Brady Anderson, who formerly served as the Orioles’ vice president of baseball operations, is “stepping aside” and leaving the organization, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko reports (via Twitter). Anderson, Gary Rajsich and Brian Graham were entrusted with interim oversight of the baseball operations department in Baltimore following the dismissal of GM Dan Duquette last winter, and less than a year later, the entire trio is gone from the organization. Rajsich’s contract wasn’t renewed for the 2019 season, while Graham was fired not long after new GM Mike Elias was hired.
Under the previous front-office regime, Anderson had seemingly risen to a fairly prominent standing. It’s been widely reported that he played a major role in the team’s signings of both Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner late in the 2018-19 offseason, although the Cobb signing has gone particularly awry. His role under Elias had been considerably less integral from a baseball operations vantage point, though; Anderson served in an advisory role with the team’s conditioning and fitness programs, per Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun. Whatever role the Orioles might’ve had in mind for him in 2020, if any, it seems that Anderson instead preferred to explore potential new opportunities.
A couple more notes out of Baltimore…
- Another 100-loss season hasn’t swayed Trey Mancini’s commitment to the Orioles, writes Meoli in a separate column. The Orioles’ 2019 leader in home runs (35), Mancini says that his desire to remain in Baltimore has “never wavered at all.” The 27-year-old slugger, who’ll turn 28 next March, likes the direction the team is headed under Elias & Co. and has firmly bought into the Orioles’ rebuilding efforts. Mancini’s own improvement at the plate has been one of the biggest positives with regard to the club’s future outlook. His 2018 season yielded an ugly .242/.299/.416 batting line, but Mancini erupted with a .291/.364/.535 batting line to go along with those 35 homers in 2019. He also improved his walk rate by 2.4 percent and cut his strikeout rate by three percent. He’ll be in for quite the pay increase this winter in his first offseason of arbitration eligibility and is under club control through the 2022 season. However, Mancini has been vocal about hoping to remain in Baltimore, so perhaps the two sides will discuss the possibility of a longer-term arrangement next spring.
- Outfielder Austin Hays had been slated to play in the Arizona Fall League, but the Orioles have “changed their plans” for the resurgent top prospect, MLB.com’s Joe Trezza tweets. Hays won’t play in the AFL after all, but the 24-year-old certainly looks to have rebuilt his stock with a bounceback year. Injury limited Hays to just 75 unproductive games in 2018, but he suited up for 108 games across four minor league levels and the Majors in 2019. Hays reemerged at the MLB level in September, hitting .309/.373/.574 with four home runs in 75 plate appearances down the stretch. He’ll head into Spring Training as one of the favorites (if not the favorite) to open the 2020 season in center field.
I’m happy they rectified the Brady Anderson situation. It was a sign of dysfunction remaining from the bad old days that there was a guy other than Duquette who was out trying to sign people, etc. Not a good look, as he seemed to be a rogue figure sticking his nose into many areas where frankly, it did not belong. It was also weird that he had given himself a locker in the locker room. Several departed Orioles made comments about how odd the situation was.
yeah never heard anything good about his FO tenure
Elias has been very complete at eliminating most former O’s employees. Now we will see how good he is at adding quality personnel.
Fruits of his labor will take several years to show.
Actually they’re already showing, both at ML level and Minors. The fruits aren’t in the win column but they are in the developmental improvement of many players.
Pitching in Minors is looking like a real strength moving forward.
I don’t know how much of the pitching development’s early success you can attribute to Elias though. The prospects in our system are obviously mostly Duquette guys. It’ll be a little while before we see the success of what Elias has brought in. Though further development of Duke’s guys has to be credited to Elias to a degree.
Pitching prospects bust at an extremely high rate so we’ll see what we have moving forward. There are some interesting arms but we will need to find about 4 more starters considering means is the only guy we’ve seen so far with any shot of being a big league starter.
The pitching made significant strides this year, all under the Elias regime. Means is no joke and that nasty change was developed by the new regime. Guys throughout the system took significant strides forward. Even some of the guys called up (nothing to write home about) showed pitching tendencies (mechanically and sequentially) that were nearly foreign to the previous regime.
Also, I think the O’s can be more competitive than you think by 2021 (though much would have to go right).
I don’t disagree with you that’s he’s done a nice job so far. But his legacy will really be his guys and the international pipeline he built. He’s also just recently cleaned house with minor league scouts/coaches and other personnel about a month ago.
My statement on Means sounds like I’m not high on him but that’s not the case. I think he’s a starter for us long term. Don’t think he’s a TOR starter but he could settle in as a middle to back end guy.
2021 is aggressive. I’m optimistic by 2021 the team will be a lot better than today but Rutschman,Hall, and maybe Rodriguez will be at best rookies at that time. I think Expecting them to come in and thrive from day 1 is a bit too optimistic.
2021 for me is the year where we can start to get excited but 2022 is the earliest I can see us making a run at a playoff spot. Even that I believe is aggressive. The Rays core is very young, the Yankees are the Yankees. And even the Blue Jays have 2 potential superstar young guys already in the big leagues today.
Houston turned their team around in that time period but I think the climb in the ALE is a little tougher. We are certainly on the right path to make it happen; I just think we’re going to need patience. I don’t see any MIF coming up in that time period. We really don’t have a 3B coming up by then either. We’ll have some pitching up by then but it likely won’t be Hall or Rodriguez, whom I think are the two potential front end guys down there.
In the ALE that just seems like a team too flawed to make any noise. Add another year of experience to all those guys plus Rodriguez, Hall and potentially some other guys in the system (that we add between now and then) and I’m starting to see a team who can do something.
God forbid one of our guys has to have a TJ like so many pitching prospects before them. That obviously would push the timeline back further. That’s my rationale for 2022 being the most “realistically optimistic” view.
Brady Anderson peaked when 90210 went off the air. He could probably call up Corey Koskie and open up a Lifetime Fitness or something since he’s still ripped. Hire Kapler when he gets canned too. Maybe Nick Swisher if they need one more bro.
Mancini 100% gets traded this offseason
He should, but don’t expect a big return. One dimensional guys aren’t valued like that unless you a true top hitter, which he’s not. Very good hitter but like 20 guys ahead of him. it’s like a 45+ fv as the headliner with another 35+ or 40 fv.
Yeah no one is giving up much of anything for Mancini. There are a lot more all around talented guys that could be had if teams are truly wanting to give up a lot.
Anderson was considered an “odd duck” back in his Boston days. But either way, the O’s were pretty much a mess with him as an advisor, and he needs to bear some of the blame. They had some decent years, but that was Bucky squeezing every last ounce of talent out of the roster.
I saw Hayes play some AA ball and his success doesn’t surprise me; great athlete, tho he’s had his share of nicks and bruises, and he pays attention out there He’s worth the glove alone, and I think he’ll hit some.
Hays, Villar (he has his uses, as trade bait if nothing else), Boom Boom, Means, a great Delmarva team……O’s arrow is definitely pointing up. Gonna be a while, but it’s there.
Hays looks terrific. However he plays an all out defensive style and I worry therefore about his long-term injury risk.
Boston days? Weren’t he and Schilling traded for Mike Boddicker before either established themselves? Sox were loaded in the minors in the mid to late 80s. Schilling, Clemens, Hurst, Tudor and Ojeda all were drafted and came up as starters. Whoever was the pitching coach then also gets credit. Those three lefties all learned how to pick off runners.
Have posted this here and elsewhere before. Always suspected myself Anderson was an early days juicer. Season he spent at Winter haven, last thing to describe him would be “ripped”. he was just a skinny kid, then 1 spring, with rest of MILB guys at the complex he’s full of muscles after the winter break.
Just so I understand, Brady Anderson, who somehow hit 50 homeruns (never more than 24 in rest of career) and 100+ era, and career highs in Slugging, OPS, OPS+ and total bases, in the middle of the steroids era had an “advisory role with the team’s conditioning and fitness programs? I’m not implying anything at all. I’m just saying “Hmmmmm.”
Regardless of the suspicions, Brady was WAY ahead of the league on the fitness front, as well as others.
Ridiculous Cobb signing one of the worst in baseball
Who hires ex juicer to be Vice President
SO GLAD Brady Anderson is “stepping aside.” He should have been out of a job last year when DD was let go. Out with the old and in with the new for this rebuild!!