BALTIMORE—Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias expects to return next season, and he says Craig Albernaz will be back along with him.
“That’s my assumption,” Elias said of his return. He’s been the Orioles’ top baseball official since November 2018. “It’s a big responsibility, kind of stewarding this franchise, and I remain focused on that every day, and what is the best decision for the organization and the franchise in that moment.”
Albernaz will return for a second season.
“We’ll continue to build around Craig,” Elias said.
Bautista back, Helsley shut down
Félix Bautista has been activated from the 60-day injured list. Bautista, who was rehabbing from August 2025 rotator cuff and labrum surgery, is ready to pitch.
However, Ryan Helsley, who pitched a rehab game at Triple-A Norfolk last Saturday, is being shut down, Elias said. Helsley is on the 60-day injured list with a right elbow injury.
“Helsley was doing pretty well in his rehab,” Elias said. “With the calendar where we’re at, we got to the point where we had to decide whether to push the envelope a little bit and compress his time between outings and ramp him up and get him ready for the big league level.
“Taking everything into account, we decided that might not be the wisest play, we’re going to shut him down, basically, and conclude his season. We’re going to gear him towards 2027 at this point.”
Helsley has a $14 million player option for next season.
Bautista had nine rehab outings, eight at Triple-A Norfolk and one at Double-A Chesapeake.
“He’s as close to full go as he could be,” Albernaz said. “I couldn’t be more excited to have Félix back. It’s been a long road for him, such a tough journey.”
Albernaz isn’t sure how Bautista will be used.
“Try to be as smart as we can when we use Félix,” he said. “The game is chaotic and unpredictable, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
He won’t rule out using Bautista immediately as a closer.
“I have no idea. Depends on how it shakes out,” Albernaz said. “I don’t want to say no, and then next thing you know, we use everyone in the ‘pen … We’re not going to force him into the ninth-inning role.
“We want to be smart with everything we do, especially with his buildup and ramp up to get into the game, but the game is unpredictable. It’s tough to have a definitive answer on that.”
Outfielder Christian Franklin, who had been on the 10-day injured list with left hand inflammation, has been activated and outfielder Heston Kjerstad was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.
Kjerstad, who was brought up on September 1st when the rosters expanded, was 4-for-19 (.211) with two RBIs.
Elias said that Kjerstad, who was the overall No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft, has a future with the team.
“It’s been kind of a difficult road for him, and he’s missed a lot of time,” Elias said. “But he’s a very talented player, and he’s got a really good bat, and right now we’ve decided on a little different roster mix … Heston’s got a lot of talent and he’s still at the forefront of his career.”
To make room for Bautista on the 40-man roster, outfielder Tyler O’Neill was transferred from the 10-day to 60-day injured list.
Waiting on Holliday, Alexander
Second baseman Jackson Holliday, who’s on the 10-day injured list with left wrist inflammation, is eligible to return for next weekend’s series at Yankee Stadium, but Elias is unsure he’ll play then.
“I don’t know. I think it depends where we are in the standings,” Elias said. “His wrist has been bothering him. He’s postseason-eligible if we bring him back before then, but I don’t know what decision we’re going to make there yet.”
Elias expects utility player Blaze Alexander, whose wife had a baby girl on Thursday, to return before the end of the season.
New role for Mejdal
Orioles assistant general manager for analytics Sig Mejdal will be transitioning to a new role in the organization.
“Sig is going to be focused on what was already a big part of his job,” Elias said. “That’s sort of keeping an eye on the frontier, emerging technologies and new methods for whatever it is that we do across this organization.”
Mejdal’s current top associates could replace him or he could look for a replacement from the outside.
“Some guys, who he’s brought along internally, are going to step up and take care of the day-to-day management administration of the analytics department.”
Elias said the Orioles have a small front office, and he could be looking for a general manager to work under him.
“I plan on going out and trying to talk to talented executives from other teams,” Elias said. “We have titles available that we can use to gain permission to try to talk to people. That’s one of them, and I expect to do that.”
Earlier this month, the Orioles moved on from Matt Blood, who’d been with the organization for seven years. At various times, Blood had been in charge of the minor leagues and draft and most recently was vice president of player and staff development.
“We want to add from the outside in the offseason,” Elias said. “We’ve got one of the very smallest baseball operations in the league, and I think we’re at a stage where we’d benefit greatly from outside voices in a number of areas.
“We would like to explore outside help and outside talent, and the owners and I have been discussing that. They’re very supportive and they will be very supportive of anyone new that we bring into this organization. They’re looking to build.”
Albernaz came from a successful organization, the Cleveland Guardians, and Elias said the team could profit from hearing new thoughts.
“We want to hear outside perspectives,” he said. “There’s a lot of teams having a lot of success, and we want to learn from those people.”
Orioles-Brewers lineups
Orioles
Jeremiah Jackson-2B
Pete Alonso-1B
Coby Mayo-DH
Christian Encarnacion-Strand-3B
Gunnar Henderson-SS
Rece Hinds-RF
Christian Franklin-LF
Samuel Basallo-C
Leody Taveras-CF
Trevor Rogers-LHP
Brewers
Jackson Chourio-LF
Garrett Mitchell-CF
William Contreras-DH
Andrew Vaughn-1B
Joey Ortiz-3B
Gary Sánchez-C
Cooper Pratt-SS
Luis Lara-RF
David Hamilton-2B
Robert Gasser-LHP
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