The Orioles came to the GM meetings in Las Vegas with a clear message: they’re open for business, but not desperate to tear the roster apart.
Jared Banner and Mike Elias, now working side by side in their first offseason together, laid out the shape of Baltimore’s winter. The club wants a front-end starter, and it would also like to add outfield help, left-handed relief and catching depth. At the same time, the Orioles are not approaching the market with a mandate to move any particular player.
That balance - explore everything, force nothing - was the thread running through Tuesday’s conversations.
Baltimore has already begun the heavy lifting. Elias said the front office has packed its schedule with meetings with agents for potential targets, including Scott Boras, who represents, among others, outfielder Randy Arozarena and left-hander Tarik Skubal. Even with a lockout looming in December, Elias said the Orioles have mostly gone about their work as usual.
One name the Orioles would like to keep in the fold is Trevor Rogers. Elias said the club wants to retain the left-hander, or have him accept the one-year qualifying offer by the Nov. 17 deadline.
“We’d like to retain him,” Elias said. “We’ll have to let the QO process play out, but it’s about to be an open market here for both sides, and I think both sides will explore that market. But he was terrific for us the last year and a half, and having a big, power lefty like that fits in so well with our rotation, and we know what a great guy he is behind the scenes, so I’m going to be talking to them and doing our best.”
Elias also said Baltimore could add more than one starter. And while the club feels good about its catching group with Samuel Basallo and Carlos Narváez, there may still be room for a veteran depth piece or two.
Narváez, acquired as part of the Adley Rutschman trade with the Red Sox, struggled at the plate in Baltimore, hitting .104 in 33 games. Even so, Elias made it clear the Orioles still see him as part of the plan.
“he’s going to be part of our catching setup this year,” Elias said.
“His track record at the plate’s a lot better than what he did this season, especially in the second half,” Elias said. “I know he’s working on that. I think we’ll get a better version of him.”
The infield is the one area where the Orioles say they feel settled. That depth could even spill into the outfield, with some of the more athletic infielders potentially getting looks there. Manager Craig Albernaz has already started those conversations with a few players, though Elias would not identify them.
Trade talk, though, is part of the job description. Elias said he wasn’t disputing the report that Baltimore has very few true untouchables, explaining that listening is simply part of how the front office operates.
“But it doesn’t mean we’re motivated to trade players,” Elias continued. “It doesn’t mean we’re proactive.
And it definitely doesn’t mean anything is going to happen. But we’re gathering information here and I don’t hang up the phone, usually, when people ask about players.”
He added that it was “very unlikely” that “our key, core players” would be moved, naming Gunnar Henderson as an example.
The Orioles’ biggest internal fix may be on defense. Last season, Baltimore led baseball in unearned runs allowed, a number that underscored just how many games were hurt by sloppy fielding. Banner said the goal is simple: get a strong defender at every position, however they can.
“The key for us is, we want to have a good defender on the field at every position,” Banner said, “and any way we can create that ability, we’ll definitely investigate.”
Elias pointed to three ways that can happen: better work from the players, better roster decisions from the front office and better positioning through analytics.
“I know this has been a theme the last couple years, and our defense has been worse than it should be,” Elias said. “It’s not because we don’t care about it or a lack of emphasis on it, I just think we need to execute better on all of those fronts that I named, and I’m confident we’ve come across some tools in the last year or so that should help us going forward, particularly with my part of the job.”
When asked about those tools, Elias stayed vague, but said analytics may play a role.
“I’m hopeful we’ve developed some better information on that front than we’ve had.”
Pitching remains another priority, even with the Orioles’ desire to add to the rotation. Elias said the organization is encouraged by its group of pitching prospects, calling it “better than it’s been since I’ve been here.”
“We’re pretty happy with the quality and quantity of pitching prospects we have right now,” Elias said. “A lot of them are in Double and Triple-A, which is really nice for us. We don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we’re relying on that too heavily next year, but it is a help.”
That group includes Anthony Eyanson, who came over from Boston in the Rutschman deal. Elias said Eyanson has a chance to break big league camp with the Orioles, though the team doesn’t want to pile too much on him, Michael Forret, Caden Hunter or Joseph Dzierwa.
All four could reach the majors in 2027, with Forret the only one already in Triple-A. Eyanson is Baltimore’s top-ranked prospect according to Baseball America, and the 22-year-old has climbed quickly. He reached Double-A and posted a 1.54 ERA in 99 1/3 minor league innings in 2026.
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