Elias explains Holliday decision

GM talks top prospect promotion, ownership, payroll and more

For the first time since the end of spring training, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias held a news conference with local media Saturday.

In the time since, David Rubenstein officially purchased the Orioles to become the franchise’s new owner, Baltimore opened its season with an 8-5 record and top prospect Jackson Holliday was promoted to the big leagues. Holliday’s arrival was the focus of Elias’ news conference, but the club’s top executive touched on several other topics during the 20-minute session.

Here’s what Elias said about Holliday, Rubenstein, the Orioles’ payroll and more.

Promoting Holliday

After having Holliday begin the season in Triple-A, Elias called the 20-year-old infielder up after just 10 games. His reasoning for having Holliday open in the minors was so the 2022 No. 1 overall draft pick could improve against left-handed pitchers — of which the Orioles faced many to begin the season — and at his new position of second base.

“It was a difficult decision whether to break camp with him. … It was a close decision at that time,” Elias said. “We looked at the fact that he had a good camp — a very good camp. The whole team had a good camp. Spring training can be a little tricky sometimes to make evaluations and a little deceiving. As I said at the time, he didn’t have a lot of time in Triple-A and was notably undergoing a position change. Looked at the schedule coming up and it was pretty clear we were gonna be facing a ton of left-handed starters in the first three series and we did. It seemed, at the time to me, to make sense to start him in Triple-A.”

Elias said Wednesday was the right time to promote Holliday because of the youngster’s success

in Triple-A — a .333 average and 1.077 OPS — and the string of left-handed starting pitchers had ended. He stuck with the organization’s “process” for ensuring its top prospects are ready for the big leagues before throwing them into the fire.

“Sometimes when I’m on the fence about a promotion decision, I’ll err on the side of hold the player back because that’s easily correctable,” Elias said. “When you send somebody up it’s kind of a big deal if it’s not going well. Personally, I tend to err on the side of waiting to promote. He played well out of the gates in Norfolk. He got a lot of action at second base, which is something that didn’t really happen in spring training, which was really nice to see. We decided to take a chance and bring him up for this series now that we have what looks like a run of right-handed pitching coming up.”

Holliday is off to a slow start. He’s hitless in 11 at-bats with seven strikeouts. He didn’t start Saturday against Milwaukee Brewers lefthander and former Orioles farmhand DL Hall.

“As I’ve said multiple times, he’s playing way ahead of his curve for his age group and what he’s done in the minor leagues,” Elias said. “The full expectation is that any young player, let alone a 20 year old, which we haven’t seen in a long time, there’s some adjustments to be made at the major league level. But his pattern has been one of a very quick learner, and we thought that was the right thing for the team and for him to come up for this foreseeable stretch of play that we have. I’m looking forward to seeing him getting his feet under him.”

Handling criticism

Elias was heavily criticized for his decision to start Holliday in the minors. He was accused of either lying during the winter about Holliday’s chances of making the team or manipulating the youngster’s service time. Calling Holliday up when he did proved neither accusation was true.

Elias said “wearing” the criticism is “part of my job.”

“I can’t sit here and say everything that’s on my mind. I also don’t have a crystal ball, and I don’t make every decision perfectly by a long shot,” Elias said. “We’ve been criticized for some of our high draft picks, too, and we just do what you think is right as long as you can and hope it goes well until they tell you to stop making the decisions. We have a process, and it served us well. We’re not arrogant about it. We constantly refine it. We do try to stick with it and adhere to it. It led us to the plan of sending him to Triple-A and kind of assess it on a weekto-week basis there, and now we’ve called him up.”

David Rubenstein

Since Rubenstein’s purchase of the Orioles, a deal that values the franchise at $1.725 billion, Elias hadn’t been asked by local media about his thoughts on the new ownership group. On Saturday, Elias said the new owners are bringing “really exciting energy” and they have “wonderful plans for the franchise.”

“I think everybody in Baltimore and Maryland should be really thrilled about the vision that this group has laid out,” he said. “I think it’s a little unusual to take over control of a team literally or exactly on opening day, but that’s what they did. They’re drinking out of a firehose a little bit. The season’s going, we’re all going 100 miles an hour, not everything is going to happen all at once. But we’ve got settled on a really good communication flow, and they’re really excited about the team and where everything is at. I’m looking forward to learning more.”

Payroll

Could those “wonderful plans” include an increase in payroll? Rubenstein deferred to Elias when asked about payroll during a forum in late March.

“I’m going to rely on the best general manager in baseball and see what he recommends and I will follow his recommendations,” Rubsenstein said.

Elias was asked about if he believes the new ownership group could lead to higher payrolls. The Orioles have ranked in the bottom five of MLB in each season Elias has been in charge.

“I don’t know. That’s not for me to answer right now,” Elias said. “Like I said, they’ve been in control of the team for less than a month.

We’re in the middle of a season. If the team continues to play well and continues to be in a playoff position, I’m certain that everyone involved — from my office on up — will be looking for opportunities to add at the deadline if there’s deals that make sense. But we’re a long way from there, and we’ll take it as it comes.”

Around the horn

„ Elias didn’t want to put a timeline on when lefthander John Means could return from the injured list. In three minor league rehabilitation starts with Triple-A Norfolk, Means has a 12.86 ERA in seven innings, though he’s allowed three runs over his past six innings. Hyde said earlier this season that Means’ stint would likely take “around” the full 30 days, meaning he could be back in late April. “I don’t want to paint myself in with a date or anything like that, but suffice to say, we’re looking at a spring time activation with him, hopefully,” Elias said.

„ Kyle Bradish threw a bullpen session Saturday at Camden Yards. The injured right-hander was scheduled to begin his minor league rehabilitation assignment earlier this week with High-A Aberdeen, but an inclement weather forecast forced him to instead throw a side session. Manager Brandon Hyde said Bradish (ulnar collateral ligament sprain) will make his first rehab start next week in either Aberdeen or Double-A Bowie, putting him on track for a return sometime in May.

„ Before Saturday’s game, the Orioles optioned reliever Jonathan Heasley, who pitched two innings in Friday’s 11-1 loss, to Triple-A to make room for Yohan Ramírez, a right-hander they acquired from the New York Mets in a cash trade. Elias said Ramírez, who began his professional career with the Houston Astros when Elias was in their front office, has a “really good arm.” Ramírez, who is out of minor league options, said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones that he’s excited to “be a part” of a team coming off a 101-win season.

„ Infielder Tony Kemp, who was designated for assignment to make room for Holliday, elected free agency instead of reporting to Triple-A Norfolk after passing through waivers.