Mike Elias is looking for a way to solve two Orioles problems at once, but the route he’s describing could end up solving neither.
Baltimore still has plenty to sort out this offseason, and the outfield sits near the top of the list. Tyler O'Neill has underperformed in his two years in Baltimore, Colton Cowser hasn’t made the jump the Orioles and their fans were expecting, and the rest of the outfield pipeline has fallen flat, with some prospects even getting DFA’d.
At the same time, the infield is crowded with talent. That’s why plenty of people figured Elias might use a trade to clear some of that logjam and bring back help somewhere else. Instead, his comments at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas pointed in a different direction.
Elias said he has started conversations with some of his infielders about getting work in the outfield. The idea isn’t to move anyone permanently. It’s about adding flexibility, opening up more reps for some players while creating more chances in the field and in the lineup for others.
MLB.com’s Jake Rill identified Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo as the most logical candidates for that kind of move. But that doesn’t really feel like an upgrade.
There are two big problems with this approach. The first is simple: it feels lazy. The second is that the Orioles only have two infielders, not named Blaze Alexander, with any professional outfield experience, and those two have a combined 11 games out there.
The bigger issue is that Baltimore needs real improvement if it wants to keep pace in a brutal division. The Orioles are the only AL East team not to make the playoffs in the last two seasons, and three division rivals have reached the World Series in the last three years.
Elias is in a position to make a major move with one of his prized infielders. It doesn’t even have to be an outfielder coming back.
He could use a player like Coby Mayo or Jordan Westburg to land a difference-maker, or even help the rotation. Instead, he’s talking about asking them to learn a new position.
That doesn’t add talent anywhere. It might even make things worse. New positions come with growing pains, and if a player is spending more energy learning the outfield, the offense could take a hit too.
The experience level matters here, and it’s thin. Holliday and Mayo haven’t played the outfield since being drafted by the club.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand has just two games in the outfield in Triple-A, two more in the Arizona Fall League, and three innings in the majors from his time with the Reds. Westburg has six outfield games in Triple-A in 2023.
That’s a lot of uncertainty for a team that can’t afford to guess wrong. If these experiments don’t work, the Orioles could end up with players who are uncomfortable defensively and less valuable in trade talks too.
There are too many ways this can go sideways. If the Orioles want to fix the roster, Mike Elias needs to stop reaching for the easy answer and start using these infielders to actually improve the team.
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