Baltimore Orioles: Learning From the Past, Looking Toward the Future

The Great Rebuild (2019 ~ *2022*)

Of the many weaknesses in the organization under Duquette’s leadership, the most obvious ones were poor player development programs, limited investment in the international talent pool, and almost no use of advanced analytics for the front office.

Louis and John Angelos, the new faces of Orioles’ ownership and sons of Peter Angelos, planned to fix that by emulating the best teams around the league. At the end of their search, they hired Mike Elias, a member of the Houston Astros organization that is known for its heavy focus on and success with analytics.

After Mike Elias settled in, he hired Brandon Hyde as the Orioles’ new manager, formerly a bench coach for the Chicago Cubs. Also worth noting, Elias hired a former colleague of his (who is also a former NASA engineer), Sig Mejdal, to lead the analytics department of the front office.

As 2019 marked the first full year of the rebuild, the team was doing just that. Most of the year was spent picking up the broken pieces left behind and trying to field a winning team. Hyde faired well considering the circumstances, but the Orioles still finished with over 100 losses.

One positive over the last year is the refueled farm system with many prospects originating from the 2018 firesale as well as Elias trading Andrew Cashner, Dylan Bundy and Jonathan Villar for a pack of prospects.

And as seen so far, Elias has done an exceptional job at finding hidden talent around the league like Hanser Alberto, Renato Núñez, Rio Ruiz, Pedro Severino, Dwight Smith Jr., and Asher Wojciechowski. We also cannot forget to mention acquiring Adley Rutschman with the number one overall pick in the 2019 draft who likely projects as a Joe Mauer type caliber player.

It is an exciting time for Birdland as the team is slowly building a pipeline of young talent that will create sustainable success. The keyword here is sustainable. Unlike Duqueutte, Elias wants to have success for the long term and so far, he has kept his promise to follow that plan.

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We do not know what is in store for the Baltimore Orioles the next few years, but with a wave of new prospects approaching the big leagues winning seasons might be sooner than expected.

Do not get your hopes up though because I predict we will not see a playoff contending team for at least a few more years. The organizational talent was so thin before Elias arrived that he wants to build it from the ground up and that takes years.

New Age Baltimore (*2023 ~ ???*)

By the 2023 season, I hope to see an Orioles team loaded with talent top to bottom and still a number of prospects growing at the lower levels. I think this is a reasonable year to expect the team to be ready for the playoffs mainly because Chris Davis’ contract ends after 2022.

Sure, he may be off the team before then, but I like to think of 2023 as the first year the Orioles can splurge big money into contracts for the first time since that horrendous deal. Hopefully the money will be better spent the next time around.

With Elias’ strong reputation and his honest and transparent approach to build an organization full of young talent, I believe in his strategy and in the future of the Baltimore Orioles.