Mike Elias' subtle jab at Orioles slugger Tyler O'Neill should serve as motivation

Pete Alonso has been grabbing headlines this spring training for all the right reasons. He homered in his first two games, and the media covering camp have reported that he's been vocal and active, helping many of the Baltimore Orioles' young players, prospects, and non-roster invitees. Mike Elias is clearly feeling pretty good about his big offseason acquisition and in a recent Ken Rosenthal article in The Athletic, he gave multiple quotes about what Alonso has meant to the O's so far. Included among those quotes was one that may have been a slight dig at last offseason's big addition, Tyler O'Neill.

Here's the quote: “Looking back at the last couple of years, I think for our young position-player group, it would have been helpful for them to have somebody accomplished from outside the organization, who wasn’t part of our rebuild, wasn’t an Orioles draft pick, wasn’t an Orioles development story, come in and just absorb a lot of the attention on the team, speak for the team,”

Mike Elias highlighted the lack of external veteran presence while conveniently ignoring the external veteran the Orioles paid last offseason

It's likely Elias didn't intend this quote to be a shot at O'Neill, but it's hard not to read it that way. O'Neill is almost exactly the kind of player Elias describes in the quote. He came from an outside organization, he is accomplished (multiple Gold Gloves and a top-10 MVP finish), he wasn't part of the rebuild, he wasn't an Orioles draft pick, he wasn't an Orioles development story. The only difference is that he didn't come in and absorb a lot of the attention, and he wasn't helpful to the Orioles' core.

In short, Elias basically described O'Neill and then said "it would have been nice to have someone like that on the team."

There are two possible reads of this quote from O'Neill's perspective. Either when Elias never thought O'Neill had what it took to be a veteran leader, or Elias did think that O'Neill had what it took to be a veteran leader, and then O'Neill failed so badly at the veteran leadership role that they had to sign a different veteran to a massive contract to actually get the job done. Either way, it's a tough one.

It would be great for the Orioles if O'Neill took this comment and many of the comments that fans have been circulating about him being a disaster signing, for the Orioles, and used it as fuel to turn in a career year. O'Neill at his best is well worth a three-year $50 million dollar contract, the issue with him is that he is so rarely at his best, and last season it could be argued he was at his worst.

All it would take is one lightning-in-a-bottle season where O'Neill stays healthy for 140 games and hits 30+ bombs for his contract to be well worth it.