Elias on roster, rotation, payroll, Mateo, Bautista, Sánchez and more (O's acquire Luis Vázquez)

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias joined a group of players and local media this morning in volunteering at the Warehouse Collaborative, a space for Baltimore-based nonprofit organizations to share resources. Moving from station to station, Elias boxed and bagged donated items and books, assisted in building skateboards, tore tags off Orioles hoodies and shirts to be distributed.

Employees divided everyone into four groups and turned it into a contest, with the winning team posting the fastest times. Elias and Adley Rutschman left the facility with bragging rights.

Elias is eyeing much bigger victories down the road, but this was a nice start on Day 2 of the Birdland Caravan.

A 13-minute interview session followed with Elias, who confirmed that he isn’t done conducting roster business - or at least attempting it.

Asked whether he’s still targeting pitching, Elias said, “I think we’re targeting improvements to the team.”

“Obviously, we’re going to Sarasota soon,” he said. “Very excited about that. Really like where the team is at presently. I think we’ve got a great team in the American League East this year. It’s going to be in the thick of the division title chase, and it’ll be a very competitive, exciting season in a tough decision. So we like where we’re at. But we still have time on the clock before the offseason is over.

“There are still free agents. The trade market sometimes happens very late. I can’t forecast that or handicap it. There’s still those possibilities. It seems like there hasn’t been many trades, just in general, this offseason. Maybe there won’t be, but also maybe they’re just going to happen late. I don’t really know. But we’re working right now and we’ll continue to do that, maybe even past the opening of camp. But historically, we don’t sign guys too late into camp, so I guess at least until pitchers and catchers (report), we’re going to be working the offseason like we always do.”

Elias added Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano to the rotation and expressed confidence again today in the unit, which doesn’t indicate an unwillingness to bring in another starter. He’s still making and taking calls. There just isn't a sense of desperation.

“I think it’s really good. I think we have a lot of depth, a lot of options. I feel really secure,” he said.

“You always expect some level of injury, but if we don’t get anything kind of beyond the norm, I think we have good quality pitching to get us through the season, and we also have youth in the rotation and some of these guys are very apt to take a step forward, so I like the blend of experience, youth, depth, different types of guys, guys we can have in the minors. I think we have a really strong pitching staff in general, the bullpen too, going into the season. But we still have the opportunity to explore additions if we can find them, and we’ll be doing that the next couple weeks.”

Among other points made by Elias this morning:

* An expanded rotation still isn’t likely to happen until maybe later in the summer.

The Orioles aren’t concerned about Sugano adapting to a five-man rotation after pitching in Japan. They aren’t worried about the 41-year-old Morton handling a normal workload.

“The plan right now is to do five and they’re ready for that. Everybody is ready for that and on board with it,” Elias said.

“I think I said earlier, as we get into camp, if things start presenting themselves where it makes more sense to do a six, then we’ll be open to that. It’s not a decision we need to make until really close to Opening Day, like last couple of weeks of spring training I would think. But if you look at our schedule in April and May, there’s a lot of off-days, so I don’t know if it would be sensible to do a six-man if you don’t to, and right now we feel like we don’t have to. We’d rather have the extra bullpen guy.”

* Moving a starter to the bullpen is doable but difficult.

Albert Suárez, Cade Povich, Trevor Rogers and Chayce McDermott are counted among starter candidates who must wade through a crowd in order to win jobs.

One alternative, of course, is to work in relief. Only Suárez is out of minor-league options.  

“It’s possible,” Elias said. “I think health is going to determine a lot in camp. But if you just count up all the guys we project to be healthy right now, it’s a pretty full bullpen. So probably won’t happen, but there’s a lot of unknowns coming up.”

* Trading from the major league roster is one avenue to consummating a deal.

Prospects aren't the only names coming up in discussions, and especially for teams trying to win a championship rather than rebuild.

“I’ve had those conversations over the winter. Obviously, nothing’s happened, but we have those conversations constantly,” Elias said.

“We have so many conversations about things that never get close or come to fruition, and I just think the fact that we’re willing to talk about it means that we’d be willing to do it if the right trade came about. And as you get a more established, more talented major league team like we’ve had the last couple of years, you get extra players that you can trade and it’s probably a growing possibility over the next few years.”

* The new ownership group is making it easier for Elias to operate.

The level of spending isn’t astronomical. It isn’t Dodger-like. But the Orioles have raised their payroll to around $156 million, ranking 15^th in the majors.

“I think we’ve elevated the payroll continuously since the beginning of the rebuild and we’ve talked about it all along, and obviously that was before David Rubenstein and his group bought the team,” Elias said. “But after they purchased it, it certainly, like I’ve said, kind of expanded our options in a great way. He and his group are really putting my department in a position where we can run the team the way that we feel is optimal, and so we’re pursuing that.

“They’ve really liberated us to do our jobs and the payroll is up right now. But like I said when it was lower, it doesn’t really count for anything. It’s the wins and losses that we care about. So that’s nice, but it’s not really something that we talk about a lot or pay a lot of attention to.

“I think we’ve had the ability this offseason to go out and plug our needs on the roster, and that’s a really nice thing. And I credit our owners for making it possible. I think it’s something that I think we can continue to look forward to.”

* And speaking of the Dodgers and their estimated payroll of around $380 million …

“I’m glad that they’re in the National League West,” Elias said. “They’re a great, great, great organization. They’re obviously kind of at the top of their game right now. (Shohei) Ohtani is a once-in-a-century baseball player. They have him. They’re very well run all the way around, so hopefully that will be our problem in the World Series. But kudos to them.”

* There wasn’t much detail provided in talks to re-sign Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander.

Elias would be a little more forthcoming if those players stayed in Baltimore. He’s more reluctant to do so after they’re gone.

It’s clear, however, that the Orioles didn’t hold open the door for them to leave.

“I don’t like to tit for tat on negotiations that didn’t result in deals, so I don’t know that I really wanna put out details about it. But we were very active and we really enjoyed having those players. Ultimately they ended up elsewhere and we made other moves. But I think just in general we were and are very aggressive this offseason,” Elias said.

“We’ve got a great team, we’ve got an eager and a very robust new ownership group and we were out there and we got a lot of deals done and we’re maybe trying to do more.”

* Injury updates are on hold.

The first day of spring training usually brings a roll call of wounded players.

“Not to the level that I would get into here,” Elias said. “I traditionally kind of forecast anybody who’s off or on an abnormal schedule when we get down to Sarasota, so I’ll probably do that in a couple of weeks.”

* Jorge Mateo isn’t a full-go at the start of camp, as we expected.

Mateo underwent surgery on his dislocated elbow in August. He avoided an arbitration hearing but isn’t assured of being ready for Opening Day.

“He’s doing well from his recovery,” Elias said. “You’ll see him in spring training. He’s not going to be a hundred percent citizen of spring training, but he’ll be ramping up and
we’ll be able to address whether or not he’s going to break for exact Opening Day a little bit later.

“It’s possible, but not ready to sort of make that forecast right now. But he’s doing really well. Everyone that’s had a surgery, their medical recoveries are going very smoothly, knock on wood.”

* Félix Bautista isn’t a full-go at the start of camp, but he’s also progressing.

Bautista underwent ligament-reconstructive surgery in his elbow in October 2023. He’s throwing bullpens but won’t experience a normal spring training from the start.

“There's going to be a ramp involved that is reflective of the fact that he's coming off Tommy John, so maybe a different, slower ramp,” Elias said. “We’re going to be careful with him and if it needs to be a slow ramp, if he needs extra time, whatever he needs, we’re going to be prioritizing that rather than bum-rushing him to get him out there. But he’s doing very well.” 

* New backup catcher Gary Sánchez will get the James McCann treatment.

Sánchez’s workload isn’t expected to be much lighter than the one McCann handled with the Orioles. He made only 27 starts behind the plate with the Brewers last season, but isn’t paid $8.5 million this year to be an extreme part-timer.

“I think he's gonna be a full-blown No. 2 catcher,” Elias said.

“He's also a really good hitter for a catcher, especially against left-handed pitching. I imagine we'll see him DHing some games if he's not catching. I expect him to be a huge part of the team.”

* This is an important season for Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad.

Any growing pains are expected to subside. The Orioles need it to be true.

“I think we’re counting on them to settle in,” Elias said. “These guys were great prospects and great minor league players and they have great swings. They just saw major league baseball and major league pitching for the first time on a continual basis and it’s not abnormal, especially now, to see young prospects come up and have kind of early results that those guys did. But they’ve been working hard all winter.

“Some of them are here, they look great. I’m really hopeful those guys are gonna take a step forward and have good seasons, and we’re projecting them to be big parts of our teams.”

Note: A few hours after telling the local media that he was “targeting improvements to the team,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias completed a deal for infielder Luis Vázquez.

Vázquez was acquired from the Cubs this afternoon for cash considerations. To make room on the 40-man roster, corner infielder Emmanual Rivera was designated for assignment.

The Orioles avoided an arbitration hearing with Rivera by signing him for $1 million back in November.

Vázquez, 25, appeared in 11 games with the Cubs this summer as a rookie and went 1-for-12 with six strikeouts. He hit .263/.347/.432 in 64 games with Triple-A Iowa.

The Cubs selected Vázquez in the 14^th round of the 2017 draft out of Puerto Rico, and they designated him for assignment this week after signing Jon Berti. He can play anywhere in the infield.

Vázquez has two minor league options. Rivera has none, and a crowded infield appeared to limit his chances of making the club without an injury.