Baltimore Orioles: Three takeaways from the Mike Elias introduction

On Monday morning, the Baltimore Orioles officially introduced Mike Elias as their new executive vice president and general manager. While Elias provided a bunch of stock answers during the presser, we can still take good information from it

We didn’t expect new head of baseball operations Mike Elias, or Baltimore Orioles executives John and Louis Angelos, to divulge any pertinent information in their introductory press conference on Monday morning. But there were several key things we can focus on as the Orioles head further into the offseason.

The first of which being that this won’t be an immediate turnaround. Elias said early on in the conference that “it’s a process that doesn’t have shortcuts, but it’s a process that works and it’s a process that is worth it”. Almost all of the immediate feedback on this hire has been positive; most everyone in Birdland feels good about the Orioles bringing Elias aboard.

But what’s to be determined is how long the fanbase will put up with the Orioles being a bad baseball team before they start complaining about the process. Will Orioles fans be receptive to a few more seasons like the last two? We don’t have much of a choice at this point; the Orioles will be a bad baseball team the next few years regardless of who’s in charge.

The Orioles rebuild is going to take time. The major league roster is one of the worst in baseball and the farm system isn’t the best either. However, Elias seems to be up on at least a few of the prospects in the system, saying, “There are a lot of good players here and there are more coming. As a scouting director, I’m familiar with a lot of the players in the minor league system. There are some future stars in the system, there are some really good pitchers, and there’s more than enough here to work with”.

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The Orioles do have some talent in the system but there’s a lot of work to be done, which comes back to player development. The second biggest takeaway is that under Elias, the Orioles will attempt to build out a better, more competent analytics department in Baltimore. Elias said of the subject, “the analytics portion of it is not something that’s optional in today’s game…the trick is how you incorporate it into your decision making and into your baseball practices”.

The Orioles have had one of the smallest analytics and research and development staffs in MLB for years, something that’s likely to change under Elias. We saw examples of how impactful good information can be earlier this year after the O’s traded everyone at the deadline; Zach Britton specifically, among others, commented about how much more information was provided to him once he got to New York. And we saw Britton and Kevin Gausman specifically have more success once they left Baltimore.

Like Elias said, it’s not just about collecting the data but knowing how to apply it to create advantages for your players and your team. Utilizing analytics to implement better baseball practices is absolutely integral for success in 2018. There’s talent in the system, sure. But if the Orioles aren’t able to develop that talent in house, they’ll never build a sustainable system and they’ll likely never be successful.

And while developing the talent you have is important, so is identifying and acquiring it. The Orioles have notoriously avoided the international market as a means of acquiring prospects, and they haven’t done the best job in the amateur draft.

Elias will aim to change that. Of the international market, Elias said,

"“It’s very important; in this day and age in baseball, you need to tap into every available avenue for acquiring talent. There are so many stars coming out of the international market, particularly in Latin America, that it is essential to attack that market smartly and correctly. I can tell you that we will be making additions to our international operation over the near term.But I think part of the Angelos family’s attraction to me and this job is I was a sitting international scouting director. I have current knowledge of the players that are out there and have strong relationships with all of the agents in that market. I can hit the ground running. It’s a matter of picking up the phone at this point to get us going. We will be attacking that market in better ways as soon as possible.”"

Elias not only spoke of how they will improve the Orioles international scouting presence, but also how they will try to build a better farm system from the ground up. Elias said “We’ll use all the information available to us and combine it in a way that yields to the best possible decisions….If we adhere to our process, we won’t make every pick perfect, but over time, the results will be better than the competition”.

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The Orioles don’t need to be perfect, but they need to be better and Elias should help with that. The O’s have a long way to go if they want to become a successful franchise again, but they seem to be on the right track. That’s all we’re asking for at the moment; smart baseball decisions.

Elias wouldn’t speak to the lingering Brady Anderson issue, nor would he comment about any potential managerial candidates or any additional front office hires, including Sig Mejdal specifically. But the Orioles will definitely be in a better place if Elias is able to implement his ideas and processes into the organization.