On Saturday May 17, 2025, the Baltimore Orioles made the decision to relieve 2023 AL Manager of the Year Brandon Hyde of his duties after a horrific 15-28 start to the season.
This is hopefully the first step to saving the Orioles from beginning another long rebuild and fixing the future of this team. Most Birdland fans want the next step to be firing GM Mike Elias and finding a new leader who will spend money and help this team compete in the near future.
I believe I have found the perfect replacement for the GM position, and the Orioles don’t even have to venture from their front office to find him. Adam Jones should be the GM of the Baltimore Orioles. Let’s talk about.
Mike Elias’ history as Orioles GM
Before we discuss why Jones is a perfect candidate, I want to look back on what Elias has accomplished with the Orioles.
Elias is an absolute great mind when it comes to the rebuilding phase of an organization, having had first-hand experience in helping the Houston Astros transform into a multi-championship team. Elias was the scouting director for the Astros from 2012-2016. During this period, the Astros drafted Carlos Correa (R1, P1 2012), Lance McCullers Jr. (R CA, P41, 2012) and Alex Bregman (R1, P2 2015), three players who were major factors for Houston’s decade-plus window of contention.
Elias helped scout players who turned the Astros franchise from a laughingstock 51-win team in 2013 to a franchise every organization envied. So, when the Orioles brought in Elias as the GM following the 2018 season, they brought in a great mind to help turn the organization and its philosophy around.
Top draft prospects were selected such as Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser and Jackson Holliday to just name a few that helped turn the Orioles from an embarrassing 2021 season where they had a 19-game losing streak into an AL East division-winning 2023 season where they finished with 101 wins.
Why it’s time for Elias to go
While Elias is great at rebuilding organizations, when it comes to sustaining them and building off great seasons, his track record is far from impressive.
This season is a fantastic example of how everything fell apart. The Orioles lost Corbin Burnes to free agency, and during an entire offseason that had top arms like Max Fried, Blake Snell, Walker Buehler, Jack Flaherty and Nick Pivetta searching for new deals, the O’s went out and signed an almost-retired 41-year-old Charlie Morton to a $15 million contract.
At a time when the Orioles had back-to-back seasons with 90+ wins, you build off the momentum and do your best to get better. Elias didn’t do that.
The Orioles had the consensus top farm system at the beginning of the 2024 season. Granted Holliday was the top prospect in all of baseball, but Elias had the prospect capital to trade within the farm system that still had really high value.
Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad are two prospects Elias could have flipped for a Garrett Crochet or Dylan Cease at the beginning of the 2025 season. Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers were not bad pieces to deal, but trading them for a project like Trevor Rogers was not a needle-moving acquisition.
Elias having a mind for the future is a blessing and a curse at the same time, and right now, it’s ultimately why this Orioles team is in the cellar of the AL East.
The risk of hiring a former player as GM
Getting back on track with the possibility of Jones becoming the next GM in Charm City, it’s understandable that having a former big league player in that type of position could present some risks.
You could have a GM who makes moves like Derek Jeter did when he bought the Miami Marlins and essentially ruined their franchise by trading future stars like Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna, while also dealing 2017 NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton, and the best piece you got back from all three of those trades was Sandy Alcantara.
On the other hand, Craig Breslow walked into the GM position for the Boston Red Sox in 2023 and extended their young superstar in Rafael Devers, acquired the aforementioned Crochet, extended top prospect Kristian Campbell, signed former Elias draftee Alex Bregman in free agency to help the Sox be relevant both this season and for seasons to come.
Why Adam Jones makes sense for the Orioles
The primary reason for why I believe Jones makes the most sense in being the Orioles’ next GM is because he has seen situations just like this during his playing tenure with the organization.
Jones was a part of the Orioles up-and-down season slide from 2012 to 2016. The Birds won 93 games in 2012, making the postseason and then dropping to 85 games the next season. The O’s front office noticed that the club didn’t have a consistent power bat outside of Chris Davis in the lineup, so they go out and sign Nelson Cruz and win the AL East in 2014.
After the 2014 ALCS season, the Orioles ran multiple right fielders in 2015 after long-time outfielder Nick Markakis left in free agency and ultimately missed the postseason and finishing at .500. The Orioles go out and acquire slugger Mark Trumbo and sign international free agent outfielder Hyun-Soo Kim in the offseason and the Birds are right back in the postseason in 2016.
While they seem like fairly common moves, they were acquisitions that helped fill holes, places the club was lacking. That is exactly what the Orioles need during this time period: A GM who will go out and find guys that will fill the gaps of the team and ultimately make the club a true contender.
Another positive is that Jones has played with guys who could fill that opened manager position. Ryan Flaherty, for example, who is the current bench coach of the Chicago Cubs under manager Craig Counsell and used to be the bench coach in San Diego under three-time Manager of the Year, Bob Melvin.
Another former player is Gerardo Parra, who is the current first base coach for the Washington Nationals and is working under 2019 World-Series-winning manager, Dave Martinez. Both guys are solid candidates for the manager position once Mansolino loses the interim tag after the 2025 season.
Wrap-Up
Every move you make in sports comes with a risk. Sometimes the risk works out, and sometimes it blows up in your face. This is a risk that the Orioles need to take to get back into a championship-contending team.
Jones knows the organization, the City of Baltimore and Birdland fans to a tee. If anyone could bring this team back to its competitive relevance, it’s The Captain.
What are your thoughts on this possibility? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, X, Bluesky and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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