Scratch Joe Kerrigan off the potential coaches list
With Dan Duquette joining the Orioles as executive vice president of baseball operations this week, and with plenty of holes to fill in the organization, there will obviously be some names from Duquette’s past floating around baseball circles in connection with the Orioles.
One that makes a lot of sense can be scratched off: Joe Kerrigan.
Kerrigan, the former Orioles right-hander, was a pitching coach for the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox during Duquette’s tenure with those organizations. He was briefly Duquette’s manager in Boston in 2001, and the men remain friends.
The Orioles have a vacancy on Buck Showalter’s staff for a pitching expert, whether it’s as bullpen coach or pitching coach if current pitching coach Rick Adair is moved back to the bullpen, where he started 2011. There’s also a minor league pitching coordinator job open.
My sense is Showalter would like to keep Adair as pitching coach, but Duquette certainly will have input in the decision. And that hasn’t been worked out yet.
Kerrigan, however, won’t be filling that role, or any other to start next season. He is having double knee surgery on his 58th birthday, January 30, 2012.
The recovery time is six to eight weeks, so Kerrigan said he figures he’ll probably be taking it easy for a good chunk of early next year. And, therefore, you can take him out of running for an Orioles job in 2012.
Kerrigan, who was most recently the Pittsburgh Pirates' pitching coach before being fired in August 2010, pitched for the Orioles in 1978 and 1980. He was part of that 1977 offseason trade that sent Rudy May, Bryn Smith and Randy Miller to the Expos for Gary Roenicke, Don Stanhouse and Kerrigan.
A Baltimore native, 
Comments
if he is that worthwhile why not sign for use in minors. Thhis holds his value for next year. But I am only thinking for the future not just today. Who knows if we will need new pitching coach during year or next year. That will never happen???????
Posted by: Anonymous | November 11, 2011 12:38 PM
Ahh....the medical profession....truly a bunch of oddballs. If his knees are that bad, why wait months to do the procedures? Makes no sense.
Posted by: Jim Carter | November 11, 2011 1:08 PM
Maybe it's his choice to have the surgery after the holidays so that he's not laid up for turkey day and xmas
Posted by: popodan | November 11, 2011 3:34 PM
Because anybody who's ever had any major surgery knows you never want to go in the hospital around the holidays.My doctor wouldn't even schedule me after Nov. 1st,and these things have to be done weeks,sometimes months in advance.The uninformed never cease to amaze me.
Posted by: Burt from Essex | November 11, 2011 3:55 PM
Too bad. Kerrigan's a good one. 1994 (sigh) The pitching was the problem last year, so Adair or anyone else can't stay. Not even Izturiz.
Hey Sun staff: how about a really informative piece about what the heck happened to Mark Connor last season. His departure was bizarre, but as of yet unexplained (satisfactorily). Come on, dig something up: beer, chicken, changed mechanics, whatever. How did this story slide past so quietly? Look at Mastusz and Tillman, it's a BIG deal!
Posted by: Canadian Fan | November 11, 2011 6:14 PM