masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgNORTH PORT, Fla. – Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred expressed no concerns this afternoon while speaking at the annual Media Day about the decline in Orioles attendance and the club’s future as it goes through a painful rebuild process.
He probably enjoyed the break from all of the Astros questions.
“I have spent a considerable amount of time with the Angelos family during this offseason,” Manfred said. “I think that the family is committed to making baseball as good as it can…

NORTH PORT, Fla. – Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred expressed no concerns this afternoon while speaking at the annual Media Day about the decline in Orioles attendance and the club’s future as it goes through a painful rebuild process.

He probably enjoyed the break from all of the Astros questions.

“I have spent a considerable amount of time with the Angelos family during this offseason,” Manfred said. “I think that the family is committed to making baseball as good as it can possibly be in Baltimore. I think they’re excited about Mike Elias and his team in terms of their ability to make the franchise as competitive as possible. So I’m not quite as pessimistic as you (reporter) in terms of the attendance in Baltimore.

“I think there is a future and a good future for baseball in Baltimore.”

Elias appreciated Manfred’s comments, which were relayed to him by a reporter.

Elias-Watches-Spring-sidebar.jpg“It’s good to hear,” Elias said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do. Things aren’t going to go perfectly, but we really feel like we are now set up the way we want to be set up. Things are going to move in the right direction, they’re going to continue growing in the right direction.

“We’ve experienced a bit of a rejuvenation on the farm. I think our system has entered the top 10 conversation. We’ve got a lot of young players who are new to the Orioles at the big league (level) that we’re excited about. And we’re continuing to build and improve our infrastructure.

“We now have our scouting and player development department in the mold that we want it to be. Now it’s about bringing more young talent in, continuing to develop these guys properly and I’m fully confident that we’ll get to where we need to go. The partnership group has been terrific in supporting us and providing us with what we need.”

Elias and manager Brandon Hyde envision the days when Camden Yards is filled again. They’re confident that it’s going to happen as the team becomes a contender again. In the meantime, there are no worries evident about the future of the fan base.

“Look, I wish our attendance was higher and it will be higher in the future. I know that,” Elias said. “But in the meantime, it’s where we’re at and it’s the situation that we’re in, and the only way and the primary focus is to get that club back on its feet and win enough games to compete for a playoff spot, and that’s going to take a little bit of time because of the way baseball’s set up.

“I don’t know any reliable way to sort of artificially inflate attendance while your team is losing, so we just want to start winning and we’re doing what we need to do in order to do that, to put a real winner out there. When that happens, with the sports passion that we have in Baltimore, with the history attached to that club, with the unbelievable ballpark that we have, everything that’s being done to improve the ballpark experience, it’s going to come back.”

Most of Manfred’s presser was devoted to questions pertaining to the Astros sign-stealing scandal. A final judgment on the Red Sox, he said, will be revealed next week.

Elias again had to address the Houston situation based on his tenure in the scouting department and front office.

“It’s tough, it’s a shame,” he said. “Obviously, the people involved, it’s been very difficult to watch what’s happened there. It’s also been just disappointing to learn what we’ve seen about the things that happened in that 2017, 2018 time period that the report brought to light.

“I am still confident that it does not affect the quality and the methods behind the scouting and player development work that was done over there and led to that success and is so relevant to why we’re here with the Orioles, why we’re in this position, what we’re going to do over the next couple of years. But, yeah, it’s a shame.”

Elias also expressed again how he’s certain that the Orioles won’t be impacted despite having multiple employees who came over from the Astros organization.

“The group that’s here in Baltimore, myself included but everyone, were not involved in major league operations,” he said. “We were focused on scouting and player development. I was running the minor leagues and the amateur draft. … We were not involved in anything like this as it related to major league operations, the dugout, the clubhouse, so I know that there’s no connection or involvement on anyone’s behalf.

“It’s still tough for us to see the team that we worked so hard to build up kind of undergo this footnote, but it’s not going to affect the Orioles.”

Elias said he heard the rumors “around the game” in 2017. He certainly wasn’t oblivious to them.

“You kind of heard stuff at that period of time,” he said, “but that was the extent of it for me.”