Connolly: Elias does not have approval to take on salary to add prospects in a trade

[7Mo]

3 minutes ago, Satyr3206 said:

While I think a lot of the recent decisions are financially based I don't see this the same way as Connolly. It could be because of the Davis deal or the Masn issue. Too many unknowns to automatically say Elias doesn't have control. I do know next years team is going to be hard to watch.

There's no indication Elias liked the prospect or wanted to pursue that deal at all.

[Number5]

14 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

If you can hit a judge and the team still has to pay you...

I wouldn't advise it.

[weams]

5 minutes ago, 7Mo said:

There's no indication Elias liked the prospect or wanted to pursue that deal at all.

Or felt that spending 12.8 for a guy who signed for 5 ish was cool.

[7Mo]

Just now, weams said:

Or felt that spending 12.8 for a guy who signed for 5 ish was cool.

Right. And I'm not sure 12.8 is the limit. The deal said "and cash considerations" which is speculated to be Wilson's signing bonus of about $3.4M. 

Maybe "cash considerations" is only the Cozart contract. Either way, nothing about that suggests what Connolly wrote in my opinion.

[SteveA]

5 hours ago, Philip said:

I think that’s the point of the trade. Because the guys we received are at the beginning of their development they are inexpensive. But because Mike has faith in the reports he’s gotten on them so far and in his development staff, he thinks they could be something. There’s a bunch of risk involved, of course, and that is why four guys who can be something are better than one guy who will probably be something, at least at this stage of the Build process.

 Also, a guy who will probably be something right now, is it really what he wants. He’d rather gamble for a higher production at a later date. I don’t have a problem with that, the only thing I have a problem with is him saying that wins now aren’t important and I only say this every single time the subject comes up, but 60 wins is better than 50 and 70 is better than 60 and we should win as much as we can without interfering with “the plan“

And that is a key point.   I think that our player development has been lacking in the past.   The best guys our farm system produced prior to McPhail were guys who traversed the system so fast that they didn't get significantly "developed" by our organization:   Manny, Wieters, to some extent Markakis.   We had a pretty good track record with first round draft picks, which are of course the players that need the least "development".

If Elias is truly making improvements in how we mold prospects into players, then that will be HUGE.   The uptick in strikeouts throughout our system in just his first year is a very encouraging data point, but just one data point.   If we start having a higher "hit rate" with our 2nd/3rd/4th/etc round picks and also start producing more international talent, that will make an unbelievable difference in our longterm potential.

But right now, there's no choice but to wait and see how that turns out...

[SteveA]

2 hours ago, GuidoSarducci said:

Could we do something similar with Davis?    Package a prospect or two with Davis for essentially a salary dump?

Hmm, it took a first round pick to unload $12 million of albatross contract with Cozart.

So to unload $70 million, it would probably take Grayson Rodriguez, Adley Rutschmann, DL Hall, and Yusmiel Diaz.

Wanna make that deal?

[baltfan]

They are letting him burn it all down.  He clearly wants to do that.  They must trust him to let him do so. 

[GuidoSarducci]

5 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Hmm, it took a first round pick to unload $12 million of albatross contract with Cozart.

So to unload $70 million, it would probably take Grayson Rodriguez, Adley Rutschmann, DL Hall, and Yusmiel Diaz.

Wanna make that deal?

Someone like Diaz plus Mancini and the O's eat half the contract.  Might be a team out there willing to do that.

Forgot about Davis no-trade clause.   Maybe he doesn't want to move like Cashner.

[atomic]

1 hour ago, weams said:

I think that is why they coordinated with Boras. 

Boras supposedly has his own training facility with coaches.  So Davis could go there.  I am not sure what sending someone down to Texas once a month will do.  

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, atomic said:

Boras supposedly has his own training facility with coaches.  So Davis could go there.  I am not sure what sending someone down to Texas once a month will do.  

They can bring back brisket.

[weams]

1 minute ago, atomic said:

Boras supposedly has his own training facility with coaches.  So Davis could go there.  I am not sure what sending someone down to Texas once a month will do.  

Me either. Look at him. Task him. Same thing that happens when you put an employee on PIP on the way out the door. 

[weams]

3 minutes ago, atomic said:

Boras supposedly has his own training facility with coaches.  So Davis could go there.  I am not sure what sending someone down to Texas once a month will do.  

They don’t want Chris or Boras to pick his coaching. They have extremely specific things that they are requiring. 

[MGH5208]

3 hours ago, atomic said:

 

Second I don't think he laid out his plans to sell off players for very low level prospects in his second year who are at best 4 years away from helping the big league team. 

 

That IS the plan!

It's not about building for a competitive team in 2022 and then back to more losing season.  It's about depth in the minors and building the "pipeline" of talent.

So what if they are 4 years from helping in the majors?  If 2 of them are ready 4 years from now, maybe you trade Means (just an example off the top of my head, don't kill me if I got his arb years. free agency, etc wrong) to replenish your prospects and give these guys a job in 4 years.  Or, package one or two in a deal to get something for your playoff run.  Worst case is you release them because you have built up much better talent in the org by then - Bundy or Villar weren't going to be part of it then anyway....

[7Mo]

29 minutes ago, weams said:

They don’t want Chris or Boras to pick his coaching. They have extremely specific things that they are requiring. 

Maybe you saw different quotes or know more but I'd question based on what looks like Elias spoke with Boras and a member of the Boras group and they want to "make sure they're coordinated".

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias confirmed this afternoon that he spoke last week with Boras and “a member of his team that’s sort of health and player performance oriented for their group and we just want to make sure we’re coordinated in the plan for him this winter and making sure that Chris and the Boras Corporation and the Orioles all have an understanding of what we want to get accomplished.”

“So this is one area where teams and agents are on the same page, keeping them healthy and having them play well and so yeah, this is something we do. But the Boras Corporation is a large agency, they’ve got a lot resources at their disposal and they’re good in this area, so it makes sense to plug in with them.”

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2019/12/elias-on-davis-contracts-stewart-mountcastle-and-more.html

[SteveA]

55 minutes ago, weams said:

They don’t want Chris or Boras to pick his coaching. They have extremely specific things that they are requiring.