As the Orioles’ young talent continues to percolate at the major league level, one question Baltimore fans have asked to themselves is whether the club will lock in key players to long-term deals as other teams have done across baseball.
Orioles GM Mike Elias has often been asked in recent months about extending productive young players like Adley Rutschman, but the executive has never offered any specifics about the club’s plans.
“I don’t want to be out talking about it. I think these things are best if they’re not public,” Elias told the local media on May 9. “Sometimes that happens and if it does, we’ll deal with it then, but I don’t see any interest in my behalf as a negotiator or someone who does business with these agents over and over throughout my career, for them to have the expectancy that something might get out in the news from me.”
The team most associated with signing young players to long-term deals in order to buy out arbitration and free-agent years is the Atlanta Braves, who have doled out the following deals in recent years:
| Player | Age | Contract |
| OF Ronald Acuña Jr. | 25 | Eight years, $100 million (2019-2026) plus club options for 2027 and 2028 |
| INF Ozzie Albies | 26 | Seven years, $35 million (2019-2025) plus club options for 2026 and 2027 |
| OF Michael Harris II | 22 | Eight years, $72 million (2023-2030) plus club options for 2031 and 2032 |
| C Sean Murphy | 28 | Six years, $73 million (2023-2028) plus a club option for 2029 |
| INF Matt Olson | 29 | Eight years, $168 million (2022-2029) plus a club option for 2030 |
| INF Austin Riley | 26 | Ten years, $212 million (2023-2032) plus a club option for 2033 |
| RHP Spencer Strider | 24 | Six years, $75 million (2023-2028) plus a club option for 2029 |
(Photo Credits: Kevin Liles/Atlanta Braves)
The Braves’ strategy has been orchestrated by general manager Alex Anthopoulos and supported by Liberty Media, which has owned the team since 2007. The Braves are located in a big market and have posted huge attendance numbers at Truist Field in recent years.
Andruw Jones and Darren O’Day, both of whom now have off-field roles with the Braves, joined Glenn Clark Radio May 5 to discuss why Atlanta has been able to lock up so many young players and if the Orioles should replicate the strategy.
Jones, who played in Atlanta from 1996-2007 and is considered one of the best defensive center fielders ever, is now a special assistant to baseball operations for the Braves. O’Day pitched in Atlanta in 2019, 2020 and 2022 following his time in Baltimore and is now an analyst for the Braves.
Why did the Braves choose to go down this road with their young players?
Andruw Jones: Alex Anthopolous is doing a great job. When he came on board [as general manager in November 2017], he saw what kind of talent that we had and what kind of players we had. He went out there and did his job. He locked a lot of these young talents up for five, six years, taking arbitration away because you can see how big arbitration is getting now in the game of baseball. … The ownership is giving the GM the go-ahead to do that stuff. It has to come from ownership. The Braves’ ownership is willing to believe in Alex and believe in the front office and everybody, that the decisions that they’re making are the right decisions.
Darren O’Day: I think what the Braves figured out is they have a great organization here. The guys love playing here because it’s kind of the right-sized market. It’s not too big. It’s not too small. The media’s not too tough. And so they said instead of us having a three- or four-year window, let’s go ahead and take a little bit of risk and lock these guys up long term and we know we can extend our window out to six to eight years — and continue to develop their farm system while they’re still winning.
Why is Atlanta such an attractive place for players to sign long term?
Andruw Jones: We manage to have a great coaching staff that continues to push these guys in the right way and keeps telling them the right things to go out there and do. I think from the top to the bottom, everybody’s really pushing to win another championship for the city of Atlanta. It’s a great ballpark. There’s a lot of atmosphere going there. There’s so much to do. So the fans are all buying into the team to bring another championship there. They saw it in 2021, so they’re looking forward to getting another one again.
Darren O’Day: The Braves are in a good spot. Here in the Southeast, it’s warm. People can live here year-round. Atlanta’s actually a great city. It’s where I call home now. So the Braves had a lot of things going on for them that makes players want to stay here for a long time.
Should the Orioles pursue this path?
Darren O’Day: Baltimore fans know better than any that success goes in cycles. There are windows. When I got there [following the 2011 season], the team was rebuilding and we brought in some veterans and we started winning. We had all this young talent. We were good for four or five years, and then talent gets expensive. You trade away your farm system at the deadline and all that stuff to improve your postseason chances. … It’s going to be an interesting experiment to see how many other teams follow suit. The Orioles are coming up on a period where all these young guys that they’ve done a great job drafting and developing, if they keep playing well, they’re going to get pretty expensive pretty quick.
For more from Jones, listen to the full interview here:
For more from O’Day, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox