Why did Tony LaCava turn down the Orioles?

Tony LaCava was very professional with his comments about the Orioles, saying they handled the interview process with class and explaining that his decision to turn down the general manager job was due to wanting to remain with the Blue Jays.

That never really passed the smell test, at least not entirely, and sure enough Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com reports that Orioles owner Peter Angelos rebuffed LaCava’s desire to remake the team’s front office:

LaCava wanted to clear out some long-term front-office people whose jobs have been protected by Angelos. Angelos refused to do that, even though he was willing to pay LaCava a competitive salary and to bring in other front-office people that LaCava wanted to hire (including Mike Berger, currently the director of pro scouting with the Diamondbacks).

The fact that few top candidates want to work for Angelos is certainly nothing new, but Buck Showalter’s involvement and the perception that he might be the guy ultimately running the show has seemingly made the Orioles’ job even less appealing than usual. Jerry Dipoto joined LaCava in turning down the gig and the Orioles have expanded their GM search to include several candidates who weren’t involved in the first batch of interviews.