Elias explains reasoning behind Baker trade

The upcoming amateur draft is doing more than allowing the Orioles to restock the farm system.

It’s also influencing trades.

The Orioles sent high-leverage reliever Bryan Baker to the Rays this morning for a Competitive Balance Round A pick, the 37^th overall in the draft. They parted ways with a pitcher under team control through the 2028 season, though out of minor league options, in exchange for a selection that won’t make an impact for at least a couple of years.

Doing so comes across as an indication that the Orioles are punting on 2025 while 10 games below .500 today and needing to pass seven teams to reach the last Wild Card. But it’s a little more complicated than surface observations.

“I think it’s a step in that direction,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. “I mean, there’s no way around that.”

And then, there's more.

“The timing of the draft and when you have draft picks involved in the trades kind of frontloads these decisions, and it’s earlier than my comfort level. But we thought it was a really good return and a good trade for everyone, so we did it,” Elias continued.

“This team is playing much, much better since the beginning of the season, and I think we’ve been playing at a playoff clip for a while and the team’s looking more and more like it should and like itself, and I think they’re going to continue to play well, really well. We’re not relenting or taking our foot off the gas pedal. I think this team’s moving in a good direction out on the field, and we’re gonna have guys getting healthy and coming up to help the team. But right now this is the trade that we wanted to make, and sometimes this job, it’s a balancing act and you’ve got to do things that aren’t perfectly in one direction or another.”

Baker grew into one of the most important relievers on the club. He had a 3.52 ERA and 1.096 WHIP in a team-leading 42 appearances this season, and that includes the pair of two-run homers surrendered Tuesday without retiring a Mets batter.

“Very proud of what Bryan did here,” Elias said. “This is a guy who was a waiver claim and kind of fought his way onto the major league team. Underwent a lot of great development with our pitching department, using our analytics tools and the work that our pitching coaches did and made himself into a premium reliever. And Tampa had their eye on him and made what we felt was a very direct and aggressive offer, and we viewed it as an opportunity.

“We’re sad to see Bryan go. This guy was a warrior here and had some big, big moments. A lot of passion. I wish him very well going forward, but it’s a move that we felt like was in the best interest of the organization overall.”

Teammates came to Baker’s locker and hugged him after receiving the news.

“I think anytime you lose a good player, I don't think that's exciting, but I also think that in the business of baseball, people kind of understand the ebbs and flows of how the business kind of operates,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino.

“I don't think by any means that it's going to change the mentality that these guys have had over the last month and a half. I think this last month and a half, I don't know what the records are, but I got to imagine we've been probably one of the better teams in the game, win-loss record. Fortunately baseball, it's unlike basketball, it's not five guys on the court, it's nine, it's a 26-man roster. So I think in a lot of ways as one guy kind of exits the building, there's still strong confidence that we can win a lot of games.”

Players make it clear that they aren’t conceding 2025 despite being in last place and facing extremely long odds to earn a Wild Card. And Elias wants them to keep that attitude.

“I think there’s a lot of transactions in this business and it’s not always linear,” Elias said. “And you look at Detroit last year, they basically traded away some major league players and their play continued to improve when they made the playoffs. This is a team that’s moving in the right direction and we still have a lot of time left before the deadline, but this was a trade with the draft coming up in a couple days that we had to make a decision on. Didn’t want to pass up on the opportunity.

“We’re hopeful we can use the pick wisely, bring a lot of value back, and Bryan’s going to a good place.”

Baker was the first domino to fall, but there could be plenty of others with opposing scouts following players on expiring contracts.

“Well, I think we’re not playing exactly the way that we wanted or are capable of and we’ve had some losses in the last couple of weeks that could have easily gone the other way,” Elias said. “It would have been nice to have had those. But we put ourselves in the position where you’re on a razor’s edge with a lot of those games. The hole that we dug in the standings at the beginning has just put us in a tough spot. So obviously, we want to win as many games as possible going into the All-Star break and going into the deadline, but as opportunities come along prior to the trade deadline, the job of the front office is to weigh them.

“We wish that the team was in a better spot in the standings. I’ve talked about it. There’s a lot of reasons for it, a lot of responsibility to go around, but we’ve got to look at the present moment and opportunities as they come, and that’s what happened this morning.”

Accepting a reality that includes being 10 games below .500 and having 14 players on the injured list and 24 throughout the course of season has been “brutal,” Elias said.

“The start to the year was really painful for everyone and just a lot of negative fallout from that around the organization and we’ve been working hard to recover from it, and I think that we’ve had. We’ve had steps in the right direction and we’ve been working to improve some things and fix some things and get our guys back on the field that haven’t been healthy, but this has been a very disappointing season and I do think we’ve got the operation moving in the right direction now. But there’s no hiding from the hole that we put ourselves in.

“Are we making a trade like this if our record is the reverse of what it is right now? Probably not. So there’s no hiding from that.”

Can the Orioles still become buyers? Elias didn't dismiss the idea.

“It’s definitely possible. It’s mathematically possible,” he replied. “The games have to happen, and we’ll hope that we are.”

There’s also the possibility of doing both – dealing major league talent and also getting it back. React to an offer based on the timing, like with Baker, and also try to improve the 2025 roster.

“We’re preparing for everything,” Elias said. “It’s early. This trade happened early because of the draft pick. The full picture hasn’t revealed itself in terms of what all the teams are going to do and all the players that are going to be available, but our group is working on that.”

“We have a really smart group in the front office,” Mansolino said. “By no means do I think that they're trying to like cash in this year or next year or anything like that. I think they're trying to figure out how to win this year and how to win next year with whatever move that they're making. And the players know that, and the staff knows that.

“So you know, however this thing goes, it's with the idea that we want to win games this year and we want to win games next year and going forward and put the organization in a strong position to continue to succeed the way we have the last couple years.

No matter how the rest of the month plays out, Elias offered a definitive, one-word answer when asked whether he’s committed to competing in 2026 and avoiding a rebuild.

“Yes.”

* The Orioles selected the contract of catcher David Bañuelos to replace Baker on the roster.

* The starters for the weekend Marlins series are listed as TBA.