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Mike Elias remembers Shane Baz from their days in Houston – the executive working as scouting director with the Astros and the teenager pitching at Concordia Lutheran High School. Elias went to the right-hander's house and met his parents.
This is where the relationship began, though it didn’t fully blossom until about eight years later.
“I had a lot of familiarity with him,” Elias said.
Elias traded for Baz yesterday, sending four prospects and a Competitive Balance Round A pick to the Rays. The Pirates made Baz the 12th overall selection in the 2017 draft and packaged him a year later in a deal with Tampa Bay.
Now it’s Elias’ turn.
“We’re really exciting about adding Shane Baz,” Elias said in a video call. “I think he’s kind of a perfect fit for us in our rotation and our team right now. He is somebody that’s had a history that’s been checkered from the Tommy John surgery that he had at the end of 2022, but he’s successfully come back from that surgery. Had a really good run at the end of 2024 when he came back to the major leagues after that surgery, and then this past season threw about (166 1/3) innings and made all of his starts. And we see a lot of underlying information in his statistics and his performance this year suggests that he had bad luck.”
The misfortune began with the Rays moving their home games from Tropicana Field, after Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof and created extensive damage inside, to George M. Steinbrenner Field.
“He’s got great underlying metrics, five plus pitches,” Elias said. “I think he’s got a great arm and he’s a great athlete, and I think he hasn’t fully tapped into his ceiling yet, so we see him as a front-end-of-the-rotation starter. I think he has a ceiling to tap into being a top-of-the-rotation starter. We’re not necessarily asking that of him in 2026, but he has that potential. He has one of the best starting pitcher arms in the major leagues and he’s got really elite stuff.”
The Orioles like him enough to part with four Top 30 prospects, including 2025 draft picks Caden Bodine and Slater de Brun. They also sent the Rays Michael Forret and Austin Overn.
The cost for the Orioles was offset by Baz’s broad potential, past success and controllability for three more seasons. He posted a 3.06 ERA in 14 starts in 2024 after returning from his ligament-reconstructive surgery.
“We know what kind of athlete he is and the ceiling that he’s got,” Elias said. “He’s at a really good juncture after the Tommy John surgery and sort of platforming into 2026, so we kind of think he’s ready to go and we’re really expecting that we’re going to get the best chunk of his career here coming up. Everybody’s really excited about working with him, and I know he’s really excited to join the team.
“This isn’t somebody that we’ve been attempting to acquire for years from Tampa just given they’re in our division and what they’ve been trying to do, and also he’s been coming off injury, but when we talked with Tampa this offseason, they were open to making members of their starting rotation available with the right exchange of value. And obviously, we’ve ponied up for this deal. He’s a very talented young pitcher that’s hard to get your hands on, and we’re really excited to work with him.”
Baz joins a collection of starters that, at the moment, includes Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells. Elias has been in talks with the representatives for some of the top pitchers on the free agent market, including Framber Valdez and Ranger Suárez. He had serious interest in Michael King, who re-signed with the Padres.
“I think our rotation is a lot better than it was before we made the trade, but I view it as a move in this offseason,” Elias said. “We’ve been looking for moves and when we find one that we like, we’ve been doing it, and will continue to take that approach the rest of the way here. We still have, like, a month and a half to go, so we’re gonna stay hard at work.”
Elias pointed out that the roster isn’t a finished product. He’s looking for more ways to improve a team that sunk into last place this year. He’s got the green light to keep spending.
“Or just maybe there are moves that we think are good value exchanges and we take advantage of those opportunities,” he said.
“I don’t know what’s coming. We’re just going to keep working in the marketplace. In terms of our kind of wish list at the very beginning of the offseason, it was at the top of our list, we were looking for a back-end reliever, we were looking for one starting pitcher, we were looking for a big bat, and I think that we definitely checked those boxes, but there’s more that we’re going to be able to do and try to do.
“Our ownership group has put us in a really good position to explore all these things, and that’s been a huge benefit for us so far this offseason is the support that they’re providing. I also know that the American League East is certainly not finished with their activities, so we’ll just keep going.”
Elias pushed back on the characterization that he hasn’t dealt prospects in the past, citing the Corbin Burnes trade that sent DL Hall and Joey Ortiz to the Brewers. He also referenced the 2023 and 2024 deadlines.
Talks with the Rays required that the Orioles dig deeper while other teams flashed major league talent or prospects higher up the organizational ladder.
“When we’ve had opportunities, we’ve definitely been willing to deal from the farm system,” he said. “I mean, this is the largest buy-side trade yet, I guess, we’ve done, and that’s because it’s a starting pitcher with his talent level with three years of club control. So that’s why it’s the case.
“I think that the reason that we lined up with Tampa here and why we worked well with their front office is we expressed a desire to try to avoid the players that are on our major league roster right now in this trade, and they had other opportunities with Shane, I think, where they were getting some players that were either in the big leagues or closer to the big leagues, and we were steering more toward guys that were recently drafted or a draft pick itself.
“This is very much a move about the next few years with this major league team, and we hope we have Shane beyond that. I think he’s really going to grow well here in Baltimore and have a really exciting phase in his career, and I think he’s going to be a big part of what this team does.”
Perhaps another trade will be consummated before Opening Day, an avenue Elias has explored to bring in a starter who slots closer to the top of the rotation. First baseman Coby Mayo is referenced in the industry and media as a possible chip after the Orioles signed Pete Alonso to a five-year, $155 million contract, tendered Ryan Mountcastle and talked about allowing catcher Samuel Basallo to get some starts at the position.
Elias isn’t going to share much about his conversations, but he indicated again that Mayo could fit on the roster. The Orioles might be willing to move him to other spots on the field, which didn’t seem like a consideration last season.
“He had, I think, a very successful stretch run last year,” Elias said. “He looked really good and is in a really good spot. And there is still a lot of playing time available for him on a team that has Pete Alonso now. We have first base reps, we have designated hitter reps, and the exploration of other positions - whether it’s third or something in the corner outfield - has been something we’ve always talked about with him. So the path remains open for him.”
