The Orioles have been eradicated from the postseason by the Royals Wednesday, sending them into offseason mode. Normal supervisor Mike Elias spoke to the members of the media Thursday to deal with varied subjects associated to the membership. Most notably, he mentioned that supervisor Brandon Hyde would return in 2025, although he was noncommittal about the remainder of the teaching employees. Moreover, he mentioned that he was “fairly assured” that payroll will likely be going up subsequent yr. Particulars have been relayed by Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner and Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com.
It was one other good season for Baltimore this summer time, in a way, as they gained 91 video games and made the playoffs for a second consecutive yr. It was additionally disappointing for a lot of followers, although. The O’s gained 101 video games in 2023 and had a seemingly infinite provide of younger expertise, which set expectations pretty excessive coming into 2024. The membership was robust for a lot of the 2024 season however limped to the end line with 10 fewer wins than the yr earlier than, settling for a wild-card berth. For a second straight yr, they have been rapidly swept out of the postseason.
The frustration will naturally result in some finger pointing, although it appears Elias isn’t putting blame at Hyde’s toes. It’s at all times powerful to discern whether or not a supervisor deserves credit score and/or blame for a group’s efficiency and there have been actually issues that have been past the skipper’s management this yr.
Rotation accidents have been a key storyline for the O’s through the marketing campaign as every of Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells every required UCL surgical procedure in June. The membership tried to deal with the rotation on the deadline by buying Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers. The Eflin pickup labored out nicely, however Rogers struggled after the jersey swap and was optioned right down to the minors. The rotation points have been additional compounded when Grayson Rodriguez hit the shelf with a lat harm in August, which ultimately ended his season. Some gamers additionally simply struggled because the season wore on, with Craig Kimbrel and Adley Rutschman being two distinguished examples.
Whereas Hyde’s contributions to the 2024 outcomes could be debated, it appears Elias and the franchise have determined {that a} new skipper gained’t be obligatory. The membership hasn’t been forthcoming about Hyde’s contractual standing. It was reported in April 2022 that Hyde was underneath contract past that season as a part of an extension that was quietly labored out in 2020, however with few particulars obtainable aside from that. He ultimately gained American League Supervisor of the Yr honors for the 2023 season and caught round for 2024. It’s unclear if that 2020 extension remains to be going or if the 2 sides have executed one other deal away from prying eyes, however it appears Hyde will likely be again within the dugout subsequent yr regardless.
Elias and his front-office group will likely be tasked with constructing a roster that provides Hyde an opportunity to have a greater end in 2025. There will likely be some notable subtractions, because the O’s are set to lose ace Corbin Burnes and slugger Anthony Santander to free company. The departure of Burnes will deprive them of a star who posted a 2.92 ERA over 32 begins, plus eight innings of one-run ball within the playoffs, whereas Santander’s exit takes a 44-homer bat out of the lineup.
The truth that Elias expects to have extra monetary assets to complement the roster is nice information, although it’s additionally not stunning. The Angelos household wasn’t investing a lot within the membership through the ultimate years of their reign. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, 2024 was the sixth straight yr through which the membership ran a backside 5 payroll.
New proprietor David Rubenstein’s buy of the membership was formally accepted by the league on the finish of March and it’s typically been anticipated that he would ramp up spending from these latest low factors. The aforementioned Eflin commerce was maybe a constructive omen in that regard, because the righty is owed $18M subsequent yr. As proven in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Kimbrel’s $13M one-year pact is the biggest deal given out since Elias took over as GM in November of 2018. Including $18M to subsequent yr’s finances, plus the roughly one third of Eflin’s $11M wage in 2024 that was nonetheless to be paid out, might have been a sign that Rubenstein had signed off on giving Elias extra spending energy.
That doesn’t essentially imply that Elias goes to exit and spend just like the proverbial drunken sailor, although.
“We’ll see what occurs,” the GM mentioned regarding the payroll query, per Jake Rill of MLB.com on X. “We’re going to be good about it. And if it doesn’t occur for some purpose, it’s not going to be as a result of the monetary help wasn’t there. It’s going to be as a result of the individuals operating this group thought it was the fitting factor to do from a lot of ranges on a case-by-case foundation. However I wish to reiterate that I don’t count on that to be the case.”
In the end, it could be one thing of a recent begin for Elias and his group. They’ve seemingly had little or no monetary assets to work with, which was positive for a lot of his tenure. He and the membership have been primarily centered on constructing a pipeline of younger prospects and have succeeded. Nearly each outlet has ranked them as having one of many high farm programs in recent times — if not the very high — which has allowed them to fill out their roster with younger expertise like Rutschman, Bradish, Rodriguez, Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, Jackson Holliday and plenty of extra.
Some have argued that Elias ought to have had extra willingness to commerce that younger expertise because the membership turned aggressive in recent times, notably for extra pitching depth that might have helped them overcome their harm woes this season, although maybe the uncertainty across the membership’s future payrolls led to some hesitation to surrender low-cost and controllable gamers.
How the brand new atmosphere will change the membership’s habits will likely be an attention-grabbing offseason storyline. The free-agent market will characteristic a lot of large names, with Burnes the highest pitcher whereas star place gamers like Juan Soto, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and others will likely be obtainable. Out of the blue splurging on one of many high names could be a shock however it ought to be doable for the O’s if the desire is there. Per Cot’s, the membership had a payroll as excessive as $164M earlier than their latest rebuilding interval. They have been solely at $93M in 2024 whereas RosterResource has them dedicated to simply $37M subsequent yr. Arbitration raises and a few membership choices will deliver that quantity up however there ought to be numerous powder dry if the membership decides to be aggressive.
The membership nonetheless has a reasonably robust place participant group, even with Santander set to depart, so pitching could be the apparent place to spend. Felix Bautista is anticipated to return after lacking 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure. That may bolster the bullpen, however additional reinforcements wouldn’t harm. The rotation with out Burnes might characteristic Eflin, Rodriguez and Dean Kremer. Younger pitchers like Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott might work their method into the combo, whereas Rogers might get again on monitor after his disappointing season. Bradish and Wells might get again into the combo by midseason, however Means is slated without spending a dime company.
It looks as if Albert Suarez will likely be an possibility as nicely. Although he has far lower than six years of service time, gamers who return from pitching in Japan or Korea typically get provisions of their new contracts that enable them to turn out to be free brokers no matter service time concerns. That doesn’t seem like the case with Suarez, though he pitched within the KBO in 2022 and 2023. Per Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Solar, Elias mentioned this summer time that the O’s would be able to keep him past 2024.
There are a selection of choices there however there’s nonetheless an argument for making an attempt to deliver again Burnes or one other proficient starter. Blake Snell is prone to decide out and be a part of Burnes as a former Cy Younger winner available on the market. Max Fried, Jack Flaherty, Yusei Kikuchi, Luis Severino and plenty of other notable names will likely be on the market as nicely. As lately as a yr in the past, the thought of connecting the Orioles to free brokers of that caliber would have been a stretch, however it’s going to seemingly be extra believable going ahead.
