Orioles general manager Mike Elias spoke to reporters today, including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, about the team and their future plans for roster construction. (Links from Twitter)
Broadly speaking, Elias said it’s unlikely that the club will be doling out any multi-year contracts. That’s hardly surprising given the state of the franchise. The club has had five straight miserable seasons, finishing in the AL East basement in four of those, only narrowly avoiding the same fate in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Last year, they finished 52-110, tied with the Diamondbacks for the worst record in baseball, while their four division rivals each each won at least 91 games. As the club has been firmly committed to the rebuilding process in recent years, they remarkably haven’t given out a multi-year deal since they signed Alex Cobb four years ago.
Moving from what they won’t do to what they might do, Elias said that the club is still looking to add to their shortstop competition. As the roster currently stands, Ramon Urias and Jorge Mateo would likely be the frontrunners for the position. However, each of them has only around 100 games of MLB experience, making it fairly sensible for the club to consider a more seasoned option. Leaving aside Carlos Correa and Trevor Story, some shortstop-capable options on the free agent market include Jonathan Villar, Matt Duffy and Ronald Torreyes.
Elias also added that they could add another pitcher to their starting rotation. The market for starters has been red hot for the entire offseason, both before and after the lockout, with some of the best remaining options being Tyler Anderson, Johnny Cueto and Michael Pineda. There would certainly be room for another arm of that caliber in Baltimore, given that John Means and Jordan Lyles are the only names currently on the depth chart with more than two years of MLB service time. Younger pitchers like Bruce Zimmermann, Keegan Akin, Zac Lowther and Dean Kremer will likely be competing for spots at the back end.
However, there is hope for the future of the rotation, as Elias had this to say about prospect D.L. Hall: “We may see him in the big leagues this year and we may see him quick.” The club’s first round selection in the 2017 draft, Hall has put up impressive numbers in the minors, though he was sidelined this year due to a stress reaction in his elbow, making his last appearance on June 12th. Despite that, he’s still highly regarded by prospect evaluators, being ranked the #72 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, #52 by Baseball America and #27 by FanGraphs. After throwing just 31 2/3 innings in Double-A last year, the fact that Elias is so bullish about his debut is surely encouraging news for Orioles fans.
What’s a rotation without an Anderson 🙂
Inside joke?
I think there are nine pitcher Anderson’s on MLB rosters
Pretty dang excited to see DL Hall
He barely pitched in AA last year and he is hurt now according to the article! You won’t see him for a while….
Where does this article say he is currently hurt?
He isn’t hurt!!!! He had a stress fracture in 2021 and the article stated just that
“sidelined this year due to a stress reaction in his elbow, making his last appearance on June 12th.” If he was “sidelined this year” then he’s been out ~9 months? Must be a typo
Probably spend a lot of time on the DL list
Really surprised he hasn’t announced the Correa signing yet. Figure now they got Conner Greene in the fold they could refocus. Must be a delay in physical
Ha.
Makes me wonder. What’s been the most surprising bit FA get by a small market, never spend team?
Maybe 96-97 when Marlins went nuts? Orioles used to spend big and will again in coming years
What are you smoking?
Whoa, don’t cut yourself on all that edge young man
Hope they don’t clog up the drain again;
Would like to see Urias and Mateo have breakouts. Urias has some sneaky hit tools. Mateo could run to the Moon and back.
I like both those guys. Watched a few games.
Orioles we’re plucky at times despite the record and blowouts by the Jays.
But as I said on the other oriole article, I know the O’s gave Hyde an extension ( should’ve been the boot imo) but that episode with Ray last year was an embarrassment.
On top of the fact he’s from the joe maddon school of bullpen management. ( I know he’s got little talent there , but what he had was misused) I’m sure O’s fans will agree.
You’re spot on Ed. I forget when I went up to Boston to see the Orioles play, but as you mentioned I saw firsthand Hyde’s mismanagement of the bullpen. The O’s had the lead with Akin on the mound. They turned over to the bullpen and one of the relievers was dealing to the point where he should been pitching an extra inning instead of just one. But Hyde decided he needed to come out and the next reliever blew the lead. O’s would go on to lose that game.
Mateo could run to the moon and back and the Os still wouldnt be competitive…
He underwhelmed in AAA against younger players.
He is 27.
He will wash out…..
Exactly. I have no idea why the O’s would add any of those garbage FA SS options.
Stick w Mateo and Urias—there’s a tinge of upside there.
I thought I read rotation hell. Lol.
I hope that Hall finds some command. He’s never going to be Greg Maddux, but his minor league walk rate must improve if he is to find any sustained MLB success. On the bright side, apparently his closest comp based on minor league numbers is some guy named Randy Johnson, so he’s got that going for him.
Gunnar Henderson make the bigs this year for the O’s?
Hope so, I think he’s who they believe the SS of the future to be. This is supposed to be last year of rebuild
Gunnar isn’t going to play SS in the bigs. He’s already playing 3B. Westburg is the most likely SS candidate in our pipeline. Realistically we don’t have one for the long term.
I also don’t see this as the last year of the rebuild. There’s no pitchers developed on the roster besides John Means. Sulser/Wells are the only 2 consistently good relievers we had last year. 2024 seems like the earliest to me.
31 innings in AA last year. Does he go much more than 110-120 this year?
With that disastrous Cobb signing no wonder the Orioles haven.t done another multi- year contract.
They had plenty of other good pitchers to choose from. The ownership has checked out. They are just waiting for Maryland voters to spend millions fixing up the stadium so the franchise price goes up, then they sell. See ya Suckers!!!!!
Elias is insane thinking Hall is ready. This joke of an ownership needs to sell. If they find it so inconvenient to spend money they should buy a thrift store! And now they want Maryland voters to spend millions fixing up their stadium!!?? They need to spend on the team first! This cheapness has gone on long enough! What an embarrassment they are!
We will spend when the team is in more of a competitive position to do so. Our big prospects are now all close to being major league ready, and when they are, we will begin to sign free agents. As misguided as our spend has been in the past, you cannot state that the Angelos family has not spent money historically.
Spend money on what??? I’d agree next year, but it’s time to see the big guys graduate to the majors, then evaluate and build around. Now is not the time to spend money
Bring back the Chris Ellis fellow who pitched for the orioles last season. He was impressive in his short time with them. Don’t get why they’d let him go. Hope the Jays sign him for depth!!
I think Baltimore is missing an opportunity to (start) making some progress in the free agent market for the future. They should go after (YOUNG AND GOOD) players like Correa… I know, I know.. Baltimore is terrible right now and they’re in no position to win, but just hear me out..this could be a nice lineup and rotation in the next 2 years IF they START making a few moves NOW with trades and the free agent market….
Cedric Mullins OF
Austin Hays OF
Ryan Mountcastle 1B/OF
Carlos Correa SS
Adley Rutschman C
Heston Kjerstad OF/DH
Gunnar Henderson 2B/3B
Trade or sign for a DH Or 3B (plus they have young talent in the minors)
SP J Means
SP Grayson Rodriguez
SP DL Hall
SP Trade or free agent
SP Trade or free agent
Yes it will take a little bit of time, money, and work, but they need to start somewhere. Call up Our young players, make some trades, sign some free agent, etc. I’m not saying to do it all at once, but start putting it together with a guy like a Correa, it’s a good opportunity and Baltimore has the money to spend and a farm system to make some trades.
Horrible idea to deal from the farm system. That’s how you end up w the Cincinnati reds. Look where every other team in the division is—doesn’t make sense to me to start now. Start in the 2023 offseason. This is a 70 win team at best w Correa.
You obviously have no idea what I was trying to say. They ABSOLUTELY need to Keep their big prospects, let them develop, and call them up, but they have some mid ranged prospects that they can get a nice return on to actually compete in the next couple of years. (every MLB team trades away prospects at some point when they’re trying to win) And what I said about Correa.. he’s a good player that they can build around in the next couple of years.. signing Correa is not a “win now” situation, but he’s young enough to help them compete in a big way in the next couple of years if Baltimore starts doing what they need to do little by little
Sign someone, sure. Trade any prospects for players—-Hell no. At some point we’ll start having 40 man crunches and you can look at doing that then but right now we need to be in prospect accumulation mode. You certainly don’t trade them away yet. If we feel like we have too many OF’s in the pipeline—you can deal some of that surplus for a different prospect position but I don’t want anyone that has more than a year or two of service time.
I think we should be way more active on short term deals. No argument there.
We need to start seeing the core of the team come up before we sign anyone LT. Look at how many teams that have flopped using the exact strategy you proposed. Being too early is as bad as being too late.
That’s like the Rangers this off-season. Do I think they made themselves a playoff team? Absolutely not. They spent a ton of money and they definitely got better but what long term pieces have they developed on that baseball team?
I’d say less than Baltimore. At this point we have maybe 3– means, Mullins, and Hays. The rangers now have very little financial flexibility and ultimately I doubt that team goes anywhere. The Reds did a similar thing a few years back and now they’re selling off assets and getting into a rebuild again.
All of that & the orioles division is even tougher. We need to spend and be aggressive when the time is right but the time has to be right.
That’s not exactly what I’m saying. I wouldn’t trade away any prospects and i especially wouldn’t do it right now. I would try and sign a young good player (like Correa) to help Us try and win in hopefully near future. We have good farm system with good hitting and pitching that need to be apart of our team and most of them are not far away from being called up.
Half the guys that I put in the lineup and pitching rotation is a projection of what we could look like in the next couple of years with players we have and in Our farm system (i wouldn’t touch Out top 5 or 6 prospects for a trade) all these things need to happen little by little, all I’m saying is that we should start now by trying to sign a guy like Correa for the future
I’m not saying to trade any prospects (and I especially wouldn’t touch our top 5-6 prospects) Those guys are going to be a big part of our team in the near future, but to help us set up a big future, we should sign a young good player like Correa. And in a year or two if we need to start adding those few missing pieces, then we can make trades for maybe a big starting pitcher, a big bat, a bull pen arm, etc. all I’m saying is that we’ll have guys to trade in a year or two if we’re only missing a few big pieces. This is a little by little process.. not all at once
How much more dormant do the Orioles have to be before folks catch on? The team is making plenty of money without spending, so why be saddled with massive contracts years into the future? MLB talked a lot about tanking, but only put a Band-aid on the problem. Baltimore can still bring up the rear and have a chance for the pick of the litter in the draft.
As long as the fans are happy paying MLB prices to watch AA talent… you won’t see the angelos’ complaining
Sounds alot better than them just being in a constant rebuild. I agree. They should at least start signing serviceable MLers like the Tigers have been doing the last few years. Just professionals on 1-yr deals so they have some respectability and they can teach the youngsters how to be pro’s.
The overwhelming likelihood is that the Orioles will be bad on the field, but good at the cash register. We’ve just been through CBA negotiations in which competitiveness was something tossed around by both sides. But, it’s clear, nothing has been done about.
At this point, you have to consider relocation as a real possibility. They occupy OPACY (still one of the best parks in MLB) basically rent free, they have a dedicated fan base, their own RSN (with the chaser of the Nats contract), and it’s resulted in 5 years of ugly. Ya, they’re getting better; big deal, give most of the people on this board 5 years, and they could have brought the O’s to where they are now, a 100 loss team with some prospects.
But the “brand”, not to mention their rich history, has pretty much been destroyed. The biggest tragedy in MLB; at least the Pirates, who sold their soul to move into PNC, really don’t have the profits, and the Rays never had a brand to begin with.
A new owner, maybe a new locale.
Bob you’re kinda talking out of both sides of your mouth if you’re discussing a dedicated fan base and also relocation.
The orioles have needed an ownership group open to the kind of things Elias is doing now. This was never going to be a quick rebuild. The system was bare & the Latin markets weren’t allowed to be explored. We do those things now. The team is just miles behind the rest of the strongest division in baseball. More ST assets could be signed but other than that—I can’t tell you what any other person could’ve done with this team given the situation. This was an inevitable long rebuild.
The Orioles best player they received for Schoop, Gausman, Britton, and Machado is Dillon Tate or maybe Bruce Zimmermann.
You can’t lose all that talent for what amounted to be nothing & start from scratch on an international pipeline and expect things to move quickly. There was no bandaid for this situation. Long and ugly was the only path. If the team would’ve sold off those guys at the right time—there could’ve been years shaved off this rebuild. But once that hand was played—this is the reality. Elias is building a real pipeline. it’s impossible to say how that’ll work out but it was the only path.
Total rebuild? No one doubts it. A real pipeline? Ya, if you’re into dreaming about prosects, the majority of which will either be “meh” or fail completely. With years of high draft choices and bonus pools, just about anybody can throw enough darts to hit the board every once in a while.
A lot of waste doing things the way they are doing it, be it Boom Boom’s great story and exciting talents like Hayes, Mullins and Mountcastle, By the time whatever talent bubbles up from the pipeline, those guys will either be gone or in regression. Meanwhile, there’s no “umph” at all, none, nada.
And that’s utterly inexcusable for a team with their resources. We’re they condemned to a few years of 70-75 wins? Ya, probably. But 55? Really?
Poor O’s fans. Glad I’m not one though
Personally, I’m getting tired of losing 100+ games every year. It is really hard to be an O’s fan. I’m tired of waiting until the prospects are “ready”. If he was in the O’s organization, Juan Soto would be playing in Bowie. If a kid can hit and pitch, a kid can hit and pitch. Let the kids play and figure it out. Could they possibly be any worse than what we’ve been putting on the field?
The longer the “rebuild”goes, the longer elias has a job. I was under the impression that results would start to be seen in 5 years.
How long did the Rangers rebuild take?
In 2008 as the Orioles struggled through yet another 90+ loss season, we kept hearing about these wonderful pitchers in the minors who were going to become the rotation of the 2010s and rival the 70s for Orioles pitching prowess.
The most hyped was Brian Matusz. He was an AWFUL starter who had a season or two of success as a LOOGY. Zach Britton? Top notch closer for several years but no impact as a starter. Closers don’t have anywhere near the impact to a game as a starter. Jake Arrieta? Terrible until he could get away from the Orioles and then he was suddenly good because he found competent coaching. Chris Tillman had a couple seasons as a very good starter for 6 innings – that’s the only one who worked out.
Then the Orioles went cheap, trying the Korean league instead of spending on known quantities. Wei Yin Chen was decent the first two times through the lineup. Tsuyoshi Wada never threw a pitch for the team. Then the much hyped Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman didn’t find any success until leaving the team (Bundy had limited success at that)
The team refuses to invest money in QUALITY starting pitchers, not innings eaters who will pitch to a 5+ ERA. The VAST MAJORITY of “prospects” never make it! Tired of getting hype and spin!
And a “competition” at shortstop is not the collection of warm bodies accumulated who will produce a .230 average at best.
61-101 is my guess and that’s with an assumption Rutschman is up by May, Mullins/Mountcastle/Mancini maintain, and Hays continues development. Mind you, last year I was only off by 1 game in my preseason prediction.
Another HORRID summer of Orioles “baseball” coming up!