Its an interesting thought.
Elias has spent 15m on Burnes betting that Burnes will allow the O's to get deep into the playoffs. Plus 13m on Kimbrel. At the deadline he added 7m to that for the two month salaries of Eflin, Rogers, Dominguez, Soto, Slater and Jimenez. Plus he is probably committing 26m of next year's budget to retain Eflin and Dominguez. And there was the prospect capital of Ortiz, Hall, Norby, Stowers, Baumeister, Etzel, Horvath and Johnson all used to try to go deep in the playoffs this season.
That is a pretty steep commitment betting on the outcome of the playoffs.
So if Mateo were to be unavailable for the playoffs is it really that far of a reach to say Elias would burn two options on Bradfield early to improve the O's chances to win in the playoffs?