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Orioles making moves for present, but 2019 draft clearly already in focus for new GM Mike Elias

With Tuesday's revelation that Orioles scouting director Gary Rajsich won't return next season, the club appeared to solidify its offseason focus since naming Mike Elias its new general manager earlier this month: there's plenty of work to be done for next season, but a large portion of what's going on seems to be directed toward the ever-important 2019 draft.

Elias, the Astros’ former scouting director, said he wants to build an "elite talent pipeline" in Baltimore, the same as Houston had. No doubt the first step in that was bringing along assistant general manager Sig Mejdal, who built the forecasting model that informed many of the Astros’ acclaimed drafts and later shifted his attention toward helping build those prospects up through any means necessary.