Orioles’ Elias on why he’s optimistic, trade deadline philosophy, Henderson

BALTIMORE—Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias doesn’t speak to the media often. On Saturday, he spoke for just the third time this season, and the first since May 15^th.

Here are excerpts from his 13-minute chat.

Question: Why do you remain optimistic about this team?

Elias: “I see a lot of talented people in this operation, and it’s not just the players. So, we believe in ourselves. This is really tough. There’s other teams trying to win, too, and it’s a zero-sum thing, and you’re gonna come out on the short end of the sticks, and I don’t like that we’re in year two of that, and that’s not right, but I very much believe that we’re gonna get back on our feet here in the second half, and it’s gonna get rolling.”

Q: Is it difficult to be a seller if your job is on the line?

Elias: “I feel like, if you’re doing your job well as a general manager, it’s sort of incumbent on you in a position like this, and you’re getting paid, to do the right thing for the baseball operation and the franchise across a very long time horizon as best as you can. That definitely would not be any type of factor. … I am very optimistic we’re going to be looking to put this team in a good position for a playoff run.”

Q: Based on where the team is in the standings now, what constitutes a successful season?

Elias: “First of all, and I emphasize ‘first of all,’ we want to make the playoffs. That’s the gateway to winning championships. Winning a division title is great, but right now, we’re not even in the wild card, so I think step one is to get ourselves into the wild-card position. And I think if we get into the playoffs and have a good playoff run, we’ll feel very good about this season. You can’t specify exactly what you’re going to do in the playoffs. It’s very hard to do that. But this is a team, if we get in, it means we had a strong second half and I think, if we can be relatively healthy going in, it’s going to be a pretty strong team in the playoffs with the players we have.”

Q: What do you think is wrong with Gunnar Henderson?

Elias: “I’m not the technical expert that I think our hitting coaches or Alby are to talk about the specifics of why he’s playing under his ability at the plate, but it’s all manageable, fixable stuff. Gunnar’s working his butt off. He cares like crazy, and we see flashes of it. He’s still very, very helpful to this team and one of the best players in baseball. I think last time I talked, I thought he was going to get going. To be answering this question again, we’re probably all frustrated, including him. But he will get going.”

Q: What positions are you looking to shore up at the trade deadline?

Elias: “I’m not there yet. The deadline isn’t today, and so we do have several more weeks. It could evolve. I don’t want to make any proclamations. We got a lot of guys out here still trying to show exactly what they are and what they’re doing this season. I’d like to take more time before diagnosing that.”

Q: How much input do you have on the lineup, and how do you like working with Craig Albernaz?

Elias: “I have no input on the lineup. Our front office doesn’t, either, unless we’re asked for it, which we work very collaborative with Craig and his staff, and they will ask. But other than that, we don’t get involved in daily stuff. I always want the coaches that are close to the clubhouse situation, the health picture, what’s going on if the team’s on the road — and they’re also studying several games ahead, trying to plan out lineups — so we want them to take care of that and they do. We really like working with Alby and his coaching staff. We see a lot of good things in the operation. It’s hard for me to pat any of ourselves on the back too hard while we have a losing record, so it’s all stuff that we can be doing to improve. But we think we have really good people here, and we’re happy with this coaching staff. We’re just trying to get everything to gel in the second half better.”

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