Remember when Ravens fans used to talk about “In Ozzie We Trust?” Well, not too long ago, Orioles fan were similarly feeling “In Mike We Trust” throughout his teardown and rebuild of the Orioles from 2019-2022.
But now? If tarring and feathering were still a thing, that’s how the pitchfork class of Orioles fans would treat Elias in pushing him out the door.
I can’t tell you that Elias will retain his position as the man in charge of Birdland baseball decisions. But assuming that David Rubenstein and Michael Arougheti don’t share that pitchfork mentality, Elias will be the man in charge during this trade deadline and this offseason.
And it figures to be both a busy deadline and even busier offseason.
If I had one piece of advice to Elias, it would be akin to the famous phrase in real estate: “location, location, location.” Only this one phrase would be “pitching, pitching and more pitching.”
But before making all these pitching acquisitions, I’d find myself someone who really knows pitching to be a pitching czar for my ball club. This someone has to be on the same page as whatever GM and manager will be at the helm of the team in 2026.
Do I have any names for this position? Not at the moment, but I can tell you I’d be looking closely at the list of folks who develop the pitching prospects for the Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Rays.
Look, Elias is still a very smart guy, and while I am sure he is happy — he probably thinks he’s got this — I always fall back on the title of Earl Weaver’s autobiography, “It’s What You Learn After You Know it All That Counts.” Think about that title and how it informed perhaps the greatest manager of all time. He always thought he could learn something from anybody — even those who weren’t as smart as he was.
My gut is Elias ascribes to the exact opposite philosophy. I sincerely hope he has learned something in the first six and a half seasons in charge.
Go back to Elias’ first draft in 2019. The Orioles waited until their ninth pick before picking a pitcher. Of the 41 players chosen, 19 were pitchers. Do you know how many of those 19 have pitched for the Orioles in a big league game? To date, it’s just Kade Strowd, who made his debut in May. Connor Gillispie is the other 2019 draftee who has pitched in the majors.
In the 2020 COVID draft, the Orioles had just six picks and only one was a pitcher. Carter Baumler has been buried by injuries and looks like his big league dream may never come to fruition.
The Orioles had 20 picks in 2021. Nine were pitchers. To date, none of those nine have made their big league debut, although 6-foot-8 right-hander Keagan Gillies will compete in the Futures Game played a couple days before the All-Star Game.
The Orioles had 20 picks in 2022 and 2023 as well, taking 22 pitchers between the two drafts. To date, none of them have set foot in a big league game. In 2023, Elias used a valuable second-round pick on Florida State right-hander Jackson Baumeister, who was traded away in the Zach Eflin deal at last year’s deadline.
I won’t dig into the 2024 draft because it’s totally unreasonable that a pitcher would have made it up by the 2025 season. However, in the five prior drafts, 51 pitchers were drafted and the club only has three appearances by Strowd to show for it. That is a pretty damning tale to tell.
I thought, the Elias’ foray into the international market would have started to produce some near-major-league-ready arms by this point. I don’t see anyone close to major-league ready.
Since the Orioles allowed Mike Mussina to get away to the Yankees after the 2000 season, they have never had a true stud pitcher for an extended period of time. No Garrett Crochet, no Justin Verlander, no Chris Sale, no Tarik Skubal, no Max Scherzer — only one year of Corbin Burnes.
Making matters more complicated is the nature of pitching injuries in baseball in 2025 and beyond. Sure, it’s unfair that Kyle Bradish, John Means and Grayson Rodriguez have been robbed from us at various points. But what teams don’t have that?
While I wasn’t fully behind signing Burnes for the necessary price tag, it’s high time Elias’ team figure this pitching thing out. Sure, Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano got pushed up due to injuries to Eflin and Rodriguez, but they were never enough to replace Burnes and Bradish.
If Elias can’t learn after he knows it all, all the Adley Rutschmans, Gunnar Hendersons and Jackson Hollidays won’t amount to a hill of beans.
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