Amid 19-game losing streak, rebuilding Orioles have no choice but to 'grind through it'

BALTIMORE — The plan is working, says Mike Elias, and the process trustworthy.

That sentiment was perhaps an easier sell in Year 1 of the grand Baltimore Orioles teardown, hatched after Elias was hired in November 2018 to rehabilitate an organization that, as a 115-loss season indicated, had fallen badly behind the times.

It is now Year 3 under Elias’ stewardship, and the Orioles’ executive vice president and general manager can rightfully point to a rejuvenated farm system and gains made in player development as points of pride.

Yet the major league product under Elias’ watch has stagnated at best and regressed at worst. A 108-loss campaign in 2019 gave way to a mildly encouraging 25-35 effort in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, making it fair for Orioles manager Brandon Hyde to wonder if 2021 would reveal a light or another oncoming train looming at the end of this indefinite tunnel.

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