For the second time this week, a high-ranking member of the Orioles’ front office has been let go. On Friday morning, the Orioles fired Brian Graham, their director of player development.
Graham, who had just completed his sixth season supervising the Orioles’ minor league operations, had worked for the team for 11 seasons. Between Dan Duquette’s dismissal as executive vice president on Oct. 3 and Mike Elias’ hiring as executive vice president and General manager two weeks ago, Graham had served as the team’s interim GM.
“Mike Elias told me this morning that I did a great job and he thanked me for [the] great job we did over the last couple of months, but that he needed to bring in his own people,” Graham wrote in a text message.
“I’m thankful to the Orioles organization and the Angelos family for the opportunities I was given. We did a great job in a lot of areas. There’s a lot of really good people in the organization, and working with Buck Showalter was a great experience. Hopefully something good is on the horizon and I hope nothing but the best for [the] Orioles.”
Earlier this week, Elias also dismissed Gary Rajsich, who had served as the team’s scouting director for the last seven years.
Elias continues to look for a manager to succeed Buck Showalter, who was fired the same day as Duquette.
He hired longtime aide Sig Mejdal on Nov. 21 to serve as his assistant GM for analytics.
When Duquette and Showalter were terminated, the team said that three officials remained under contract in the front office: Graham, Rajsich and Brady Anderson, the vice president of baseball operations. Only Anderson remains.
By 8 tonight, the team will have to make a decision on five arbitration-eligible players: Tim Beckham, Dylan Bundy, Mychal Givens, Caleb Joseph and Jonathan Villar. Bundy, Givens and Villar will be offered contracts. It’s uncertain if Beckham and Joseph will be.
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The Orioles performance over the last few years and especially this year have demonstrated the absolute need for a complete teardown and rebuild of this organization from top to bottom. I personally felt this was clear at the end of 2017, but we're here now. There's only one person remaining in the Warehouse that would prevent that teardown from being accomplished to totality, and the Orioles HOFer probably isn't going anywhere.
We'll see creatively.
I am surprised. Thought Brian Graham was a trusted insider.
BTW Rich, SERIOUS gaffe in paragraph 4: WHO was let go
Thank you, mlbbirdfan.
To me it will interesting to see if Brady,AKA, the mole hangs around. That could be a true "tell" if Elias has real control over this whole thing. He's great to have around for conditioning and such, but he's like the spy who came in from the cold! i'm just saying?
Wow, crazy!
I find it interesting that fans think Brady Anderson, the remaining upper level executive (as of 11:28 am today), is the litmus test for whether Mike TRULY has full autonomy. I wonder how managerial candidates feel about that. Would they be so eager to get the job that they would overlook it and agree to work with Brady, or be cautious given his reputation as a mole to ownership. Remember Dave Wallace, Dom Chiti, Matt Weiters complaining about Brady’s presence in the clubhouse and undermining field management to ownership.
I never (well, almost never) enjoy seeing someone lose a job, but its pretty clear that Elias needs to do a complete rebuild of the organization, both on and off the field, so this firing is not a surprise. As others have noted, if the housecleaning does not also include Brady, it will raise questions about whether Elias has 100% autonomy over baseball operations.
Birdman, Elias has 100 percent autonomy. If he thinks someone can be useful, he'll keep them. Otherwise, he won't.
MC, it’s in your hands.
I too thought that Brian Graham would be kept by any new regime brought in. While we have a long wait to see if Elias turns it around, it will clearly be his team that either succeeds or fails.
Looking forward to seeing if Beckham and Joseph receive tenders.
I thought Graham could be given a different position, but this quick dismissal surprised me, Cedar.
I can't stand it! What's the word on Beckham and Joseph???
They were non-tendered, jkneps. Writing something about it now. (Couldn't write last night because we had a planned blackout thanks to BGE!)
Is everybody ready for some tanking and a LOOOOONG rebuild? However difficult the task was in Houston they did not have the Red Sox and Yanks in their division. And the Rays and Jays both have top farm systems already.