Photo credit: Juan DeLeon - Icon Sportswire
The Mike Elias era has begun. Elias was named Orioles executive vice president and general manager on Friday. He will be introduced at a Monday press conference at Oriole Park.
Elias, 35, was chosen to lead the Orioles’ rebuild by executive vice president John Angelos and ownership representative Louis Angelos. He succeeds Dan Duquette, who was dismissed on Oct. 3rd.
In a statement, the Orioles said: “Elias will oversee all baseball operations for the club and have full autonomy to build his staff and make decisions on all baseball matters that he believes will make the Orioles successful on the field, entertaining to fans, and impactful in the community.”
A native of Alexandria, Va., Elias is a graduate of Yale, where he was a left-handed pitcher.
Elias will get to select a manager to succeed Buck Showalter, who also was dismissed on Oct. 3, and begin work on next season’s team and construction of a staff.
He has spent 12 seasons in Major League Baseball, the last seven with the Houston Astros. Most recently, he was assistant general manager, player acquisition.
When Elias joined the Astros in 2012, they had just completed the first of three consecutive 100-loss seasons. By 2015, they qualified for the postseason, and they won the World Series in 2017. This past season, they won 103 games, two more than in 2017, captured the AL West, but lost to the Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series.
According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Orioles have made Elias the highest-paid first-year general manager in history.
Other candidates interviewed by the Orioles included Ben Cherington, former Boston GM and current assistant GM in Toronto; former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti; MLB executives Tyrone Brooks and Peter Woodfork; and Philadelphia assistant general manager Ned Rice.
Elias, who supervised drafts for Houston that procured Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and Lance McCullers, will have the first choice in next June’s draft for the Orioles. He also has expertise in player development and scouting
He spent five seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals as a scout and manager of amateur scouting.
The news that Elias was the Orioles’ choice came late Tuesday night, but with the Angelos brothers at the MLB owners meetings and attending a hearing on the MASN rights, the announcement was delayed until Friday.
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Another thing to be thankful for.
In terms of, is he the best pick, unless you have a crystal ball it’s anyone’s guess. Certainly his credentials look solid. But, if he can’t convince creditable baseball people to sign on with him, that would make the task even more difficult. I hate that old man, PA, will still be
Met to say PA will still be off stage.
So happy they didn’t go with the retreads and jumped all in. After a season like we just witnessed nows the time to take a chance and turn the franchise upside down. Credit is due to ownership. What will be done with Brady Anderson should be interesting. Would he take an asst. GM role from a 36 year old?
Part of growing older, deqalt is having bosses significantly younger than you are.
Great credentials and has done great at drafting for Houston. Hope fans give him a chance like I have because he will turn Orioles around. But it will take some time, 115 losses is not going to 115 wins overnight. Now, who wants to walk with Elias. Because everyone knows WWE stands for... Just had to do that. Lol
An interesting choice, No. 1 fan.
This is genuinely exciting. The operative phrase in the Orioles' press release was "full autonomy." After losing 115 games, why wouldn't you cede 150 percent autonomy to a key member of Houston's brain trust? Break out the bubbly, fellow B'more sufferers.
It’s going to be an interesting time, bmorebirds.
Great hire, but time will tell. Does he have the autonomy to make his own decisions right or wrong. I hope the layers of dysfunction are a thing of the past. But let’s face it he was interviewing us just as much we were interviewing him. A wise young man, told me that! I wonder if he has the stones to reassign the Mole, aka Brady? That could be a tell!
I who hardly had anything good to ever say about this organization applaud the Angelos sons for this signing . It will take awhile to clean up the mess DD and Bucky create but we finally are on the right path I think.
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This young fella has a lot of work ahead of him. Can’t wait to see what he turns us into. Drafting Bobby Witt Jr will certainly be a great first step. Go O’s!
Maybe there’s a better player than Bobby Witt Jr., Caljr?