The knock on Baltimore Orioles GM Mike Elias – he’s so dedicated to his approach that he doesn’t see the obvious hole in how he does things, that his focus on acquiring and developing young talent doesn’t value pitching, which has been what has limited his teams’ ceilings the past couple of postseasons.
The Ivy League alum is seeming to start to get it now, with the O’s off to a 13-19 start, with the fourth-worst run differential in MLB, and the 5.24 team ERA the second-worst in the bigs.
“I’m in charge of baseball operations. When we have a bad record to start the year, that’s my responsibility,” Elias said in a quick meetup with reporters before the Orioles won a series opener with Kansas City, 3-0, on Friday night.
The Orioles’ 2025 starting rotation is a mishmash of guys on one-year deals like 35-year-old Japanese free agent Tomoyuki Sugano (3-2, 3.00 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) and 41-year-old free agent Charlie Morton (0-6, 9.45 ERA, 2.18 WHIP), and a bunch of guys who are on the injured list – Grayson Rodriguez (13-4, 3.86 ERA, 1.24 WHIP in 2024), Zach Elfin (10-9, 3.59 ERA, 1.15 WHIP between Tampa Bay and Baltimore in 2024), Kyle Bradish (12-7, 2.83 ERA, 1.04 WHIP in 2023) and Tyler Wells (14-13 in 43 starts in 2022 and 2023).
“It is difficult to contend with that level of injuries, but even that aside, they’ve had a poor start, and that’s my responsibility,” Elias said ahead of the series-opening win at Camden Yards.
Last night, the vaunted O’s offense was shut out for the second time in a week, dropping a 4-0 final, managing just six singles against four Royals pitchers.
The offense, like the pitching, has struggled through the first six weeks of the season, ranking 25th in MLB in batting average (last year: seventh), 23rd in OPS (last year: fourth) and 20th in runs per game (last year: fourth).
You want to assume the offense will come around.
The pitching staff probably won’t without some help, and the help isn’t likely to come without Elias being willing to part with some of his valued young everyday guys.
The focus of Elias since getting the job heading up the Orioles front office has been on drafting, developing and retaining everyday players, and the O’s roster of everyday guys is impressive – 2023 AL Rookie of the Year Gunnar Henderson at shortstop, two-time All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman, a former #1 overall pick, another former #1 overall pick, Jackson Holliday, anchoring second base.
Elias still has the #11 and #12 guys on the MLB Top 100 prospects list, catcher Samuel Basallo, who is stuck behind Rutschman, and corner infielder Coby Mayo, who is behind first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, third baseman Ramon Urias and Jordan Westburg, a 2024 All-Star who split time at second and third, and has been limited to 13 games this season with injuries.
The infield is crowded, and so is the outfield – with Cedric Mullins and Heston Kjerstad playing every day, and free agent Tyler O’Neill and breakout 2024 guy Colton Cowser currently on the IL.
Baltimore has depth, probably too much depth, in the everyday lineup, and this is at the expense of a shallow starting rotation that ranks 28th in MLB in ERA (5.66) and 27th in innings pitched (averaging a smidge less than five innings per start).
Elias caught heat in the offseason for not making a run at free-agent pitcher Corbin Burnes, who won 15 games in his lone season as the staff ace in 2024, before bolting for Arizona on a relatively economical, for a 30-year-old former Cy Young winner, six-year, $210 million deal.
That’s water under the bridge, unfortunately.
It’s frustrating for O’s fans, no doubt, after back-to-back playoff appearances, and high expectations going into the 2025 season, to see the team sitting in dead last in the AL East a month in.
Elias is saying all the right things – that he’s “optimistic that we’re going to work out of that, and things are going to get better,” that he’s “confident” in manager Brandon Hyde, who has been getting hot-seat talk as the O’s struggles have mounted.
“When we’re experiencing failure, it’s really important in that job, and in my job, too, to be consistent with your approach, and he’s doing that,” Elias said of Hyde, who has been Elias’s guy in the dugout from Day 1 in 2019.
“Since this team started kind of coming together in 2022, it’s been a very consistent place, and it still is that way to me and the people that are down there all the time,” Elias said.
I wouldn’t worry so much about Hyde as I would Elias and Hyde together.
I don’t know that this is a make-or-break year for Elias in Baltimore, but his failure to make the moves necessary to address the obvious issues in the offseason may play him into 2026 being his year to have to do something.
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Chris Graham
