Reviewing some important items from Orioles' season-ending press conference

With renovations starting in various areas of Camden Yards, today’s season-ending press conference with president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias and interim manager Tony Mansolino was held at Warehouse Bar & Restaurant on the ground floor of the brick building.

The location had nothing to do with the Orioles finishing on the ground floor of their division.

Confidence runs high through the organization that they’ll rise again in 2026. They might have a new manager, though Tony Mansolino is a candidate to lose the interim tag. A general manager eventually will join the front office with Elias’ promotion, but the hire could be made this winter or much later.

“The manager search has its own timetable,” Elias said.

Elias spoke for the first time about the change in his title and its impact on his duties. The news broke earlier this month, long after the switch.

“So, I know that came out in a bit of an unusual way,” he said. “That was an arrangement that we reached this year, in the spring, early in the spring, and at that point in time, with everything that we had going on, it wasn't a huge immediate priority for me to announce that or for us to announce that. And as we got into the season and things started to go the way that they went, it was nowhere near my mind at that time to address that situation. But that is the case.

“It does provide us the ability to utilize the general manager title in a way that many, many other organizations and a growing number of other organizations are starting to utilize it to beef up the throughput, but also the talent in the front office. And it's something that we have begun to consider and explore. But obviously it's got to be the right person, the right fit, for the Orioles, for the org, for the whole situation and it may not happen imminently, but that is a pathway that's available to us and it's something that we may be interested in doing. It may be this offseason, it may not be.”

And what exactly would a GM do in this organization?

“I think the answer to that very much depends on who it is,” Elias replied. “I think what's very clear to me is there's a lot of work in baseball operations now running these departments on a day-to-day basis. It's a ton of work. We have a relatively small baseball operations department still, and we have room to grow and we're also very interested in outside perspectives and outside talent. So that can come in different profiles and backgrounds and job duties and it's something that I think we would tailor depending on who the person is. But there's certainly room for more high-level contributions to our department.

“We want people that can help us. We also want people that can challenge us in a lot of areas, especially after you come off of a year where the organization didn't meet its goals.”

Here are some other noteworthy nuggets from today's media session:

* The Orioles will revisit their hitting philosophies as the young core labors.

Elias didn’t want to discuss personnel matters, including the coaching staff. The annual press conference isn’t the time for it.

However, he offered an interesting response when asked whether the messengers or messaging to the young hitters who regressed might need to change.

“It has brought a lot of success,” Elias said of the philosophies, “but like I’ve said, you’ve got to adapt and evolve and adjust in this business. The competition’s always changing, the landscape’s always changing. That applies to players, that applies to front offices, that applies to play development people, coaches. And so, we’re certainly weighing that and addressing it.

“Are we going to do things exactly the same next year? Absolutely not.”

Mansolino puts some blame on "astronomical" expectations for the young core, a few of them former top prospects.

"In some ways they set the expectation because a lot of them came out of the gates right away and they came out really well," he said. "I think there are some guys here who have struggled in some ways that weren’t part of that initial group that set the bar so high, and I do think it made it unrealistic for some of these guys to kind of follow.

"I talked to Sammy Basallo yesterday and I told Sammy to go look at Aaron Judge’s first 100 at-bats in the big leagues, and you know whose numbers it matches? Sammy Basallo’s. So I think there’s a precedent for young players to have kind of tough stretches in the beginning parts of their career. Now, what needs to tangibly change? We need to get these guys back to kind of what they were. Some of these guys who did set the bar high for themselves. And how we do that for me I think is just getting together, is being honest, is getting all the players in terms of staff, analysts, everybody that has a voice, is soliciting outside opinions, is doing a lot of different things to try to figure out how we get these guys back on track. And I do have a ton of faith in this organization and their capacity to do just that.”  

* Grayson Rodriguez is expected to be ready for spring training after undergoing a right elbow debridement surgery in August.

Rodriguez will begin a “throwing ramp-up” in October, according to Elias, and then “prepare for the season after that as he would.”

“There's nothing to medically suggest that he won’t be ready, and he’s very determined and very unhappy about what happened last year,” Elias added. “I think he’s kind of got an underdog, under-the-radar mentality right now, which is good, and I think he’s due for some good luck on the injury front after what happened last year. That said, we’re cognizant that he threw zero innings and that he finished 2024 hurt, so we’re going to have to plan with those realities in mind. But I am bullish about his situation.”

Lat injuries keep stalling Rodriguez’s career, and fixing the elbow might eliminate the stress in that area.

“I think it's definitely a possibility, but I can't speak to that with huge confidence right now at this moment in my position at this time,” Elias said. “But we're trying to get his mechanics and health into a good place and get him back to what he's been before.”

* Tyler Wells is more likely to start than relieve.

Wells has closed and worked in other relief capacities since his Rule 5 days. He’s made 50 starts, including four in September, and at one time had the lowest WHIP in the American League.

The Orioles can change their minds later, but they seem to prefer Wells in the rotation.

“This has always been a conversation with Tyler for years, because he's good at both, which is impressive,” Elias said. “Not a lot of people can do that, and he also just hasn't happened to had the innings load to get through a whole 170-to-180 season healthy as a starter, he hasn't proven he can do it at the major league level. Whether that's something he can control or not, I don't really know, but it just hasn't happened yet. So it's always a little bit tempting to have the reliever conversation with him. But if you got a guy that can start and be good as a starter, that's really valuable, and you always try to stick with that. That's the plan with Tyler.

“I thought he looked really good. It was great to have him back, and he's a big part of our team kind of spiritually, too, and that was wonderful getting him back. Whatever he's doing next year, he's going to be a big part of the pitching staff, but we're planning on him as a rotation option over the course of this winter.”

It’s always easier to stretch out a pitcher and put him in the ‘pen than to try the reverse.

* The Orioles will aim high for starting pitching and also add to their depth.

Kyle Bradish is back. Trevor Rogers isn’t a fluke.

That’s a heck of a start.

Elias indicated that he’s hoping to bring in someone from the outside to work into the top third.

“I would like a strong front half of the rotation guy to go with those if we can, and we'll be on the hunt for pitching improvements in that area and others,” Elias said.

“I think Bradish's innings is something that we're going to have to keep an eye on, but I do think there's a way and a possibility to keep him up and running full season in a responsible way next year. The platform that he's provided in terms of how many innings he's thrown and how those innings went this year were about as good as you would have hoped for coming off of the injury, so we feel like he's in a great spot.”

Rogers could get down-ballot votes for Cy Young, but Elias will temper expectations for 2026. He’s confident that the left-hander will excel again, but the historic numbers will be hard to duplicate.

“First of all, really proud and admire what he did to build himself back up,” Elias said. “He did a lot of work, but our strength and pitching and medical people did a lot to put him in that position. And it’s been in a rough year one of the better success stories around the organization. One of the bright things as we look forward to 2026 to have him on the trajectory he’s at right now.

“I think it’s hard for anyone to repeat an ERA in the 1’s, especially in this day and age, so I’m not saying that we’re expecting or needing that. But I do think he has cemented himself as a front-of-the rotation kind of starter going into next year. Whether that’s the 1, 2 or the 3 starter is going to depend on what we do and who we get. But pretty safe to say he’s going to be one of our top of the fold guys in the rotation and we’re very excited about that.”

* Heston Kjerstad’s physical issue remains a mystery, but the update was encouraging.

"Heston has been working with our doctors and other doctors on a medical condition,” Elias said without elaborating. “He's responded favorably to some treatment and some different treatments that they've done recently and he's in a good spot right now and pointed in the right direction. We're going to see him in spring training and I'm really looking forward to that, because we missed the real Heston Kjerstad this year.

“I don't want to go into any more detail.”

* Block any rumors about Adley Rutschman on the trade block.

Rutschman is, in Elias’ words, the Orioles’ “frontline starter.” They aren’t shopping him.

Basallo isn’t nudging the former first-overall draft pick out of Baltimore.

“Adley's a guy, he will be our front-line catcher,” Elias said. “Frustrating season for him coming off of a frustrating second half, and he's aware of it, we're all aware of it. We're all working on it. There was some injuries sprinkled in this year that I think were a factor in him kind of getting out of sync again. We saw flashes of him offensively the way that he can and should be. I thought he had a great defensive season, and he does a great job leading our pitching staff, so he's a key guy for this whole thing. There's no way around that.

“We're going to work with him to restore his presence in baseball as an All-Star, but he's going to be front and center as our starting catcher. We were encouraged with the way Sammy caught in the majors, too, and there's definitely room to have two really good catchers at the major league level. That's a good problem to have. As I've talked about also, Sammy and Adley can DH and Sammy can play first base. So there's a lot of playing time to go around between those two guys, and I'm glad that we have both of them together.”

Mansolino remains firmly in Rutschman's corner as the two-time All-Star tries to get on track at the plate. Straining both obliques were obvious detriments, and he never was right last year after being hit on the hand and scratched with back tightness.

“Sure, I'm maybe a little bit of a dinosaur here but I think catchers should be good catchers and I think people have forgotten that about Adley, and it's frustrating for me," Mansolino said. "This guy has become one of the better defensive catchers in the game. So while everybody's kind of pointing at his offense, please let's not forget that this is the type of catcher that you need to have behind the plate to win a World Series. So we'll start there.

"In terms of his offense? Yeah, it's been a tough year and a half from him in a lot of ways. I think some of it is tied to the injuries and I think some of it, he's going to kind of have to dig deep and solve some of his issues at the plate. And I do think that he's in the right mind to do it. So if you wrote out a list of players that I trust in that clubhouse and guys that I trust to look themselves in the mirror and be accountable and solve the issues that they have, Adley is at the very top for me. I got a lot of faith in the kid. I think he's going to solve his offensive woes.

"I think the injuries were just part of the deal. I think it happens for some guys. Unfortunately, he had an oblique on each side. I'm sure one affected the other, would be my guess. I'm not a medical person, but use common sense here. But let's not forget how good of a catcher this guy has become. That's a very important part of his story here in 2025.”