Calling the Pen: Elias starts the Orioles’ offseason with an error

One day into the offseason, Mike Elias is off to a bad start — one he should have avoided.

At Monday’s end-of-season news conference, the Orioles’ president of baseball operations was asked about 28-year-old left-handed starter Trevor Rogers, who is likely to pursue the free-agent market after saying repeatedly that he’d like to stay in Baltimore.

Elias’s response made me think about how he talked about catcher Adley Rutschman on June 27th.

“He’s been the cornerstone basically since I’ve been here. He’s an enormous part of it,” Elias said. “I wish our commitment was greater than it is. We want him here forever.”

Rutschman was traded to the Red Sox on August 3rd, with the club putting the catching position firmly in the hands of 22-year-old Samuel Basallo, who signed an eight-year, $67 million extension last year.

Inexplicably, the Orioles and Rogers haven’t agreed on an extension. He was 10-11 with a 4.03 ERA in 30 starts, and would have been 11-11 if manager Craig Albernaz hadn’t pulled him after four innings in a 10-2 win over the Yankees last Friday.

On Monday, Elias’s words about Rogers didn’t back up his actions, or inaction.

“Thought he had a really good year, and we love him,” Elias said. “And we would love for him to stay. I’m certainly going to be talking to his camp before free agency, but then also during free agency, if it gets to that point.

“That said, I think as he said publicly, he’s a pitcher who’s worked really hard since being drafted and he’s managed to get to the precipice of free agency at a healthy spot and an impressive spot. The system affords him that right, and I’m sure there’s a big part of him that’s going to value that, too. That’s my take on it. But the interest is very high from our side of the fence.”

In Rich Dubroff’s mailbag for Tuesday, he shares a reader’s frustration in the Orioles’ apparent willingness to let Rogers walk instead of offering an extension, which Elias gave to starters Kyle Bradish and Shane Baz and reliever Yennier Cano. “The guess here is that he’ll get a qualifying offer from the Orioles, turn it down, test the market and sign elsewhere, which would leave a good-sized hole in the rotation,” Rich writes.

Last season, Elias gave up on starter Grayson Rodriguez and traded him for outfielder Taylor Ward, which was his worst move of an offseason highlighted by the free-agent signing of Pete Alonso.

Now he appears to be okay with losing his only left-handed starter, one who has given the Orioles two strong seasons. Elias said “it’s a very bitter feeling, especially doing this [losing] two years in a row,” but he didn’t present the fans with any encouragement, such as announcing that Rogers had accepted the extension that he and the Orioles deserve.