Chicago – General Manager Mike Elias knows how Oriols fans must have felt when the team completes a trade deadline sale, nine of the major league players were approved in July. The remaining groups include popularists such as Cedric Mullins, Ryan O'Hern, Ramon Laureano.
This is not the 2025 season after the playoffs and playoffs in the past two years. Elias realized this and apologized for it on Friday.
“We’re sorry 2025 is gone,” Erias said. “A lot of things have to go wrong. We’re solving this problem. Part of it is the talent in the organization doing the right thing before the deadline. We’ve injected tremendous talent into the organization before the draft and deadline. This will benefit us briefly, but in the long run, but also need to be done well, and we’ve executed very well in these constraints.”
At first glance, the Orioles' moves in recent weeks, especially on Thursday, don't seem to make the 2026 team better. Of the 15 potential clients obtained in the transaction, only one person has only one in Triple-A. Eight of them are '24 draft picks. Until 2027, '28 or later, many talent plans to arrive in the major leagues.
But Elias stressed that the trade deadline was his intention to return to the battle in 2026.
“If the rewards will exceed proportional circumstances, it’s a possibility, and we feel it is,” Erias said. “If you’re going to the market and say, ‘I just want players ready in 2025 or 2026,’ first, you compete with the teams you essentially deal with and worry about their major league depth, so they don’t want these players to offer easily.
“Secondly, you will get less talent and less value to reward those ranges.”
Elias believes he reselled the farm system and built the Orioles for the ongoing long-term success, which is his goal since he arrived in November 2018. Despite his 25 years of achievement, this is still his goal, which comes from a combination of injury disorders and overall poor performance.
The people surrounding Elias in the organization still believe he can get the team on track.
“I'm not a scout, nor an analyst, so I don't know they brought it back, but I do believe Mike Elias,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino. “I believe Mike Elias and our front desk can get talent from other teams. Mike is really good at it. When they do these deals, I'm 100% confident in what they bring.”
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However, if the Orioles want to compete in 2026, they will need to fill the big holes on the roster. Their bullpen is exhausted by trades and other key positions – rotations, midfields, etc. – no longer has too much depth or stellar power.
Receiver Adley Rutschman, shortstop Gunnar Henderson, infielder Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday and outfielder Colton Cowser, there is a strong core and more top prospects. But Baltimore needs to find the right complementary work.
“We have to take good action,” Erias said. “You look at the league, there are 30 good teams. It's a zero-sum game, which means someone wins, someone loses. Everyone is there to win, and you need to move better than the next guy.
“So we're trying to be as smart as possible. We have a few months to plan for 2026 and we're going to take a moment to look at the landscape, find out Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and try to execute it.”
Overall, the Orioles’ goal is clear: move forward from trade deadlines, learn from the mistakes (and misfortunes) that bring them here and make sure that they don’t happen again, especially in 2026.
“We are all disappointed with where we are,” Erias said. “But there are a lot of determination that doesn’t happen again.”