GM Elias focused on draft already
Orioles making moves for present, but team sets sights on ‘elite talent pipeline’
With Tuesday’s revelation that Orioles scouting director Gary Rajsich won’t return next season, the club appeared to solidify its offseason focus since naming Mike Elias its new general manager earlier this month: there’s plenty of work to be done for next season, but a large portion of what’s going on seems to be directed toward the ever-important 2019 draft.
Elias, the Astros’ former scouting director, said he wants to build an “elite talent pipeline” in Baltimore, the same as Houston had. No doubt the first step in that was bringing along assistant general manager Sig Mejdal, who built the forecasting model that informed many of the Astros’ acclaimed drafts and later shifted his attention toward helping build those prospects up through any means necessary.
But having been a part of Houston’s first draft under Jeff Luhnow as a special assistant with previous scouting director Bobby Heck still in place, Elias likely wanted to avoid a situation like that and simply have a fresh start.
It became clear last week what the Orioles might have to work with in that draft, too. The team’s first selection, earned
by their 115-loss season, will be first overall. They’ll pick first in every ensuing round, too. But the Orioles were unfortunate to not be selected into the Competitive Balance A round, according to MLB.com.
Each year, the teams in the bottom 10 in revenue and bottom 10 in market size are put into a lottery for draft picks after the first round and draft picks after the second round. In 2019, there will be seven picks after the first round and eight after the second round. Were the Orioles drawn into the top group, as they were last year when they picked shortstop Cadyn Grenier, their bonus pool would have been even bigger.
Instead, they were given the second pick in the B round, which is No. 72 overall. The 2018 bonus pool allotment for that pick ($837,700) is about half the amount of the smallest bonus from the A round.
As it stands, factoring in the current place of their competitive balance pick and where the first pick in the second round falls before any of the qualifying-offer free agents sign (No. 41), the Orioles project to have a bonus pool of $13,371,800 based on 2018 figures. That’s more money than any team had last year, though of the top 10 selecting teams in 2019, the fact that the Miami Marlins and Cincinnati Reds landed in the A round could see them creep above the Orioles’ in terms of total bonus size.
Even with the minor disappointment of the B round set in, it’s clear that as they work toward building their major league roster and coaching staff, the Orioles know that what they want to create begins with the draft. As all the more pressing needs come into focus, it’s hard not to remember the importance of the early-June draft in the distance.