Mike Elias gave his season-ending press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Hello, friends.
I hate that it’s October 4 and we’re already in offseason mode for the Orioles. All that they had to do is hit just a little bit against the Royals and instead right now we would be thinking about how the team would match up against the Yankees starting tomorrow. They were capable of doing this and they did not and that still sucks. Now, while eight teams have their hopes alive, we have to start thinking about next year and what the O’s can do better.
Within the Orioles organization, that effort is beginning as well. Mike Elias said as much in his press conference with Orioles media yesterday afternoon. Among Elias’s opening remarks:
We’re going to examine things. Things did not go the way we wanted this year. We did not meet expectations. … It feels bad to us, and it was a bad outcome at the end of the season. … So as I try to look this offseason about what we can adjust in many different ways – whether that’s staffing, processes, information, all the things we do around here – I need to find the appropriate balance with all the positivity we’ve achieved, with this bad taste in our mouths and bad outcome in the playoffs and a disappointing sort of second half overall.
It’s certainly not the kind of quote that would give the impression that Elias or the Orioles are complacent in any way. They are not. Whether Elias’s remedies produce results that are satisfying to armchair general managers between now and the start of spring training, or whether they produce results in the 2025 standings that are satisfying to disappointed Orioles fans, is something we don’t and can’t know right now.
Anyone who feels like step one is replacing the manager is already going to be disappointed. Elias said yesterday that Hyde is his manager for 2025. The remainder of the coaching staff did not get the same specific assurance. I think it is fair to say about hitting philosophy that the right message was not getting through starting around August 1.
Something needs to improve there. The struggles of Adley Rutschman will probably take up the most focus among returning players. Getting more out of prospects who debuted in 2024, Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo, will be important, and so will getting some more consistent performance out of possible AL Rookie of the Year winner Colton Cowser.
There will also need to be a lot of thought put into whether there are personnel upgrades that can be made. With the likely departure of Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander, those are holes that will need to be filled somehow. I think one particular player who the team needs to decide whether they can do better with that roster spot is Ryan Mountcastle. If you think this team needs a quality veteran bat, it’s a lot easier to fit that guy on the roster if there’s no Mountcastle.
Patience is required because as far as roster movement is concerned, basically nothing is happening until after the World Series is over. We’ve still got three more rounds of the postseason to get through, which could last the entire rest of this month. There won’t even be any baseball today as everyone gets ready for the Division Series. We all might have to touch grass.
Around the blogO’sphere
The Orioles’ honeymoon is over, and their front office needs to find answers (The Athletic)
Britt Ghiroli has gone in harder than anyone else in the print media that I have seen. Something needs to get better around here.
The Orioles were swept again. How does Mike Elias change that? (The Baltimore Banner)
It’s the question everyone wants to know the answer to, and it won’t start being answered for a month, with the first part of its answer taking three months to play out through the offseason. Patience is tough.
Elias discusses coaching staff, payroll, future in end-of-season chat (Orioles.com)
There’s a lot more from Elias yesterday. One throughline here is that he’s not content to just try again doing it exactly the same way. As the sub-headline here says, “We need to get to a better position next year.” Yes.
Orioles leadership backs Adley Rutschman despite frustrating season: ‘He’s our guy’ (The Baltimore Sun)
No one has acknowledged any specific injury for Rutschman, including Elias here yesterday. He remains plenty confident in Adley heading into next year. Hopefully Rutschman’s play in April allows everyone else’s confidence to be quickly rebuilt.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1993, the sale of the Orioles to Peter Angelos’s ownership group was approved by the other owners in the American League.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2017 pitcher Alec Asher, 2016 outfielder Drew Stubbs, 1992-94 infielder Mark McLemore, and 1974-75 pitcher Dave Johnson (not that one). Today is Johnson’s 76th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: sculpter Giovanni Piranesi (1720), 19th president Rutherford B. Hayes (1822), painter Frederic Remington (1861), actor Buster Keaton (1895), and actress Dakota Johnson (1989).
On this day in history…
In 1363, warring Chinese rebel factions fought the Battle of Lake Poyang, believed to be one of history’s largest naval battles. The leader of the winning force, Zhu Yuanzhang, went on to overthrow the Yuan dynasty and found his own, Ming.
In 1636, a Swedish army scored a victory over a combined force from Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire in the Battle of Wittstock. The Thirty Years’ War went on for another 12 years after this battle.
In 1965, Pope Paul VI became the first pope to visit the Americas.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 4. Have a safe Friday.