Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias spoke to the media today, just after the club wrapped up a disappointing 2025 season. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com was among those to report on what was discussed, with various details at these links.
The rotation was a natural point of focus, with Elias saying the club wants to add a starter to the front half of its rotation, which could be either a #1, a #2 or a #3. Such distinctions are fairly subjective but the point would be to have another guy capable of slotting in next to Kyle Bradish and Tyler Rogers somewhere in the front half of the rotation. Baltimore starters ranked 24th in the majors with a 4.65 earned run average this year, so bolstering the rotation is a straightforward target.
What will be interesting to monitor is if the club changes its level of aggressiveness. Throughout Elias’s tenure, the club has never given a free agent pitcher a multi-year deal, as shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. The only time they’ve gone beyond one year for any free agent was Tyler O’Neill’s three-year pact, which had an opt-out after the first season.
Many Baltimore fans were hoping for change last winter, which was the first offseason under new owner David Rubenstein. In November of last year, Elias raised those hopes by saying that the O’s were considering “the whole spectrum” of available players, which included “high-end free agent deals over many years.” But in the end, their rotation adds were fairly modest. They gave a one-year deal to 41-year-old to Charlie Morton and another one-year deal to 35-year-old Tomoyuki Sugano, who was coming over from Japan and had no major league experience.
As mentioned, the club’s rotation went on to be a big part of their rough 2025 season. The coming weeks and months will eventually shed some light on if they plan to alter the way they go about bolstering the group for 2026.
While Bradish and Rogers are locked into two spots and Elias hopes to bring in another, that still leaves a couple of spots open at the back end. And of course, a modern baseball team never gets through a full 162-game season using just five starters, so various arms of the roster should play important roles. With that in mind, Elias noted that Grayson Rodriguez is expected to be ready for spring training. He also said that Tyler Wells is good with being a starter or a reliever but the club plans on him being a starter.
Rodriguez has shown tremendous promise but is a huge question mark right now. He logged 122 innings in his 2023 rookie season. Ideally, he would have increased his workload in 2024 but shoulder injuries limited him to 116 2/3 frames. In 2025, both elbow and shoulder injuries wiped out his entire season. He started the campaign on the IL due to elbow inflammation. While on the IL for that, a lat strain set him back. In July, the shoulder was apparently fine but the elbow still a problem. He underwent a debridement surgery in August.
While it’s encouraging that he is on track to be ready by spring training, the O’s probably can’t rely on him at this point. Even if he proceeds without setbacks through to the start of next season, the O’s will have to think about his workload after this lost year.
As for Wells, he just came back from a UCL surgery he underwent in 2024. He got back to the majors in time to make four starts with a 2.91 ERA. He now has a solid 3.98 ERA in his career, as well as a 22.8% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate. Those numbers make him a decent rotation candidate next year but he may also have workload limits. Between his rehab work and his big league starts to finish the season, he only logged 47 innings in 2025.
Elias also addressed the club’s catcher situation, saying that Adley Rutschman will be the club’s primary backstop. Rutschman once seemed well establish in that role but his performance has dipped in recent years. He had a .268/.369/.439 batting line through 2023 and was continuing in that fashion through the first half of 2024. However, he appeared to injure his hand when it was struck by a foul ball, which led to a .207/.282/.303 line in the second half of last year.
Ideally, he would have been fully healthy and back on track in 2025 but that didn’t happen. He strained both his right and left oblique at separate times this season and only got into 90 games with a .220/.307/.366 line.
As Rutschman has been struggling, Samuel Basallo has continued to raise his stock. He reached the majors late this season and then the O’s signed him to an eight-year extension. That’s obviously a tremendous vote of confidence but he’s still just 21 years old, has questions about his defense and a .165/.229/.330 line thus far in the big leagues.
Though Basallo has a bright future, it’s understandable that he Rutschman is still ahead of him on the depth chart. Basallo can also play some first base, so perhaps that allows him and Rutschman to co-exist in the lineup, though that could also impact other players like Coby Mayo or Ryan Mountcastle.
Elias also provided a vague update on outfielder Heston Kjerstad, who is seeing doctors due to some unspecified medical condition. Kjerstad didn’t play after the month of July this year with reports of fatigue. His current medical examinations could be related to that fatigue, though that’s mere surmise.
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman, Imagn Images
O’Neill played in only 54 games, had just a .684 OPS and a -0.6 WAR.
The O’s wanted The O’Neill Experience ….. well, they got it!
I can’t wait to see how long the Orioles can stretch out the managerial decision.
What would sonny gray, 20 mil, Pedro pages, and jojo remero get the cards back in a deep Orioles farm system?
Why would Baltimore want a catcher when they have Adley, Basallo and Jackson, plus they drafted two more catching prospects this year (granted one is likely not going to stick at C) plus the other minor league catchers in their system? They had a string of bad luck injuries with catchers this season but catching isn’t a priority.
I can see a use for a starter and a reliever, but even paying down the Gray contract by 20 million, wouldn’t net a ground breaking return.
The Orioles should have their sights set much higher at the onset of the offseason and circle back to options like this if/when primary targets become unavailable
O’s farm system isn’t deep
Wish they would’ve made a legitimate move while the prospects were hot tickets. Summer of 2024 I was all in on trading Mayo and Kjerstad for Crochet. Sign Snell this past offseason. (not realistic but should be) Rotation is set for this window. Crochet, Snell, Bradish, Rogers, Kremer, Wells. Anything from Grayson is a bonus. That’s a championship worthy rotation.
Theres a good chance they aren’t going to sign Holliday, Westburg, or Henderson, so go all in on this window now. Mayo and Kjerstad didn’t help in 2023-2025. Give me Mountcastle, Mullins, Hays, and Crochet over Mayo, Kjerstad, and Sugano. So what it costs you 30 mil to keep all 3. They didn’t spend a dime practically from 2018-2023. I’ll take 3-5 years of a legit chance at a World Series and be total butt cheeks for the next 10 years as opposed to having Kjerstad and Mayo or other prospects that didn’t turn out and be an 80 win team in 2030.
I just feel like there is no urgency in this front office and it’s very confusing as to why no aggressive move was made under new ownership. This isn’t even a dig at this year because injuries piled up, but there was so much that could’ve been done that wasn’t and now you’re stuck with prospects that could’ve gotten you super stars with nothing to show.
That said, Basallo and Beavers were a needed boost for my confidence in this lineup. Gunnar, Holliday, and Westburg are guys I trust to have better years next year. Hopefully Adley can as well. Still a lot to look forward too, but I just can’t get over the lack of moves or urgency.
Seems like Keller fits and the pirates need OF and a 3rd baseman
The bullpen is the biggest need on this roster with Bradish and Rogers looking like a good 1-2. Grayson would be a great #3 but relying on that is a big gamble. Another top of the rotation arm would be really nice.
The only guy who should have a guaranteed bullpen slot is Keegan Akin. I think 3 relievers have to be added this offseason. One of those needs to be a legitimate closer. We can’t go into the season with Strowd, Selby, and Rico Garcia as the bridge to the 9th in the ML pen.
Once again, the lack of attention to the horrendous offense is galling. This was the worst YoY drop-off in team offense in their history. They can’t hit. No one got to 20 homers. The RISP numbers were abysmal. They hit .215 as a team down the stretch. Just pathetic. At least nine shutouts, no-no’d into the seventh on at least four occasions if not more… bad ABs, stupid chase rates, uncompetitive hitters.
Fix the pitching all you want, but it’s not the main issue.