Mike Elias ‘confident’ Orioles can boost payroll in 2025 under David Rubenstein
By Jacob Calvin Meyer, Baltimore Sun,
9 hours ago
Mike Elias, executive vice president and general manager for the Baltimore Orioles holds a press conference after being swept in the American League wild-card series at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS
Last October, after a magical season ending with a postseason sweep, Mike Elias said it was too early to discuss offseason plans when asked about payroll.
Thursday, after another season came crashing down with a playoff sweep, Elias struck a different tone about the potential for boosting payroll.
“I could dance around that because it’s early. And I don’t think it’s really fair before I get into my planning,” Elias said during his end-of-season news conference at Camden Yards. “But, yeah, I would be pretty confident that we’re going to keep investing in the major league payroll given what we’ve got here and the upward slope that we hope to get back on.”
Elias did not guarantee anything about payroll, maintaining he will prepare for the offseason and make decisions based solely on what’s best for the organization, not what automatically results in a higher payroll. While the Orioles have ranked bottom-five in opening day payroll in all six seasons under Elias, that figure has steadily and slowly increased in recent years.
Still, the juxtaposition from his past comments under then-Chairman and CEO John Angelos to his ones Thursday under first-year owner David Rubenstein is striking, especially given the circumstances under which both comments were made.
After 2023, it would have been virtually impossible for the Orioles’ payroll — which began that season at a puny $60.9 million, ranked second lowest in MLB — to fall. Based solely on pay raises through arbitration, the Orioles could have not made a single acquisition last offseason and still had a higher payroll in 2024.
This offseason, though, presents a vastly different landscape. More than 40% of the Orioles’ opening day payroll of $95.3 million will come off the books this offseason as Corbin Burnes ($15.6 million), Craig Kimbrel ($12 million) and Anthony Santander ($11.7 million) approach free agency. For the Orioles to sport a more competitive payroll in 2025, they will have to acquire players either via trade or on the open market — potentially including Elias handing out his first multiyear contract to a free agent.
“We’ll see what happens,” Elias said about 17 hours after his team was eliminated from the postseason with a 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals. “We’re going to be smart about it. And if it doesn’t happen for some reason, it’s not going to be because the financial support wasn’t there. It’s going to be because the people running this team thought it was the right thing to do from a number of levels on a case-by-case basis. But I want to reiterate that I don’t expect that to be the case.”
The Orioles’ payroll jumped a bit at the end of the season — moving out of the bottom five for the first time since Elias took over in November 2018 — after the front office’s busy trade deadline . Both in mid-September and Thursday, Elias took blame for the his club’s mediocre results after he focused almost exclusively on adding pitching at the deadline, even trading away MLB-ready bats (Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby) for a starting pitcher (Trevor Rogers) who ended the year in Triple-A.
Elias added veteran pitchers Seranthony Domínguez, Gregory Soto and Zach Eflin — a trio of arms still due millions of dollars in the second half who can be also kept in 2025 — and those moves felt like ones that might not have been possible under previous ownership. Eflin, in particular, was a harbinger of potentially more to come after Elias sent three prospects to the Tampa Bay Rays for the veteran right-hander who is owed $18 million next year.
Elias believes Rubenstein and his large ownership group are “well-equipped” to provide the front office the ability to “run this franchise optimally.”
“These guys are great,” Elias said of Rubenstein et al. “This is what, I think, Baltimore’s been waiting for. They’re smart, they’re business savvy, they’re going to be all in to win.”
Elias maintained his stance of not commenting specifically on any players, including Santander and Burnes. That’s the same position he’s taken in the past when asked about signing long-term extensions to young stars Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman . Santander is a member of the Orioles’ core — a rebuild survivor who went from a Rule 5 draft pick to an All-Star with 44 home runs — and replacing his bat after the way the second half went for Baltimore’s offense would be difficult. Burnes is one of baseball’s best starting pitchers, a hired gun from the offseason who “more than held up his end of the bargain” after Elias acquired him in February.
Last offseason proved projecting contracts for free agents is a futile pursuit. However, it would not be a surprise to see Santander earn a three-to-five-year deal at about $20 million per year, while Burnes could receive contract offers greater than $200-plus million as perhaps the best starting pitcher on the market.
Specifics aside, Elias is confident he will be empowered to approach this offseason in the best way he sees fit — and that could include greater financial commitments than seen in the past.
“This is Major League Baseball, and the situations are uneven between franchises and there are economics involved that are tricky,” Elias said. “But this is a phenomenal ownership group. We’re all very excited about it. And, yeah, this has not been an easy task rebuilding this franchise with the backdrop of everything, franchise level, that we’ve been dealing with. I think we’ve brought it to a very impressive point, but it’s time to get over a new hump.
“I think they’re going to be very supportive and helpful in providing us with kind of the necessary backdrop from the ownership level to help us achieve that goal.”
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local News
Comments / 0