Rubenstein confident in Elias’ ability to lead Orioles: ‘We’re very pleased’

BALTIMORE—The trade deadline is just 10 days away, and at Friday’s press conference celebrating Kyle Bradish’s contract extension, both Orioles control owner David Rubenstein and president of baseball operations Mike Elias both expressed optimism in the team.

“We have so much talent on this team,” Elias said. “I think we all look at the record, and we’re like, ‘Our record should be better.’”

Entering Friday night’s game with Atlanta, the Orioles are 50-53 and three games out of the wild-card race.

“There’s a lot of ways that it could have been and health’s been a big part of it,” Elias said. “I think we could have played better and executed better and done things differently. Top to bottom, but where we’re at right now, we’re within arm’s reach of the playoff spot. We’ve got enough time to get there.

“We’re coming up on the deadline, so the next several games are really important and everybody’s focused on these next several games, but I look at the talent on his team and we’re extremely optimistic that we can get where we want to go.”

In his first public comments since the Orioles extended starting pitcher Shane Baz in late March, Rubenstein echoed Elias’ optimism.

“I want to thank our fans for staying with us for some difficult times, but now we’re in pretty good shape,” Rubenstein said.

“The last 10 games or so. I’m very proud of where the team is. We still have some health issues from time to time that we have to deal with. I think we’ve got a team that’s in pretty good shape, and I think we’re going to make a really solid run for the playoffs and beyond that.”

Rubenstein also expressed confidence in Elias, who has been in his role since November 2018 and whom he inherited when he and his ownership group took over the team in March 2024.

“He was the baseball executive of the year a few years ago,” Rubenstein said. “Widely regarded as outstanding by his peers and other people in baseball, absolutely and done a terrific job and very, very happy, and we couldn’t be more pleased.

“We’ve had some injuries, but that’s not Mike’s fault, and so in the end, we’re very pleased and we’re really, really happy to have such a talented executive leading our baseball team.”

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