Mike Elias following a busy trade deadline

Mike Elias following a busy trade deadline

Hello everybody. Um, as we saw yesterday, we had a very active trade deadline. Um, we were in a position to have to sell because of a a very disappointing uh first half of this team. I mean, I’ve spoken about it. This is not how we envisioned this season going, and it’s something that we’re taking a hard look in the mirror about about how we got here. I think a lot of it um was bad luck, but there’s also stuff that we need to improve on as an organization and we’re going to do that. Um but this is a business where there’s a lot of competition and we fell short in the first half. I think the team has played really well lately and we’ve gotten healthier and we’ve seen the style of play and some of the success that we were hoping for in the last few weeks uh on the field. But looking at our record um our front office and our entire operation made a decision to sell at the deadline and I think in the context of that we are very pleased with the talent that we’ve received in return and I think uh along with our draft this has been an enormous injection of talent into the Orioles organization over the month of July. So, um, this has been, uh, I think making the best of a very disappointing situation for us in in 2025. Um, and we now set our sights to the remainder of this season. We hope that, uh, the the play on the field continues um, to move in the right direction, particularly with with our core players that we’re going to be counting on the rest of the season and next year. And um we’ll get to work on on improving and setting the roster for the 2026 season throughout the course of the second half uh including outside moves as they become available uh on the wire um and and perhaps on in in free agency, but also um we’ll look to promote some of our promising young players from Norfol as we go along. So, a lot to look forward to. This has been um you know a season with a lot of negative um uh things transpiring but um you know we we’re we’ve made the best of it at the deadline and and we hope that um brighter things are ahead in the in the very near future. First question Mike is from Rock Kabakco. Is there anything, Mike, that happened maybe in the days or weeks leading to the deadline that made it suddenly more probable that you would be moving guys, uh, controllable players, guys that would have been back next year and beyond, or was that always a strong possibility? Uh, it was only a possibility if the return was going to be more than commensurate and we feel that was the case. Um, you know, we we uh we weigh that into everything. Um, it’s different when it’s a rental, but if there’s a player uh that was in your plans for 2026 or beyond, you you’ve got to weigh that and I think we were able to take advantage of that. Andy Costa, hey Mike, thanks for doing this. Um, obviously you’ve spoken about the organizational goal to be super competitive in 2026. Um, you know, some of these deals at least from the outside, you know, players in return don’t impact the 2026 roster. How does how do these deals help the organization as you look to retool for 2026? Yeah, thanks. Um it’s it’s really in my view just it’s not really how it works. um when you’re when you’re at the trade deadline, um if you were to uh go to the market and say, “I only want players that are ready in 2025 or 2026.” First of all, the teams you’re dealing with by nature are contending and worrying about their major league depth. So, they’re not going to want to put those players available as easily. And second of all, you’re going to get less talent, less value in return with those confines. So my view, you know, you don’t we don’t want to be selling this year. Lot has gone wrong to put us in that place. But once we’re here, let’s make the most of it. Let’s get the most talent back. Let’s let’s um extract the most that we can for the organization. And um yeah, a lot of the players that we got back were in the lower part of the minor leagues, but you can use players to trade for the near term. Um and then also, you know, it could it could pay off in the long run. So I just look at it in terms of the overall talent wealth for the organization and making the most of an opportunity that you have that you don’t want to have at the at the trade deadline. Rich Dubra, hey Mike, uh, you know, you’ve stated that you thought that you still had a core that would be able to contend in 2026. with that. What was the reason for trading Lauraniano and uh Pereas who were under club control uh basically for for 2026? Yeah, I you know I’m not sure uh that we trade Raone Lauraniano um without the uh return level that we feel like we got from the the Padres’s. Um, so you know that that’s something that again it’s just a it’s a matter of of what we’re getting back um with a player that that we were you know possibly planning on retaining in 2026. I think Boston Baitman um in particular a very premium pitching prospect from the left side the likes of which um very hard to get your hands on. They did a great job, the Padres’s iding him and drafting him in the second round last year and he’s off to a great start and looks really good. Um, and it’s uh just something that what brought us to the table on on um Ramon and that entire trade. So, um you know, we’ll we’ll um look to get back uh the most that we can if we’re if we’re putting a player like him on the table. Jake Ro. And Mike, Tony spoke recently about how with guys like Cedric, you know, her maybe leaving, it’s time for the core guys, the Adleys, the Gunners to kind of step up and, you know, this is their team and leadership. I mean, do you kind of view it the same way, especially these last two months of the season, that maybe these guys need to step up more in the leadership roles now that Cedric and Ryan are gone? I think they are. I think it’s happening naturally. Uh, you know, they’re they’re logging more time in the big leagues. These guys have have been through they’ve got a lot of experience now. I mean, we’ve had um a couple really good seasons with some playoff heartbreak. Now, we’ve had this. Um I think these guys are are growing up and taking ownership of the team. Um and very happy with uh the determination that this group of players has and there’s definitely a bond between these guys as well. So, we are all uh disappointed with where we’re at. Uh but there’s a lot of determination to not have this happen again. Danielle Allenuk. Hey Mike, you have said multiple times that you’ve taken responsibility for part of how this season has gone. U looking to 2026, what do you feel like you and the front office need to do the rest of season and into the offseason to make 2026 a competitive year? We have we got to make good moves. I mean, you you you look at the league, there’s 30 teams. Um, it’s a zero sum competition, meaning that somebody’s winning and somebody’s losing and, um, everybody’s out there trying to win and you need to have moves that that pan out better than the next guys. So, um, we’re trying to be as smart as possible. We’ve got a few months to plan for 2026 and and we’re going to take that time to, uh, take a look at the landscape and and figure out plan A, plan B, plan C, and then try to execute it. But in the meantime, uh, we have the ability to supplement the team as we go along here the next few months. Hope that to keep coaching wise, keep our players on the right track and keep them improving in the majors and minors. Um, and uh, but we we have to um, you know, have a good off seasonason and put ourselves in um, a good position and good chance to succeed and and we’re going to be working on that. Brendan Mortonson, Mike, you mentioned Boston Baitman, the upside that he has. John Watt Brown is is viewed as a pretty high-end pitching prospect as well. Um, how do you view the the pitching talent down on the farm right now with the influx of guys that you’re able to get at this deadline? I think it’s really good. I mean, I think we’ve seen uh 2025, one thing that’s 2025, 2024, 2020, all these last couple seasons have shown us is pitchers are going to get hurt and you need a lot of them. Uh but we have a lot of really good ones and um this is probably as strong as our pitching stable’s been in the last few years. So hope these guys stay on track. Brought a lot into the deadline, but also the guys that we’ve drafted and signed internationally and um internally here with the Orioles. Uh there’s quite there’s quite a bit to like there and I feel um good about our pitching stable right now, but we’re going to need it. Nick Tone, WB. Hey Mike, I know this is not what you the position you wanted to be in at this time of the year, but when everything shifted uh going into yesterday, did you accomplish everything that you wanted to at this deadline? I wouldn’t say uh you know 100% of things got across the finish line that that’s really hard to to have happen. Um lots got to go right for that. But overall um you know with with the agenda that we had which was to bring talent into the system and move uh players that were either near uh their contract the contracts either expiring or near expiring. I think we did quite well in in that regard. I think that um we brought in a lot of talent and they were the right moves for the situation that you’re in and that’s part of the duties of the front office to to weigh um the the spot that the team’s in and and do the right thing by the organization of the deadline and I do feel that that was accomplished. Jerry Coleman Jerry, if you’re here, I think you’re on mute. Sorry about that. I thought you guys were unmuting me. Uh, Mike, two different quick questions. One is a message to the fans about staying engaged and involved with the team. They want to, you know, know what’s going on in terms of the rest of the season. And the other is with the Morton deal, uh, how late in the ball game did that go down? It seemed like it was announced obviously right after the trade deadline. Thanks. Uh the Borton deal was very late um last 30 minutes. Uh in terms of staying engaged with the fans, um we are sorry that 2025 has gone this way. Uh a lot had to go wrong. Um and it it has and uh you know we’re addressing that and part of it is uh doing the right thing by the talent in the organization with the deadline. Um, and we’ve uh between the draft and the deadline, we’ve had an enormous injection of talent to the organization. It’s going to benefit us short term, but also long term. And uh it it needed to be done and we executed well in those constraints. Um we have an extremely exciting group of young players on the Orioles that we’ve all come to enjoy and these guys are still here. They’re fighting hard. they’re aware um as a group of where we’re at and very determined to do better going forward. So um these guys are still here as the heart and soul and they are um still with us and we have a great place to start as we build for the rest of 2025 and 2026 um with Gunnar Adley, Jackson Holiday, Colton Cowser, Jordan Westber. Um, lot of good players coming and we’re in a good spot despite um the mis the misfortunate first half. Stan Charles, Mike, uh, you’ve done a terrific job at position player development, but the one area, and I understand your philosophy is you can get pitching all different ways, but are you happy with the development of pitching in this organization at this point in time? Yeah, we, you know, we haven’t, uh, as you mentioned, we haven’t, um, brought in a lot of, uh, real real high draft picks on the pitching side, a little more recently, but early in the rebuild, um, we wanted and needed to hit on those picks um, with core position players, and so that was our emphasis. I think that our pitching department has done a great job um with a lot of lower investment type guys that we’ve brought in and they’ve been able to demonstrate a lot of the skill that we’ve had on the pitching side um with how they’ve coached up some of these players. A lot of them are still in the farm system, but you’re going to see them soon. Um we’ve had a lot of injury misfortune as have other organizations and it’s a really tough thing right now to get pitching figured out all around. Um but uh you know this is an area that there’s always room for improvement and we definitely need uh better pitching performance on the field next year in 2026 and so we’re going to be pushing for that. John Mioli Mike as you mentioned just this year amount of players you’ve added to the organization in the last month or so having been recently on the buying side of trades and now the selling side. Do you feel like you’re more equipped with the depth to to make trades to add to the major league roster than you might have been when the organization was a little more topheavy on the farm? Yeah, I think that we uh kind of maybe quietly, but we pushed a lot of chips in in 2024 uh in particular and that we traded a lot of players away and um you know, we had a playoff season, but we didn’t have a a long playoff run as we all know and um it depleted a lot of the farm system and it is important to have that ability to make trades when you want to. So, um, our farm system is a lot richer and a lot more robust than it was one month ago and that’s going to help us. Matt Hayrick, Mike, you mentioned the importance of making better moves than the next guy and it’s been documented on some of the moves that you tried to make last season that might not have gone through, but how aggressive do you feel the front office needs to be this off season to pull off coming back to contention in 2026? I you know I don’t I don’t like um saying aggressive or not aggressive. We want to be good. We want to be smart. We want to have it be effective. Um you know I mean signing Ramon Lauraniano was not probably not an aggressive move but um it paid great dividends. And so you just you’re trying to get good results. It’s not easy. That’s why there’s so much fierce competition among 30 teams. That’s what this is all about is watching these baseball players and these baseball organizations compete against each other and we just we want to be good. We want to be effective. We want to be smart. Um that’s where our focus on is that’s where our focus is on. Chris WBL News Radio. Chris, if you’re still here, I think you’re on mute. Apologies there, Mike. I wanted to ask specifically about Twine Palmer, who you acquired in the Raone Arias deal. Um, there was some chatter about him being ranked 37th according to fan graphs. Uh, how much do you take into account rankings like that? I know a lot of times beauty is the eye of the beholder and um, you know, are you targeting a specific pitcher? Big guy here, 6’5. Um, is he looking to maybe be in the bullpen starting rotation? talk about Twine Palmer a little bit. Uh yeah, huge guy, throws 95, is very young. Uh came out of a JO I think in Oklahoma and um you know, he’s somebody that we’re going to develop as a as a starter. He’s off to a good start in pro ball. It’s kind of uh just just cracking the surface of what he can do as a pro. There’s a lot of building blocks there. We look at the public rankings a little bit. you just kind of keep an eye on it. But um I I think they sometimes lag what the the front offices uh look at and um but they’re they’re a helpful tool. Got time for a few more questions. If you have any more, please put them in the chat. Uh next one’s from Jacob Calvin Meyer. Hey Mike, uh do you expect Samuel Basio and Dylan Beavers to make their debuts later this season? Yeah, I hope so. Um we they’re both having terrific seasons. Uh it’s been they’re both been bright spots for this organization in a tough year. Uh to see them performing at AAA like that is really good. They’ve they’ve come a long way and um you know they’re almost there. There’s some things that we’re still looking for and and uh hoping that they’ll do, but I do um think getting them a taste in 2025 here um would be a good thing for all parties. Andy Costa. Hey Mike. Um, quick, sorry to jump to a different topic, but Grayson Rodriguez, we haven’t necessarily heard the second opinion or or the MRI results. Uh, do you have any update on on Grayson Rodriguez? Yeah, thanks. Um, you know, we’re we’re still kind of finalizing the medical plan, but um, Grayson’s he’s had a tough year. He, if you recall, uh, he was feeling some elbow impingement during spring training. Um, and we had to shut him down and start him back up. Unfortunately, that has kind of reappeared. Um, at the time that was the opinion of um, all all medical parties and including outside opinions to treat the injury conservatively before we go diving into an elbow surgery. Um but uh you know now with this recurring I think that option is back on the table and this would not be an elbow reconstruction. It would be a uh deb brement of um some some bone um that’s that that needs to be removed or or can be removed. And um if we go through with this, which is is a possibility here in the next few days, it’ll put him down for the rest of 2025, but it’ll put him in a position to return for 2026 spring training. So, we’ll have a official update on that if and when that takes place, but that is um you know, now increasingly in the conversation. Jake, Mike, how much thought are you going to give the manager position for 2026 over the next two months? When do you kind of expect to go through that process of evaluating who’s going to lead this team moving forward? Quite a bit of thought. Um, you know, Tony is is continues to do a a a great job um keeping keeping the team on track and we’ve seen improvement. Um, and we’ve we’ve uh really liked what he’s done and this and the spirit of the team um under his helm. But I am um with the deadline and the draft, I’m turning my focus to setting up the organization for 2026. And that includes um you know thinking about that position. Nick Tony I’ll just jump back to uh the deadline. It was a pretty chaotic market especially for relievers getting a lot in return. You guys traded away several relievers. I I was just curious what you thought of the market and uh if you had wanted to you know in hindsight maybe waited with Sodto and Dominguez considering they were traded a couple days ahead of it. Um no I’m glad we traded Sodto and Dominguez in those trades. I thought they were exactly um what we were hoping for and and I feel that the returns are are are really strong. So I think we navigated the reliever market well um with all three of our guys and with Baker too um looking back. So happy about that. Yeah, I mean relievers um it makes sense. they they they get a lot at the deadline because um playoff teams have the holes and they want to plug them and um there’s a guy throwing well who’s who’s hot who’s who’s doing well on a team that’s not as likely to make the playoffs and they’re worth more to the to the other team than than um the team they’re being traded from. So I hope and think we took advantage of that. We’ll see how the chips fall, but um feel really good about the returns on all four of those trades. We got time for three more questions. Matt Hayrick is next. Mike, how did the uh O’Harn and Lauriano trade come together with the Padres’s? Was it something where they were looking to package those guys early or is it something that kind of came together as talks progressed late? um they uh they they wanted each player individually. Um and other teams wanted each player individually and just throughout the course of a couple weeks of conversation between um AJ Prowler and me uh that we we started steering towards packaging them both. They they you know I think with the way their roster is shaped, they obviously have room for both guys. I think um the Padres’s have a really strong roster now and um AJ and I have known each other for a long time and we worked well together on figuring out a very complicated trade, but I think ultimately it’s a good one for both both teams and I wish those guys very very well. They were um incredible um and for us and um just really really good players and I I hope to see them have success all the guys. Dan Charles Mike, I’m just curious. Um, obviously you picked up all young players in these deals. Were there ever any opportunities there where you might have been able to pick up either a meaningful starter that could have helped the team next year or a significant reliever to reboot the the bullpen? Yeah, I think that uh you know, we definitely tried for that. Uh, as I was saying earlier, um, you know, you got to let’s it’s a rental reliever, a rental player, and it’s if I say, “Hey, give me your your major league ready starting pitcher that’s under control for six years,” it’s just not um a real likely trade to happen in in that context. Um, so it rather than um try to force that and either come away with nothing or come away with a guy that’s not very good, um, it’s it’s I I think the right thing to do is to to get the most value back for the organization. And so that’s what we did. But obviously, um, we would have loved to do that, but you gota you got to be realistic. And there’s just not a lot of major league ready starting pitchers being traded by teams that are um right there in in contention, especially for for rental type returns. Final question today is from Jacob Calvin Meyer. Hey Mike, we we obviously don’t know how much cash considerations were sent in any of these deals, but for the payroll that came off the 2025 books is about 20 million or so. And then the players that you know won’t be returning in 2026 for the guys that you did have under some team control, that’s about 22 million. And then there’s a lot more money coming off the books next year as well. Are you committed? Is David Rubenstein committed to reinvesting any money that was saved at this deadline and money that’s coming off the books back into the 2026 and future payrolls? Yeah. Uh thanks. First of all, um we did send money in in uh a lot of these trades and I want to thank and credit David and our ownership group for making that lever available to facilitate better talent returns. Um often times, especially nowadays, the teams on the buy side of these trades have they’re in the CBT space, so they’re paying luxury taxes or giving up draft picks when they take on payroll. So, it’s really important for them sometimes to get some financial help and you got to have owners that are able and willing to do that um in order to participate. So, that was I think very helpful in us being able to execute an effective sell deadline. And I think that speaks to their ability and willingness to invest not just in the team and the payroll, but in the organization. They really want to win. They’re disappointed with how this went. Um but and and we’re going to get back in the saddle. Hey, and Mike, just one one last quick one. Are you more optimistic today than you were 3 weeks ago that you guys will be able to compete in 2026? I am because we just brought a lot of talent into the system. You never know how the deadline’s going to go. Um you can have bad luck at the deadline and deals can fall through and and you can end up not doing what you need to do or want to do. And by and large, that didn’t happen. We feel good with how the chips fell and the talent that we brought in. It’s going to help us in in any number of ways and the organization. It’s, you know, it’s not this isn’t what we wanted to be six months ago, but we’re in a much better spot than we were one month ago. And our our core players are rolling a little bit and getting healthy. And as you mentioned, the Sio and Beavers are getting close and other guys. So, um, there’s bright stuff ahead. We hope that uh this misfortune passes and and uh we get back to where we we expect and need to be going forward.

Watch Mike Elias’ full Zoom press conference following a busy trade deadline.
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