BALTIMORE (AP) - Orioles general manager Mike Elias has fired 14 members of the organization, most from the player development department and international operations.
Elias has dismissed 25 people thus far in an overhaul of the system that he inherited when taking the job in November.
“It’s tough stuff, but we’re trying to reposition our organization for the future to compete in our division,” Elias said Tuesday before Baltimore played the Los Angeles Dodgers. “Right now we’re 46-97 and we’ve got a long way to go to get better and we need to do things differently to get better.”
The names of those fired were not released by the team.
Elias began rebuilding the organization from top to bottom after the Orioles finished 47-115 last year 2018, their worst record since coming to Baltimore in 1954. Pulling from the knowledge he gained as an assistant GM with the Astros, who successful negotiated a similar rebuild, Elias is shuffling the scouting department and minor league operations.
“We have a lot to work to improve this organization,” he said. “It’s reflected right now with where we’re at, at the major league level, in the standings,” Elias said.
As Baltimore heads for another 100-loss season, the changes in a front office that Elias inherited were almost inevitable.
“Nobody likes doing this stuff, but we have a job to do,” he said. “We’re going to be accountable for the results of it and we’re doing a lot of new things around here.”
The firings, he insisted, were not part of a cost-cutting move because there will be people hired in numbers similar to those dismissed.
“I do expect us to backfill all those numbers, if not more,” Elias insisted. “It might not be the same title, location, whatever. We’re going to be growing as a department and in player development, specifically. I expect an increased head count relative to what was here, for sure, but we’ll be doing a lot of different stuff across all levels.
“There are going to be positions here that have never existed before with the Orioles.”
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