Mike Elias post deadline promises about the Orioles' future ring hollower than ever

Mike Elias has sold at the trade deadline in six of his eight seasons as the GM of the Baltimore Orioles. He has traded away the Orioles' only All-Star in three of the last five seasons. Every time he has sold at the deadline, his message to the fans through the media has been a promise that, thanks to the difficult decisions he made that day, the Orioles now had a brighter future.

After the 2022 deadline, when the Orioles sold despite being just a couple of games out of the playoffs, Elias famously said that it was "liftoff" from there. As disappointing as selling at that deadline was with the Orioles' stacked farm system, it did feel like the future was bright. Four years and zero playoff wins later, the Orioles just traded away the face of Elias' first rebuild, Adley Rutschman. Today, when Elias met with the media, he once again made the promise of a brighter future. Having broken that promise already, those words ring hollow and provide comfort to nobody.

Elias spewed out many variations of "better days are ahead," but the one that caught most Orioles fans' eyes was a clear remix of his liftoff comment. Cleverly worded so that it couldn't be so easily thrown in his face the way "liftoff" routinely was over the last four years. "The future is strong, and I think it starts right now."

Mike Elias wishes everyone would just forget the last eight years of Orioles baseball

Wouldn't that be nice. Certainly, Elias would like to have the slate wiped clean and get a fresh start with the full backing of a fanbase. This quote is a plea. It says, “Please don't judge me for the last eight years”; let's start over and keep track of the wins and losses starting next year.

It's like playing a round of golf with a friend who, for the first nine holes, shoots terribly and then, on hole 10, they drive the green and turn to you and say, "Should we keep score on the back nine?" No! The whole round counts. The missed putts count, the bunkers you landed in count, everything counts.

That's the way it is with Elias. The last eight years cannot be waved away just by saying, "the future starts now." If the Orioles were to fire Mike Elias and replace him with a new GM, that person could get away with saying the future starts now. Elias and his near decade of futility do not get a reset. His rebuild failed. The whole way, he was arrogant and took teams, players, and other executives for granted, and now the whole world can see your failure laid bare.

Trading Adley Rutschman is the most the Orioles will be in the headlines all year. Baseball fans who only think about the Orioles once every few months or so saw that trade go through, and their only thought was "wow, the Orioles messed up that rebuild." Anyone plugged into baseball enough to know Mike Elias' name now associates him with the Orioles' failed rebuild; he is synonymous with failure.

What is frustrating is that the Orioles do have a lot of talent on their Major League team, and after having done these trades, their farm system is once again very strong. Unfortunately, as long as Mike Elias is the one building the team, nobody should have any faith that the Orioles will be able to take all of this talent and turn it into a winning team. The future is, in fact, strong, but it starts when the Orioles fire Mike Elias.

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