NORTH PORT, Fla. -- Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Sunday expressed confidence in the viability of Baltimore as a baseball market, optimism about the Orioles’ long-term future in the city and the direction the franchise is taking as a whole. Speaking at his annual Grapefruit League media day press conference at CoolToday Park, Manfred provided public backing of the Angelos family’s ownership of the club and support for its rebuilding strategy under general manager and executive vice president Mike Elias.

“I spent a considerable amount of time with the Angelos family this winter,” Manfred said. “I think the family is committed to making baseball as good as it can possibly be in Baltimore. I think they are excited about Mike Elias and his team in terms of their ability to make the franchise as competitive as possible.”

"I think there is a future,” Manfred added, “and a good future for baseball in Baltimore.”

While the overwhelming majority of Manfred’s presser was spent fielding questions about the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, Manfred was firm regarding the Orioles future in Baltimore, which became the subject of speculation last summer amid declining attendance and the club’s ongoing litigation with the Nationals regarding the MASN television network. The Orioles drew 1,307,807 fans in 2019 -- the lowest total at Oriole Park at Camden Yards since it debuted in 1992 and the franchise's lowest since 1981 -- for their fifth consecutive year of declining attendance.

“I wish our attendance is higher, and it will be higher in the future,” said Elias, who was in attendance for Manfred’s comments. “In the meantime, it’s where we’re at and the situation we are in. And the primary focus needs to be to get the club back on its feet and competing for a playoff spot. The way baseball is set up, I don’t know any way to artificially inflate attendance while your team is losing. So we just want to start winning. When that happens, with the sports passion we have in Baltimore, with the history attached to that club, with the unbelievable ballpark we have, it’s going to come back.”

Shortly after Manfred spoke, Elias was asked about the Houston connections he and several other Orioles executives have. As he has multiple times publicly, Elias, who ran Houston’s minor league operations from 2017-18, defended the work he and other current Baltimore executives did in Houston.

“The group that’s here in Baltimore, we were not involved in Major League operations and we were focused on scouting and player development,” Elias said. “I was running the Minor Leagues and the amateur draft. Subsequent to that, I was head of the international department. We were not involved in anything like this that was related to Major League operations, the dugout, the clubhouse. I know there is no connection or involvement on anyone’s behalf. It is still tough for us to see the team we worked so hard to build up undergo this footnote, but it’s not going to affect the Orioles.”

The four Orioles execs who were with Houston’s front office at the time -- Elias, assistant GM Sig Mejdel, director of player development Eve Rosenbaum and director of pitching Chris Holt -- all held player development positions that largely shielded them from the club’s Major League operations. None were mentioned in Manfred’s report.

“It’s been tough. It’s a shame,” Elias said. “Obviously the personal people involved, it’s been very difficult to watch what’s happened there. It’s been disappointing to learn what we’ve seen about the things that happened during that 2017-18 time period the report brought to light. I am still confident it does not affect the quality and the methods behind the scouting and player development work that was done over there, that led to that success and was so relevant to why we’re here with the Orioles. But it’s a shame.”