Elias on importance of draft preparation while unsure of length

The Orioles are stuck in a sports holding pattern during the coronavirus pandemic, unable to play games but staying busy on other fronts. Only the rosters are frozen. Not the members of the organization.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias pointed out in yesterday's Zoom video conference with local media that the Orioles are prepping for the First-Year Player Draft while unsure of the total number of rounds. Could be five, could be more. Won't be less.

The bonus for players passed over in the draft, whatever its length, will be capped at $20,000 and could prompt many of them to re-enter. It won't resemble a free agent frenzy.

"So that will probably eliminate the use of that strategy," Elias said.

"We feel like we do a pretty good job late in the draft historically, kind of our group and our approach with some late picks, so we'll be missing out on those opportunities, but with everything that's going on, from the Orioles standpoint, I'm personally happy and relieved that we're going to maintain our high picks. Those opportunities will still be available to the club.

"If you look at it with the draft order right now, we've got four picks in the top 75, which is a lot, and we've got three in the top 40, and then obviously we have the second overall pick. So that's a huge draft. If that would be taken away from us, that would've been quite a blow. I'll take that. I think given the circumstances, even a shortened draft is going to be a tall order to prepare for, so we'll just focus on doing a great job with those high picks."

The wise approach is to prepare as if the draft will go the full 40 rounds and recognize the potential benefits beyond this summer. It won't be wasted effort and energy.

"We want to know every player that's out there," Elias said. "If that information is not used in 2020, it will still be useful for us in 2021, so we want to do the work now. The guys have done work and we're now talking through it and organizing all that info, so we're going to have a full draft board prepared and at some point before the draft I'm sure we'll know exactly how many rounds we're going to have, so we'll whittle it down."

Elias is in communication with other executives in the league about ways that the season could begin, including the use of spring complexes. He's aware of discussions held within the Major League Baseball Players Association. But there can't be any real action taken while the sport is shut down.

"The problem is, we just can't make a lot of decisions just because we don't know what the circumstances are and that's totally to be expected right now," he said.

"Well before we get to sports, there are a lot of other things that need to be decided, so we're all kind of game-planning speculatively. The only thing we really know is that we're going to have a draft and so we can prepare for that with some certainty because of that, but in terms of what and when Major and Minor League Baseball looks like, it's just too early to plan."

The development of prospects is such an important component of the rebuild process, and the Orioles must find ways to create innings and at-bats during the layoff and in a shortened season.

"It's something that we're worried about for these kids," Elias said. "We're all in the same boat if the minor league players miss substantial or a total portion of the season this year. Every organization will be impacted equally. But with the way the pitching is handled nowadays, it will present some challenges for when baseball does come back that you've got to worry about guys going from a very small number of innings to a more normal number of innings and I just don't think we're there yet to start coming up with solutions to that.

"Once we know how much baseball we're going to play this year, we'll start figuring it out at that point, but right now our guys are doing the best they can to stay in shape on their own. The important thing right now is that they adhere to public health guidelines. It's tough to keep your full training regimen going when you're a professional athlete, but our strength and training staffs are in touch with these guys. We're coming up with solutions so that they can work out properly and keep their arms loose.

"Some of our guys are throwing into nets, if they have to, in their backyard and the hitters are hitting off tees and machines and we're doing the best we can. But these are all challenges that everyone is going to have to navigate once we have more specific information about when we're coming back."

Minor league assignments could be impacted by a truncated season. Players may not start out or move up to an affiliate as planned prior to the shutdown.

"It's one of the big unknowns," Elias said. "I'm speculating anytime I talk about any of this, because none of us really know what's going to happen. But I would think that if we start playing this year, it may be a scenario where our entire organization is not ready to start playing all at once and that does affect kind of the timeline we're used to having. So I think between adjustments to roster size or having like a taxi squad, there's going to have to be some type of adjustment made there.

"It's definitely something that's crossed my mind, but again, we're so far from being able to address specific issues, but there will be that type of dynamic up and down the organization for sure."

Elias is asked all the time about an ideal number of games that must be played to make the season credible. He doesn't have a minimum in mind.

"I know we're hoping to play as much as possible," he said. "I think we will play as much as we possibly can and if it's a very short season, ... this season is going to be way different than anything that's ever happened in the history of the game one way or the other, no matter how many games we play.

"I'm hoping that we play whatever we can play and probably won't confine ourselves to some arbitrary numbers."

Elias must prepare for the possibility of the season, but he's also uncomfortable with placing too much emphasis on it, given what's happening in the world. He doesn't want anyone in the organization to come across as insensitive or with misplaced priorities.

"We are cognizant of the reason this is taking place in the first place and it's a lot bigger than sports," he said. "If that happens, if that's ultimately the outcome, there's going to be other things to worry about, but we're trying to stay prepared and keep our players prepared under these extreme circumstances where they can't really go out and interact with a whole bunch of people in public and that they don't have access to the facilities that they're used to. In fact, most don't. And especially if you're a pitcher, you don't know when you're going to be asked to pitch off a mound again against a hitter and how many innings you're expecting to throw, so it's totally uncharted territory. We're having to hedge against a whole number of scenarios and that's tough to do.

"If we end up not playing at all, which none of us want or expect, there's not much you can do to prepare for that. So we're just trying to keep the mindset of, we're going to play, it's going to happen and we need to stay at the ready for when we're ready to ramp back up."