At the start of the season, who would have thought the Baltimore Orioles would have won 101 games in the regular season? A team that was just coming out of a rebuild. Mike Elias, Orioles’ General Manager, proclaimed that the rebuild was behind this team. He was right.
“I believe that our rebuild is behind us,” Elias said at the time. “We’ve got an incredible chance to be a very, very competitive team for years.”
The post-rebuild Orioles went on to win 101 games, winning their first American League East title since 2014. The man behind it all, has the Orioles in a strong position to continue that dominance long-term. For all of that, he has been given a distinguished honor. Mike Elias was named the MLB Executive of the Year at the annual General Managers meeting on Tuesday.
Each of 30 clubs cast a vote prior to the start of the postseason. The Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos was voted as the runner up, with Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen finishing third. Elias is the first O’s Executive of the Year, which was first awarded at the end of the 2018 season. When Elias first took the job, he knew there was a lot of work to do. The team was coming off an ‘18 campaign in which it went 47-115, and the farm system didn’t have a ton of top-level talent coming through the pipeline.
That was going to be a tall task for Elias, who had never been a GM prior. Though he served in the Astros front office and had a stint as Assistant General Manager from 2016-2018, winning the World Series with Houston in 2018. Baltimore struggled in the first three years under Elias’ leadership going 131-253 from 2019-21 at the big league level. Though a replenished farm system was excelling.
With the No. 1 Overall Pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, Mike Elias drafted Oregon State Alum Adley Rutschman. The Orioles also came away with infielder Gunnar Henderson, who was selected at No. 42 in the second round. Both of whom were integral pieces to the success of the Orioles.
The future might even be brighter for Elias’ Orioles. The farm system is still regarded as one of the best in the nation, and 19-year-old Shortstop prospect Jackson Holliday is waiting in the rings. The primary objective to win a World Series with the Orioles still remains for Elias.
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