Adam Jones on criticism O's got over trade deadline moves

Winning five in a row and 11 of 16 games was not going to undo what two-plus months of poor baseball brought about: a losing record for the Orioles. They have been an under .500 team every day since June 30.

But losing last night by a 7-5 score to the Tigers is also not going to wash away the turnaround that the Orioles started to make about two weeks ago.

But the team and its management have gotten some criticism for not trading off key players at the non-waiver trade deadline. They are pushing for the playoffs and not rushing to rebuild their roster, or restock the farm system, even with key players due to be free agents by the end of the 2018 season.

In a pregame interview yesterday, center fielder Adam Jones, an Oriole since 2008, said he has read and heard the criticism.

"I always understand criticism," Jones said. "If you lose, people will say something bad. If we win, something good. There is no gray area. That is exactly how it should be.

"People invest their time, money and emotions in this. We do, too. We invest a lot more time than people may understand and are aware and spend a lot of time away from our families, more than a normal job. Trust us, we understand everything that is going on, in the clubhouse and on the field."

But Jones strongly supported the decisions made by executive vice president Dan Duquette to add players like pitcher Jeremy Hellickson and infielder Tim Beckham.

"I think it is great that Dan said, 'We're in it,' " Jones said. "I've watched opinions through social media. A lot of people said we're out of it and should rebuild. The word 'rebuild' is not in my vocabulary. Just the fact that I'm older. Nothing makes me happy about rebuilding. I was the rebuild part of it. Myself, (Chris) Tillman, we got J.J. (Hardy) via a trade. We did the rebuild stage and now it's time to take that a step further."

The Orioles started this year with baseball's best record when they were 22-10. But then they went 20-39 over two months. That stretch culminated with them being swept by the Cubs at Oriole Park to begin the second half and their record was 42-49 on July 16. They are 11-6 since that date to get to 53-55.

Jones said he has remained confident in the team through all of that.

"I'm an optimistic person," he said. "I've overcome my own personal obstacles. I've seen what hard work and giving it your all can do. I've been here for a while. I've seen a lot of changes in this clubhouse from the very same locker. I've seen everybody in this clubhouse move lockers but me. I've seen winning and I've seen losing, and winning is awesome.

"I think we have the guys here to do it. We have the right coaching staff to push us. They want to win as bad as we do and show up every day ready to go. Always smiling, always energetic. When the chain has those strong links, good things can happen."

What about some national criticism saying the Orioles missed a big chance to restock their farm system at the trade deadline?

"That is the nature of the game," Jones said. "But I'm a player and not in the front office. But maybe in x-amount of years I could be an exec and face those criticisms. But once it works out in the favor that you believe in, people will say, 'Oh.'

"At the end of the day, I've seen this organization get the best out of guys. We know Hellickson is a free agent (after this season), but we got Beckham for this year plus three more years. That's a solid trade. I know we gave up a young, promising righty (pitcher Tobias Myers). But we got a guy that is making an impact in the majors right now.

"I've read stats that one out every five high-profile prospects traded actually work out. I've seen high-profile prospects traded and not pan out as projected. We have a good group of guys that have the same goal and that means good things can happen."