was chosen to the 1979 Boston Herald American All New England College Division All Star team.
After college, Duquette’s baseball coach, Bill Thurston, recommended him to Harry Dalton, a fellow Amherst alumnus and General Manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. Duquette became a scouting assistant for the Brewers and worked in the scouting department for 7 years. In 1987, he was hired by the Montreal Expos as the Director of Player Development. He spent a few years in that position before being promoted to Vice President and General Manager in 1991.
Over the course of his six years with the Expos, Duquette had a hand in drafting players like Rondell White, Marquis Grissom, Cliff Floyd, Jose Vidro, Kirk Reuter, Javier Vasquez, and many more Major League players. He also signed players like Vladimir Guerrero, John Wetteland, and Larry Walker. The Expos were competitive from 1992 to 1994, and they had attained the best record in baseball prior to the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike that ended the season prematurely.
In 1994, Duquette returned to Massachusetts to become the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox. He spent eight years at the helm of his hometown team. The Red Sox achieved a record of 656–574 under Duquette, setting attendance records and appearing in the playoffs on three separate occasions (1995, 1998, and 1999). The team won the American League East division in 1995.
As the Red Sox GM, Duquette made several notable moves, including drafting Nomar Garciaparra in 1994 and trading for Pedro Martínez in 1997 (and signing him to a six-year, $75 million contract). He is also known for letting Roger Clemens leave in free agency in 1996. Many of the players that Duquette drafted or signed were on the Red Sox 2004 World Series championship team. He is largely considered to have laid the groundwork for that team by signing and drafting players like Tim Wakefield, Johnny Damon, Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez, Derek Lowe, and Kevin Youkilis. In 2002, Duquette was dismissed from his general manager post less than 24 hours after the Red Sox had officially been sold to a new ownership group.
Duquette largely stayed out of Major League Baseball for 9 years. In 2003, he opened the Dan Duquette Sports Academy, a sports training center in Hinsdale, Massachusetts designed for children aged 8 to 18. In 2004, he became the owner of the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Pittsfield Dukes (later the Pittsfield American Defenders and now the Mystic Schooners). During his ownership tenure, the Dukes/American Defenders played at his sports academy in Hinsdale and later at Wahconah Park in Pittsfield. In 2008, he was part of an ownership group that included Buddy Lewis, Terry Allvord, and Jerry O'Connor that purchased what would become known as the American Defenders of New Hampshire, (later the Pittsfield Colonials). He relinquished ownership of both clubs in 2009 and 2010.
Duquette returned as the General Manager of the Baltimore Orioles in November 2011. In 2012, the team made the playoffs for the first time since 1997. In 2014, the Orioles won the American League East with 96 wins and made it to the American League Championship Series. Duquette was dismissed after the 2018 season.
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