The Orioles promoted Mike Elias ahead of the season but didn’t announce the move at the time, making the general manager the club’s president of baseball operations, a source confirmed.

A second source indicated the Orioles are exploring options to flesh out their front office, including a potential general manager to work under Elias. The Orioles have spoken with Chicago White Sox assistant general manager Josh Barfield about that potential opening, two sources said, but Barfield has reportedly chosen to stay with Chicago.

Barfield previously served as the director of player development for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Athletic first reported Elias’ promotion and the search for a new general manager. Elias declined to comment.

The Orioles have begun fleshing out the front office. They are hiring Washington Nationals scouting director Danny Haas to be a special assistant to the general manager, a fourth source said.

The baseball operations department already includes Sig Mejdal as vice president and assistant general manager and Eve Rosenbaum as assistant general manager.

The promotion for Elias is a statement of support for his work since he was hired from the Houston Astros in November 2018. Elias oversaw a rebuild that included 100-loss seasons in 2019 and 2021. After he built the farm system through the subsequent high draft picks and saw the Orioles make the postseason two years in a row (although they were winless), the progress stopped this year.

In May, Elias fired manager Brandon Hyde, whom Elias hired to steer Baltimore through dark days. The Orioles opened the season 15-28, which prompted the dismissal of Hyde. In his place, they installed Tony Mansolino as interim manager, and he has steadied the ship.

Still, the Orioles won’t make the postseason this year as part of a setback that only increases the importance of an offseason that could now feature more than just a managerial search.

After firing Hyde, Elias said he made the decision as part of an attempt to “rapidly” fix the situation.

“I’m in a position where, regardless of how it affects me or my personal situation, I have to make decisions that I judge in collaboration with my bosses and the people around me to be in the best interest of the Baltimore Orioles franchise, so that’s what I’m doing,” Elias said.

The trend for a president of baseball operations with a general manager beneath them is growing more commonplace in MLB. Why the Orioles made the move privately, and why they kept Elias’ public-facing title the same, is unclear.

Generally, the president of baseball operations serves as a long-term strategy planner and a go-between for ownership and the front office.

David Rubenstein, the Orioles’ control person in the ownership group, has been outspoken in his support of Elias. So has Hall of Famer and part-owner Cal Ripken Jr.

In May 2024, shortly after the purchase of the club was confirmed, Rubenstein said: “I want to make sure Mike Elias is feeling he can do what he wants to do with the players, and I’ll try to be supportive of him. I’m not going to go tell him to go hire this player or trade this player or those kind of things. That’s just not what I am knowledgeable enough about to do. So we’ve got a great general manager, and I’m just going to rely on his expertise.”

Ripken, in June, said: “Mike’s our guy. He’s the architect who brought back winning baseball, peppered the organization with a lot of talent. There’s a lot of hope for the future for the Orioles. And so you gotta trust your guy, trust Mike.”