Elias: O’s in ‘good shape’ with hiring

GM feeling better about manager search; Boras, O’s aim to get Davis on track

LAS VEGAS – A day after Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias learned of reporting that he’d selected Chicago Cubs bench coach Brandon Hyde as his new manager from a television in his suite during a media briefing, requiring an on-the-spot denial, Elias again didn’t confirm the hire but spoke much more hopefully of an imminent conclusion to the managerial search.

“I feel very good about where we’re at with it,” Elias said. “Alot has happened in the last 24 hours since we talked. Like I said yesterday, the reports that were out there were premature and overzealous, but I feel good about where we’re at. In my position, I can’t be out in front of events, or the one who is naming names or specifying timelines in public, obviously. But I think we’re in good shape. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to have a hire — a good hire — in due time.”

Hyde, the reported selection out of a pool of six candidates to replaceBuck Showalter in the Orioles’ dugout, is a longtime major league coach whose previous roles included five years as a minor league manager with the then-Florida Marlins, and a year as the Cubs’ director of player development before he came to the major league dugout.

But instead of trumpeting those credentials to the local and national media gathered at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for baseball’s winter meetings, Elias has characterized the process as still ongoing — even if the idea that yesterday’s reporting was premature doesn’t mean it still is.

“This is an unusual situation,” Elias said. “We’re at the winter meetings during this, and rumors have a tendency to snowball into reports at the winter meetings, and also I’m giving daily updates to the media on everything the team is doing. It’s just kind of an unusual situation. We continue to make progress, getting closer to a hire every day, and today was no different.

“The reports — especially as I saw them afterwards — the way that things were phrased or characterized was just not reflective of where we were at at that time,” he said. “But, I’m making progress and we’ll see what happens.”

As for when the Orioles could formally announce the new manager and introduce him to Baltimore, Elias said he has to “complete the hire first, frankly.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “But I’m aiming for — we go on a holiday break. I’m trying to do this as fast as possible. We’ve got to hire a lot of coaches. We’ve got a lot of things to do. This is a really important hire for the present, but the future of this franchise. I feel really good about where we’re at in the hiring process right now, but the sooner the better, as far as I’m concerned.” Boras, O’s discussed ways to assist Davis: Agent Scott Boras, giving his annual comments at the winter meetings in front of a massive Christmas tree in a fire-hazard of a media briefing at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, said he’s held discussions with Orioles officials this week about the best way to get maligned first baseman Chris Davis back on track.

Davis, who has four years left on a seven-year, $161 million contract signed in January 2016, endured one of the worst seasons in baseball history in 2018, batting a career-worst .168 with 16 home runs. It was worth -3.1 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs.

Boras, who negotiated that deal for Davis, on Wednesday outlined their approach to getting him back to his slugging form.

“We’ve had many players who have got great histories, and physically when you know they’re well,” Boras said. “We’ve been in discussion with the Orioles, just last night as a matter of fact, about advancing this and getting Chris’ abilities on the field. We know he can do it. He’s done it many years, many times, and obviously, we’re making great efforts and strides to get him back to being normal.”

Davis’ presence on a young, rebuilding roster certainly flies opposite to what the Orioles are trying to do under Elias. Davis said Tuesday at the team’s charity holiday party that he understood the role he’d need to assume on and off the field, and that his offseason has been spent “being able to catch my breath and not just to forget about what happened last year, but really think through it and try to understand what’s going on and fix that and keep it from happening again.”

During his briefing Wednesday, Elias characterized the meetings with Boras’ team as routine with representatives of players the Orioles have, but said it “behooves us and it behooves Chris and it behooves the Boras corporation to collaborate and share notes on how we can turn his performance around this year.”

“This team is much worse when he’s not a dangerous force in the middle of the lineup,” Elias said. “He’s here. He’s a good teammate. He cares a lot about the Orioles. I think turning the page to 2019 — new front office, new manager, probably some new coaches — will be good for him.”

Around the horn: Elias said two Orioles players whose seasons ended with surgery last year — left-hander Richard Bleier (lat tear) and outfielder/designated hitter Mark Trumbo (knee) — are progressing well in their rehabilitation and are on track to begin 2019 healthy. … Elias said that while he’s heard nothing but good things about former Orioles outfielder Adam Jones since taking the job, he was viewing the free-agent outfielder in the same vein as other players on the market. He said he anticipates the Orioles being slower and later to that market than other teams might.