Elias on Orioles’ readiness for season, pursuit of Burnes, Santander, Bautista, Mateo

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias met with the media at the Warehouse Collaborative in Baltimore after he joined select members of the Orioles at a community event. Elias, and his team, which included Adley Rutschman, the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich, and this reporter, won the award for most goods gathered to benefit Baltimore charities.

Elias spoke on several topics. Here are excerpts:

Are you still targeting pitching?

Elias: “I think we’re targeting improvements to the team. Obviously, we’re going to Sarasota soon. Very excited about that. Really like where the team is at presently. I think we’ve got a great team in the American League East this year. It’s going to be in the thick of the division title chase, and it’ll be a very competitive, exciting season in a tough division. So, we like where we’re at.

“But we still have time on the clock before the offseason is over. There are still free agents. The trade market sometimes happens very late. I can’t forecast that or handicap it. There’s still those possibilities. It seems like there hasn’t been many trades, just in general, this offseason. Maybe there won’t be, but also maybe they’re just going to happen late. I don’t really know. But we’re working right now and we’ll continue to do that, maybe even past the opening of camp. But historically, we don’t sign guys too late into camp, so I guess at least until pitchers and catchers, we’re going to be working the offseason like we always do.”

How is the starting rotation?

Elias: “I think it’s really good. I think we have a lot of depth, a lot of options. I feel really secure. You always expect some level of injury, but if we don’t get anything kind of beyond the norm, I think we have good quality pitching to get us through the season, and we also have youth in the rotation and some of these guys are very apt to take a step forward, so I like the blend of experience, youth, depth, different types of guys, guys we can have in the minors. I think we have a really strong pitching staff in general, the bullpen too, going into the season. But we still have the opportunity to explore additions if we can find them, and we’ll be doing that the next couple weeks.”

Has the timeline for Jorge Mateo’s recovery from Tommy John surgery changed?

Elias: “Not really materially since I’ve last spoken about it. He’s doing well from his recovery. You’ll see him in spring training. He’s not going to be a hundred percent citizen of spring training, but he’ll be ramping up. We’ll be able to address whether or not he’s going to break or [be ready for] Opening Day a little bit later. It’s possible, but not ready to sort of make that forecast right now. He’s doing really well. Everyone that’s had surgery, their medical recoveries are going very smoothly, knock on wood.”

How serious were the Orioles about retaining Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander?

Elias: “I don’t like to tit for tat on negotiations that didn’t result in deals, so I don’t know that I really wanna put out details about it. But we were very active and we really enjoyed having those players. Ultimately they ended up elsewhere and we made other moves. But I think just in general we were and are very aggressive this offseason. We’ve got a great team, we’ve got an eager and a very robust new ownership group and we were out there and we got a lot of deals done and we’re maybe trying to do more.”

Will Félix Bautista be ready to start spring training?

Elias: “I don’t know that he — he won’t be in a spot where it’s like any old spring training. He’s coming off the surgery. There’s going to be a ramp involved that is reflective of the fact that he’s coming off of Tommy John. So, maybe a different, slower ramp. We’re going to be careful with him and if it needs to be a slow ramp, if he needs extra time, whatever he needs, we’re going to be prioritizing that rather than bum-rushing him to get him out there. But he’s doing very well.”

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