Elias talks about the trade deadline and being on the buyer's side

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias is confident that his club can play deep into October in its present state. However, the front office has targeted areas of improvement.The sellers from the rebuild years are now buyers in first place.

“I think if we are going to make additional acquisition trades, I would bet heavily that they’re going to be on the pitching side of things,” Elias said this afternoon. “I think it’s no secret that that would be the areas of the team that, A, we could use more depth, or B, look for upgrades, so we’re working on that right now.

“This stuff, I don’t have total control over it. It’s a two-party transaction and there’s a big market out there happening right now, and we’re participating in that market. We’ll see what comes to it, but those are obviously the conversations that are first and foremost.”

They may be exclusive, with Elias downplaying the need for a left-handed hitting center fielder following injuries to Cedric Mullins and Aaron Hicks.

The club can’t set firm dates for their returns until they reach some milestones in their recoveries.

“I think the hope is that each of those guys will be able to play a large bit of August for us,” Elias said, “so we’ll just leave it at that for now.”

Elias was asked multiple times about the team’s ability to absorb salary at the deadline.

“We’ve had a lot of high-level discussions, plannings, scenarios, and our baseball operations group has the wherewithal from the CEO (John Angelos), partnership group, to make good baseball trades that could add to our payroll if we find them,” Elias said. “I’m not going to make what I think is a terrible trade and force it just so we can point to something, but we definitely have the flexibility to do that. I think that’s great, and we’re going to be considering opportunities.

“We have latitude to make baseball moves and possibly those are adding payroll relatively significantly, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to do it. I think the ball’s kind of in the court of the baseball ops department, which is great, and I think it’s a big testament to the management environment that we have here and how much trust this group’s gotten from partnership level, ownership level, John Angelos. But it’s up to us to kind of navigate this and we have to find a match with other teams, and they’re doing their things, too.”

What does a good baseball trade look like for a first-place team?

“I think anything I say here is going to be the sort of Pablum that you get from any baseball general manager,” Elias replied. “We’re trying to win, we’re in first place, it’s awesome. We want to make a deep playoff run, we want to get in the World Series. Whatever you want to call it, we want to do it. But unless we have information that the world is ending in November, a big part of my job is worrying about the overall health of the team over the next several years. So, you just try to balance all those things.

“We have tested methodologies that we’ve used over now three organizations to help us make those decisions. We’re applying those to weigh the opportunities that come along. They know those methods help us weigh the impact of an addition for the 2023 run, and the expense of that going out the door, and also how much we want to balance that against 2024 and 2025 and 2026. I’m just saying this is kind of the job. Ultimately we’re measured on the results of how all these things go over a several-year period and it’s really not easy to do or get it right, so we’re just trying to take all of that into account. But clearly, we’re going to want to stretch a little bit and try to help this really good 2023 team if we get within arm’s reach of something.”

The current 26-man roster is good enough to pursue a championship, Elias said, but he isn’t content to stand pat.

“The Dodgers are pretty good too, and they’re bringing some extra help in, and so obviously we’re looking at that,” Elias said. “But I think very clearly this team has revealed itself to be as capable as anyone in arguably all of baseball right now to make a playoff run. It seems like a flat landscape this year. We’re in the best division and we’re on the top of it right now, but everyone’s got, by a good margin, a winning record right now. So, we’re right there with anyone.”

Asked about keeping up with the Dodgers, Elias smiled and said, “If the Dodgers are who we’re worried about, we’re in pretty good shape at that point.”

The Orioles are keeping an eye on everybody – teams in the division, the American League and on the other side – as it pertains to forecasting where they might be headed.

There could be a sense of urgency to make strong improvements in 2023 because of the uncertainty of future years.

“I think everything that we do, we look at sort of probabilistically because we don’t know, and so, we do our best to estimate what this season’s looking like, what the rest of the season’s looking like, what next season’s looking like,” Elias said.

“I think with the position that our players have put us in right here and how well things are going so far and where we are, I think it’s fair to say if we get within reach of something, we’re going to reach for it a little bit to help this team. But we can’t set the minor league system on fire just because we’re in first place. So, that’s just our job to balance all that.”

Injecting postseason experience in the roster makes sense but isn’t a deal breaker. The Orioles can’t narrow their focus to that extreme.

“I think if we started pushing aside guys that don’t have a lot of playoff experience, it would really limit our options,” Elias said. “You obviously talk about it, but whether you’re going to pass on a trade that you like because the guy hasn’t pitched in the playoffs yet doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards.

“We’ve got a great back half of the bullpen but there’s a couple spots that were in flux. We’re hoping that (Shintaro) Fujinami kind of grabs one of those. Certainly, we’ve seen flashes of what that could look like in Philadelphia, and it’s an area that, any team can improve the middle part of their bullpen. But we’ve got the best closer (Félix Bautista) in the game right now, and relative to him, the middle spots are an area that we can look around for, and we’re doing that in addition to the Fujinami trade. But we’ll see where we’re at in the next four days.”

Elias isn’t sure whether the club will need to subtract from the 26-man roster rather than the farm system to make a trade.

“First of all, we’re wide open,” he said. “This is probably the largest breadth of conversations I’ve had. The last few years we’ve basically been sellers. Last year was a little bit of a mix and match but we ended up selling for the most part. The number and type of conversations were more narrow. This year, we’re talking to 29 teams and basically comparing notes up and down the whole spectrum of agendas and seeing what there is.

“We have no intent of subtracting from the 26-man roster. Obviously, this is a group that’s working really well together, that we’re happy with all these players, but it comes up in conversations and if that’s something that we need to consider to make the trade that we want to make, we’ll balance all that. I can’t rule it out.”

The downside of poking at the bonds built in the clubhouse also is a consideration. Selling last year while the Orioles were contending upset some players who wondered what message was being sent. Buying could provide a lift, but there's another side to it.

"We bring somebody in from the outside, somebody's got to go," Elias said. "We're only allowed to fit 26 guys in that room, so there's that to keep in mind. This group's really tight, it's been working really well together. There's excellent chemistry in this group right now. So, you've got to keep that in mind, too. But I think if we make the right kind of move, it will help this team and if the guys in that room like the move, I'm sure they'll be excited. But that clubhouse is a big asset for us. We've got as good of an environment as I think you'll find and I can't imagine that's not helping us win this year. And sort cultivating that and keeping an eye on that is something that Brandon (Hyde) and I have been doing for five years."

Managing the innings of the younger starters has become more of a conversation in the warehouse.

“I think we’re trying to be mindful of indicators that they might be exhibiting that that might be reason to pull back, other than just the academic concept of, ‘Oh hey, look how many innings this guy has thrown. Let’s back that off,’” Elias said. “There’s really not a ton of science there. We try to use common sense, we try to use our expertise. And also, I don’t know that a single member of our rotation right now wants to go leave the rotation in some way, shape or form. There’s that, too. They’re having the seasons of their lives, their competing, the team’s in first, they’ve got their whole careers ahead of them.

“Some of this is just what it is coming out of that two-year COVID schedule craziness. Sort of the unique circumstances that a lot of our starters had where they were hurt for a couple months last year. Basically everyone except (Kyle) Gibson and (Cole) Irvin spent a decent chunk on the IL last year, so they’re missing innings.”

John Means and Mychal Givens are in throwing programs and will appear in Florida Complex League box scores in early August. Means has set Sept. 1 as his target return date, but the Orioles don’t know what role he’ll handle.

“I think it’s going to depend on so much that I don’t have rights now, like who’s on our team how we’re doing, who’s healthy, how’s he looking, that we have no concept of that,” Elias said. “Obviously, he’s a starting pitcher from a career standpoint and a skill set standpoint, but the circumstances of the team and him in particular will drive that decision. But I do think that the early September marker is one to keep an eye out for with him as things stands right now. But as we saw last time, weird stuff happens and timelines can change, so we’ll take it day by day.”

Dillon Tate isn’t in a throwing program but is progressing toward one, according to Elias.

“We still have hopes of bringing him back before the end of the regular season,” Elias said.

Keegan Akin will pitch in the FLC and then Triple-A in early August.

Double-A Bowie put Jackson Holliday on the injured list due to illness.

Elias won’t rule out Holliday making his major league debut later this year but joked how he doesn’t rule out much. He preached taking it one step at a time, and added if Holliday climbs above Double-A “it would be borderline unprecedented.”

Austin Voth started yesterday with Norfolk, his second game on a rehab assignment that began in the FCL.

“We have a bit more of that to go in terms of making sure he feels good and his strength is there and that he’s recovering outing to outing and able to cover the amount of workload that he wants to and that he needs to,” Elias said. “We’re still in the midst of his Triple-A rehab.”

DL Hall remains in the FCL and will pitch two innings Saturday in his second appearance.

“He’s back, he’s healthy,” Elias said. “We’re just going to keep building, eventually get him out of Florida. I think the interesting part of the decision with DL Hall will be whether to build him all the way back up to four-plus innings like we would with a starting pitcher, or possibly see fit to truncate that, get him up and running as a relief option for the stretch. He knows that. That’s not something that’s been decided. And again, like with Means, a lot of it is going to be influenced by information that we get on the Orioles over the next few weeks.”

The fastball velocity is climbing since Hall reported to spring training with a lower-back injury, with his fastball in the mid-90s.

Elias said Norfolk shortstop Joey Ortiz will “come up again to help us.” He’s batting .338/.392/.562 in 55 games with the Tides.

“I think he’s going to have a long future as a starting shortstop, and here is the most likely place,” Elias said. “We’re thrilled that we have him right now kind of waiting in the wings.

"We love Joey Ortiz, we love having him as part of our future."

* This is my last post of the day. Steve Melewski is handling game coverage.