Mike Elias thinks he will still be running the Orioles in 2027, but that may not be wise

After back-to-back disappointing seasons, it could be time for a change in leadership in Baltimore. They made the first change a team usually does when the ship starts to sink last season, when they parted ways with longtime manager Brandon Hyde after the team's 15-28 start. Usually, after the manager gets fired, the top baseball official is next to go if the team continues to underperform; that's where the Baltimore Orioles find themselves now.

Mike Elias has been in charge since November 2018. He joined the organization from Houston, where he was the GM under Jeff Luhnow from 2016 to 2018. Elias was brought in to start a rebuild following the departure of Dan Duquette. It's hard to look back over the first five years of Elias' tenure and say he was unsuccessful.

It took Baltimore five seasons under Elias' tenure to make the playoffs, which is not bad by any means. Elias completely rebuilt the farm system and ushered in a new core. That's when the problems started popping up.

Mike Elias is just not the guy that is going to get the Orioles over the hump

It started to become more apparent that, while Elias was good at drafting and developing prospects, his ability to supplement the major league roster via free agency was lacking. While he went out and made the splash trade for Corbin Burnes, that was using prospects that he had developed. In 2024, they still made it back to the playoffs, but this time as a wild card team. The following offseason, their big splash pickup was Tyler O'Neill. It took until last offseason for Elias to finally supplement the roster with a splash free agent, Pete Alonso, but it might be too little, too late.

Elias believes he will still be running the team next season; he said so himself. When asked by reporters if he believes he is part of the Orioles' long-term plans, he responded, "That’s my assumption." Of course, he's going to say that. It wouldn't be a good look to not have confidence in his own job, but he probably shouldn't

The Orioles already went through the rebuild. This is the point where they should be having sustained success. They should have built on their back-to-back playoff appearances and made the necessary changes to go further, make the ALCS, or even the World Series. Instead, they took a step back and ended up trading away Adley Rutschman, one of the core pieces of the rebuild.

Elias did his job; he rebuilt the team into a playoff contender, but he seems to lack the ability to push the team over the top. Gunnar Henderson has two years left of team control, and other key players also have dwindling team control. Now is the time for ownership to find the right person to push the team over the top, not stick by Elias and head into another rebuild.

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