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Baltimore Orioles GM Admits 'Hard to Push Back On Criticism'

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Troy Brock | Last updated May 8, 2025 3:05 PM ET

The Baltimore Orioles enter play Thursday with a 13-22 record. It finds them in last place in the American League East, and only three teams, the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies, have a worse record than the O's. Of those three teams, the Pirates fired their manager Thursday.

When looking at those four teams on paper, it is obvious that one of those teams is not like the others. The Orioles are two years removed from winning more than 100 games and claiming the AL East, while the latter three are seemingly always in rebuilds. The White Sox even broke the Major League record for most losses in a single season last year, and the Rockies are on pace to shatter that this year.

The Baltimore Orioles have huge problems. pic.twitter.com/c2IhX8Gdht
— Dan Clark (@DanClarkSports) May 4, 2025

General manager Mike Elias went on The Show podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman on Wednesday to discuss Baltimore's year so far and the criticism surrounding the organization.

"It's hard to push back on criticism that we didn't do enough when we're in this spot right now," Elias said. "I think we've had a lot of bad breaks, but again, I didn't expect anywhere near this degree of injuries and then just some of the underperformance that we've gotten that I hope is temporary for a lot of guys. This is toward the extreme of outcomes."

The criticism has certainly been earned, especially when assessing the moves Elias did make in the offseason. Instead of bringing back ace starting pitcher Corbin Burnes, he left in free agency to join the Arizona Diamondbacks. Instead of singing any of the big-name bats on the market, Elias doubled down on the group already in the clubhouse.

"As we're talking right here, I mean, we're off to an incredibly disappointing start... a lot of things going wrong everywhere you look. It's been really rough on all of us"

Orioles GM Mike Elias gave his assessment of Baltimore's slow start to the season. pic.twitter.com/QgneZrptN1
— Ryan Ripken (@ryanripkenshow) May 7, 2025