Heading into GM Mike Elias’ fifth year with Orioles, his time in Houston is still paying off for Astros – Reading Eagle

Next month, Mike Elias will enter his fifth calendar year as executive vice president and general manager of the Orioles. The team he left to fill that role, the Houston Astros, reached the World Series in three of their first four.

As Houston’s director of scouting and assistant general manager, Elias played a large role in building the core of talent that produced the 2017 World Series title, tainted by a cheating scandal involving Elias, assistant general manager Sig Medjdal and other Astros staff , now operating in Baltimore, were not involved – and the next three pennants. Of the 27 players the Astros drafted in the two rounds of the postseason before their World Series matchup with the Phillies, many have at least some connection to Elias or the work he did in Houston.

Some have more direct connections than others. Of course there’s Trey Mancini, The longest-tenured Oriole Elias handed over to his former organization in August. One of four Astros rookies to not appear in a playoff game before this year, Mancini has struggled since the trade, batting .176 with a .622 OPS and is still looking for his first postseason hit.

The seven players on Houston’s AL or championship rosters were selected while Elias was overseeing Houston’s amateur scouting. That group includes three first-round picks: right-hander Lance McCullers Jr., third baseman Alex Bregman and outfielder Kyle Tucker. Elias’ most notable draft pick since his time in Houston, 2012 first overall pick Carlos Correa, left in free agency last offseason, but ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña, who replaced him as the Astros’ shortstop, was their third-round pick Elias was drafted there in the last round in 2018. This speaks to what Elias is trying to build in Baltimore, such a pipeline that a talented player who leaves can be replaced by another.

Outfielders Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick, both drafted in 2017, and David Hensley, an infielder taken late in the 2018 draft, also made at least one of Houston’s playoff rosters.

Five more Astros were acquired in trades involving players drafted under Elias. Houston’s fifth-round picks in 2013, 2015 and 2016 were part or all of returning catcher Martin Maldonado, shortstop Aledmis Diaz and righty Rafael Montero, and shortstop Mauricio Dubon was acquired for a ninth-round pick. Like Maldonado, Cy Young Award favorite Justin Verlander re-signed with the Astros as a free agent, but the organization originally acquired him in exchange for three prospects, two of whom were top-three Elias-era draftees.

This offseason is expected to be the first in which Elias will be tasked with trading players he drafted to Baltimore. With the promise of Elias”take off from here” and an increase in wages for the Oriole family, Baltimore is expected to consider moving some prospects from their well-regarded bullpen to add major league players. Houston’s collection shows that both roster-filling role players and big-name aces can be possibilities (along with Verlander, Elias’ draftees were part of Houston’s packages to get Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke).

Six Astros were signed as international free agents during Elias’ tenure in Houston, although each of those acquisitions occurred before he became the manager of the department in August 2017. Another two were exchanged to use only this type of subscriber. It is unknown if Elias has any direct ties to the group, though his player development work may have played a role in them becoming major league factors or prospects with trade value. The same could have been true of Jordan Alvarez, acquired in a trade where the figures on either side had no connection to Elias.

Regardless of Elias’ exact impact, that much of the Astros’ roster is a byproduct of their international efforts speaks to an element of his time in Baltimore that has grown impressively but has yet to materialize. Given that most Latin players are signed as teenagers, it often takes years for them to reach the majors, and the Orioles’ roster is starting to fill out at a younger age. Deals in this area are also negotiated years in advance, which means Baltimore’s front office under Elias has been working behind the scenes early on, but is slowly moving toward the top of the market. In the previous two cycles, the Orioles signed three players to seven-figure deals, and the club a new academy in the Dominican Republic is nearing completion.

Four of the remaining five Astros acquired after Elias left for Baltimore via the draft, free agency or waiver claim, and the other was second baseman Jose Altuve, who made his Houston debut before Elias left St. Louis Cardinals to join the Astros. Houston’s only outfield major league free agents are outfielders Hector Nerys and Ryne Stanek, a testament to the quality of the organization’s internal development, something Elias has tried to build in Baltimore throughout his tenure. Meanwhile, the Phillies’ most famous faces are largely high-priced free agents.

Both teams are showing the way to contend for the Orioles, and they will spend the next week-plus competing against each other to win the World Series. Its completion will mark the start of Elias’ first offseason with the Orioles, in which he will try to build a team capable of replicating his success in Houston and bringing a title to Baltimore.

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