Orioles’ Elias makes a number of surprising moves early in the offseason

Mike Elias can be full of surprises. Some are bigger — the trade of promising right-hander Grayson Rodriguez for outfielder Taylor Ward, and the tendering of a 2026 contract to first baseman Ryan Mountcastle.

Others are smaller, but still noteworthy.

On Friday, the Orioles non-tendered right-hander Albert Suárez and traded catcher Alex Jackson to Minnesota for minor league infielder Payton Eeles.

It was assumed that Suárez, who started 24 games in 2024 but appeared in just five games in 2025, was going to be offered a contract for next season. He’d been a godsend in 2024 but missed nearly all of 2025 because of a rotator cuff injury and a right elbow injury. After seeing Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas last month, the Orioles said that Suárez had “a mild forearm flexor strain” and would begin a throwing progression in the coming weeks.

His projected salary for 2026 was only $900,000, but perhaps there are physical concerns about the future of the 36-year-old right-hander.

“The arbitration system, the tender system, there are price points that are set by the system itself that you have to adapt your decision-making to,” the Orioles’ president of baseball operations said in his video conference call on Friday night. “We love Albert. He’s been a tremendous success story for us since our pro scouts and Mike Snyder’s group found him coming out of Asia. What our pitching department did to develop him, and then what he did particularly in 2024.

“And it was a real bummer and it was a big part of a lot of the struggles we had last [season] that he got hurt. I don’t want to go into details about our decision-making as we approach these tender decisions, but we very much are fans of Albert and we’re very much hoping to continue talking to him, and made that clear to him and his group. And I hope the feeling’s mutual.”

Jackson was a valuable addition when the Orioles were decimated by injuries to their catchers. In just over two weeks, Adley Rutschman, Maverick Handley, Chadwick Tromp and Gary Sánchez were hurt badly enough to require stays on the injured list.

Jackson was hurriedly acquired from the New York Yankees and played well, hitting .220 with a .763 OPS in 36 games and throwing out 29.1 percent of runners attempting to steal (seven of 24). There was speculation that his solid play might persuade the Orioles to keep three catchers on the 26-man roster next season because of the versatility of Rutschman and Samuel Basallo. His $1.8 million salary didn’t seem onerous, but the Orioles sent Jackson to the Twins.

“Alex did a nice job for us,” Elias said. “He’s a very talented player that was a very high draft pick, and when I was with the Astros and we had the No. 1 pick, I spent a lot of time watching him and you could see a lot of the ability that he had here when he was with the Orioles.

“He’s got a big arm, he’s got big power. He did a really nice job for us when we picked him up during that ridiculous catching crisis that we had last year. We just have two other really good catchers, and there are other teams that had a bigger need for him and we got a nice player in Payton Eeles.

“So we made the trade. I don’t think it rules out us adding a third catcher, and I agree that there’s logical discussions around whether we should carry one, given that our main two are kind of offensive-oriented guys that might be DHing or playing first base at different times. So we’ll just continue to look at that. But we didn’t want to pass on the trade opportunity.”

On Tuesday, the Orioles designated utility infielder Luis Vázquez for assignment. He had signed a major league contract for 2026 earlier in the month. Vázquez cleared waivers and, on Sunday, the Orioles announced he had accepted an assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.

That move adds some infield depth. They did re-sign Jose Barrero, who’s played 161 major league games with St. Louis and Cincinnati. He hit .190 with eight home runs and 27 RBIs in 53 games for Norfolk.

Eeles is just 5-feet-5 and is an experienced middle infielder. He has a .272 average and .790 OPS in 150 games at Triple-A St. Paul over the last two seasons. He’s shown the ability to get on base with a .410 minor league OBP and stolen 41 of 51 bases in his two minor league seasons.

Perhaps Elias will add infielders on minor league contracts with invitations to major league spring training on his holiday shopping list.

Even though Handley remains on the roster, the Orioles might sign catchers on minor league contracts, particularly if Creed Willems, who was not added to the 40-man roster, is selected in the December 10^th Rule 5 draft.

Willems, who was the Orioles’ eighth-round pick in 2021, played well for Double-A Chesapeake in 2025, hitting .253 with a .779 OPS, 16 home runs and 59 RBIs. He’s also played first base.

Teams rarely select catchers in the Rule 5 draft because it’s hard to set aside a roster spot for them, so perhaps we’ll see Willems in major league camp.

Note: Home Grapefruit League games will begin at 1:05 p.m. with the exception of March 15th (Yankees), March 16th (Red Sox), March 19th (Pirates) and March 20th (Spring Breakout against Red Sox prospects). They’ll begin at 6:05 p.m.

Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.