The Orioles Have Wasted Another First Half Under Mike Elias. Happens Almost Every Year

Of the many massive issues for this franchise under their head of baseball operations, constantly chasing the standings stands out

Nov 4, 2025; Baltimore, MD, USA; President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias introduces Craig Albernaz as the Baltimore Orioles new Manager at Warehouse Bar. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

There are many aspects of Orioles baseball under Mike Elias’s reign that have been problematic. Let’s face it  - running a nine-year rebuild without a single playoff win takes some doing.

A lot goes into it.

But if it feels like the team is, collectively, less than the whole of the rum of its parts and if it feels like they are always chasing the standings and if it feels like they are always flailing at the All-Star break, well, that’s because they usually are. They don’t get off to fast starts by a large – 2023 and 2024 were the exceptions – and even in 2024, by this part in the season, mid-July, they were already entering freefall territory.

Elias’s rosters have never been good enough or deep enough or balanced enough or fundamentally sound enough to make up for lost ground, and they have almost always been chasing everyone else in the American League East this time of year. This year is no exception.

Slow Starts Are Endemic To The Elias Way

The exact timing of the All-Star break changes some from year to year, but in general falls around 95 games into the season. The Orioles, under Elias (since 2019) have a record of 334-391 through 95 games, seventh-worst in baseball. They have one more win than the White Sox and Marlins, by comparison, who have also embarked on lengthy rebuilds but whose executives in charge never declared “liftoff” or boasted about a “decade-long window” that was opening up.

Elias has had a team above .500 at the 95-game mark just twice in all his years here, and that was 2023 and 2024. Their reward was utter failure by him at the trade deadline.

The Orioles have 19 seasons in their history – since moving from St. Louis to Baltimore inn 1954 – where they had 43 wins or less after 95 games (including this season). In what should shame and embarrass everyone in The Warehouse, five of them have come in the eight seasons that Elias has been in charge.

They have been in last place in the AL East in six of their eight years under Elias at the 95-game mark, including this year (they are now a half-game out of last.

None of those teams has ever finished with more than 78 wins.

And given the systemic flaws and warts of this team there is no reason to think this edition will be any different. Especially with sparkplug Blaze Alexander, their best player since April 28, now out indefinitely with a broken hand.

If it feels like the rebuild has never really stopped, it’s because it hasn’t.

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