Can O's still contend, post-Adley? Elias says yes 

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BALTIMORE -- The 2025 Trade Deadline hurt for Orioles fans, who saw their favorite team conduct a full sell-off. Longtime favorites such as Cedric Mullins and Ryan O’Hearn were dealt. Other quality contributors were shipped off.

But it was fully expected. The O’s were 50-59 and 7 1/2 games back of the third American League Wild Card spot on July 31, 2025. The season had trended negatively from the start.

On Monday, the 2026 Trade Deadline was even more painful for Baltimore fans.

Despite being 54-58, the Orioles sat only 2 1/2 games back of the third AL Wild Card spot entering Tuesday. However, the front office decided it’d be best to operate as sellers again, making multiple trades that subtracted players from the MLB roster, with no loss more heartbreaking than that of Adley Rutschman, who was dealt to the AL East-rival Red Sox.

It’s understandable if it was tough to stomach, even if Rutschman’s departure brought in a whopping return headlined by three of Boston’s top five prospects. This was Adley, after all -- the face of this era of O’s baseball from the moment he was taken No. 1 overall in the 2019 MLB Draft, Mike Elias’ first leading the baseball operations department.

It hurt for Elias, too, as the 43-year-old was still processing everything late Monday night.

“Yeah, look, I mean, it's very difficult,” Elias said. “I'm just coming out of this and I can't have all my thoughts articulated right now.”

How did we get here? How did this happen again?

Exactly four years prior to Monday -- to the day -- Elias traveled to Arlington to address his team after a bit of a surprising 2022 Trade Deadline. The Orioles were overperforming at the time -- their window of contention seemingly opening earlier than expected -- and although they were making a strong push, they traded slugger Trey Mancini to the Astros and closer Jorge López to the Twins.

It was OK, though. So much larger success appeared to be on the horizon, as it was “liftoff from here,” Elias said that day.

And it came. Baltimore finished 101-61 and won the AL East in 2023. It went 91-71 and returned to the postseason as a Wild Card team in ‘24. The only negative was the fact the O’s went 0-5 across those pair of playoff appearances. But with such a strong young core intact, it felt like only a matter of time before the positive October results would follow.

For Orioles fans, it makes the past two years all the more frustrating -- equally as tough to watch as it was to read the news of Rutschman getting traded away Monday.

So, what now? Where does Baltimore go from here, in both the short and long term?

Let’s start with the present. Elias thinks this year’s team is strong and resilient enough to still make a postseason push, even if it made sense to him to trade Rutschman and right-handers Tyler Wells (to the Rays) and Dean Kremer (to the Twins) -- all set to become free agents following the 2027 season -- and outfielder Taylor Ward (to the Mariners) -- who was on an expiring contract -- to acquire assets for the longer-term future.

Elias remains confident in the makeup of this 2026 O’s squad.

“We’re going to be playing for the postseason the rest of the way,” Elias said. “The reality is that our record, and the odds that come with that record, were not strong enough for me to go into the Deadline with 2026 as the sole focus. We had to start looking at future years and take those into account as we assessed moves.

“But we did not dismantle the team. We still have a very good team.”

Rutschman, Ward, Wells and Kremer are gone. But others are signed to long-term contracts -- Pete Alonso, Samuel Basallo, Kyle Bradish and Shane Baz. There are also still key members of the now Rutschman-less young core, including Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday and Colton Cowser.

“We have talent. We’ve had the talent all year, I really believe that. I think a lot of people have believed that,” Elias said. “These guys can do it. I think there have been a lot of examples the last few years of teams that have made late surges after the Trade Deadline and made the playoffs, and I hope that this group does.”

It’s easier to envision success a bit further down the road. Not only will there be those aforementioned players who signed extensions, but the farm system has been reloaded, this time with some intriguing prospects already at the upper level of the Minors.

But Elias was asked an interesting question late in Monday’s media session.

Fans are surely disappointed by recent events -- not only the Trade Deadline, but the play on the field since the second half of 2024. Why does Elias feel he is the right front-office executive to get the Orioles’ franchise turned back around again?

First, Elias candidly reflected on the upward trajectory of his initial handful of years.

“I think to some degree, I, personally, looking back, got caught up in a narrative about a rebuild,” Elias said. “Baseball is very, very humbling and it doesn't go linearly. Things shifted and changed.”

Then, Elias listed the ways in which he believes the O’s are in a good spot -- the talent, the infrastructure, the business side, the ownership, the facilities, the farm system and the big league roster. He even said that’s the perspective he tries to keep as he deals with similar disappointment to what others are feeling.

The 2025 season didn’t go well. The first half of ‘26 didn’t, either. But with the Orioles still fresh off a 15-8 July -- as well as a Trade Deadline that the benefits of could be greatly reaped later on -- Elias is feeling confident and optimistic in bringing winning baseball back to Baltimore once again.

“The future is strong,” Elias said, “and I think it starts right now.”