SARASOTA, Fla. — For the first time in more than four years, Orioles CEO and Chairman John Angelos met in person with a group of Baltimore media and openly discussed the operations of the team he oversees.

Between the November 2018 introduction of executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and Sunday, Angelos had taken questions from a collection of local reporters just three times. At a January news conference to discuss a charitable donation from the organization, he declined to answer a question about his family’s future owning the team, using Martin Luther King Jr. Day as his reason.

Standing beside the bullpen on the Ed Smith Stadium backfields on Sunday, Angelos fielded and answered questions for more than 37 minutes, covering the Orioles’ expiring lease, a major league payroll that’s the second lowest in the majors and more.

Here are five takeaways from Angelos’ session with reporters:

New lease could be ‘All-Star break gift’

Earlier this month, the Orioles declined to exercise an option in their lease with the Maryland Stadium Authority that would extend the agreement by five years, leaving it to expire Dec. 31. As he has been in recent years, Angelos was adamant the team will remain in Baltimore, expressing hopes a new long-term lease will be in place by July.

“I’d love to have that as an All-Star break gift for everybody, really, in the community,” Angelos said.

Potentially affecting negotiations is Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s replacement of Tom Kelso as the chairman of the MSA with Craig Thompson, his campaign chair and a former employee of the law office founded by Angelos’ father, Orioles principal owner Peter Angelos. Angelos said he and Thompson have spoken once thus far and that they are “looking forward to working together.” Kelso, who was appointed by former Gov. Larry Hogan, had served in the role for the past eight years.

“I didn’t think it would be right to rush something through in the final days of the Hogan administration,” Angelos said.

With a long-term lease, the Orioles would gain access to $600 million in public funds to upgrade their 31-year-old ballpark. Angelos said much of that will be devoted to needed repairs and replacements of the stadium’s infrastructure, with amenities such as “improved seating areas” and upgrades to Oriole Park’s scoreboard and audiovisual system. It could also factor into Angelos’ hopes to upgrade the Camden Yards facility for what he repeatedly referred to Sunday as “live, work, play, 365,” the idea of giving people a reason to go to the downtown area throughout the year and not only for Orioles or Ravens games.

“The actual facility use agreement, renewing a 30-year-old document, that’s really a minor sidebar,” Angelos said. “… We can really make a statement for why Baltimore is back and why it’s going to be a big part of the future of the country and thought of in a ‘can do’ way instead of in some of the ways it’s been thought of in the past.”

Orioles ‘lucky’ pandemic hit during rebuild, aiming to be ‘next Tampa’

Like Elias and manager Brandon Hyde, Angelos acknowledged the Orioles’ rebuild is over, with Baltimore pursuing a playoff spot in 2023. He also said the team was relatively “lucky” it was in that mode when the coronavirus pandemic started in 2020 and prevented fans from attending games.

“We were fortunate that as the world hit a pandemic, we were stripped down to that [level],” Angelos said. “That was just good luck, really, in that sense, to not have a lot of payroll out there. Teams that had a lot of payroll and that were relying on live attendance to pay for that were in a much worse situation. We were much better situated. Just lucky, really.”

The Orioles are projected to have the second-lowest payroll in the majors this season at nearly $65 million, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Angelos noted that throughout the rebuild, the club has made investments elsewhere, notably scouting, development and technology.

But after the team unexpectedly broke out of that rebuild with an 83-79 record in 2022, there were expectations the Orioles would be far more aggressive in seeking major league upgrades.

Their payroll is more than $20 million above last season’s opening figure but more than $100 million below three of the other four teams in their division.

The fourth, the Tampa Bay Rays, is one of three teams Angelos has repeatedly pointed to as models for Baltimore, saying Sunday that Tampa Bay, the Cleveland Guardians and Milwaukee Brewers are models in “sustainability” for the Orioles. Asked what it says about his aspirations for the franchise that none of those teams have won a World Series since 1948 and have consistently ranked in the bottom half of the league in payroll, Angelos responded, “Well, we’re aiming for sustained success, and I think what you see in a place like Tampa, they have had sustained success. … I would be disappointed if we’re not the next Tampa, which means being sustainably competitive and relevant.”

He said the Orioles’ payroll will not match those of the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, saying, “That’s not an Oriole thing. That’s a small, middle market team [thing].” Baltimore is the No. 28 media market in the country. The San Diego Padres, who play in the 27th largest market, have a payroll approaching $250 million that ranks third in the league. He also claimed that setting the team’s payroll is not his responsibility.

“Could payroll be double or triple what it is?” Angelos said. “Or could it be over 100 million? Yeah. We’re not there yet. We have a very young team that’s overachieved and overperformed because of the great work of our baseball folks.

“It’s not my job to predict payroll. My job is to make sure that the community partnerships are sustained, and I think all of that comes after that.”

‘You don’t need litigation to solve problems’

With one of Angelos’ legal battles recently resolved, another is getting ready for its next step.

Earlier this month, the lawsuits pitting Angelos and his mother, Georgia, against his brother, Louis, over Peter Angelos’ estate were settled, ending eight months of escalating claims.

“Those things are distractions, and it’s unfortunate whenever they arise, but all good things going forward now,” Angelos said.

Next month, the New York Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the ongoing legal dispute between the Orioles and Washington Nationals regarding the Nationals’ claim to about $100 million in rights fees from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which broadcasts both teams’ games and of which Angelos is also the CEO. The situation, which Angelos called “eminently solvable,” stems from an agreement put in place when Major League Baseball moved the Nationals, then the Montreal Expos, to Washington in 2005.

“I think it’s resolvable today, tomorrow — I’m oversimplifying — separate and apart from that appellate track,” Angelos said. “That’s litigation. My goal, as you might be totally surprised to hear, is to never be around any litigation again. You don’t need litigation to solve problems. You just need good partners.”

Angelos also addressed what he called the “business decision” to have MASN show only four spring training games each for the Orioles and Nationals. That’s believed to be the lowest number of spring television broadcasts for any club.

Noting the network shows more than 300 regular-season games and 600 pregame and postgame shows between the two baseball teams, Angelos said, “Should that come at the expense of spring training? I don’t know. I think it’s certainly a valid question and criticism.”

Elias, Hyde ‘under contract long term’

Like Elias, Angelos declined to get into specifics about his GM’s and manager’s contract status but stated he and they will be with the Orioles “for the long haul.”

“We are all fully vested,” Angelos said. “We’re not going anywhere.

And nobody’s a short-timer. Nobody is expiring in a year or two years or anything like that.

“We’re all here under contract long term.”

Although one suit Georgia Angelos filed claimed Peter Angelos wanted her to sell the team upon his death, John Angelos said Sunday, “There is absolutely no plan to change the partnership group or to change the managing partnership structure that we have.” Angelos, who said last month his family owns 70% of the Orioles, said he would be open to making additions to the ownership group.

“It’s been a tremendous amount of continuity,” he said. “But you want to have a next generation of people coming in, too, and you want them to be excited, and it’d be nice if we could attract strategic people who care about Baltimore, care about we’re doing this now, who care about the example Camden Yards set, and want to be part of it. That’s not necessary or requisite, but we’re open to it, but there is no plan to change or to transition out of what we have today.”

Financials meeting to take place during spring training

During his five-minute lecture at last month’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day news conference, Angelos said he would welcome reporters back to Camden Yards the “next week” and “show you the financials … [and] governance of the Orioles.”It’s been more than a month since he made that offer, and asked Sunday whether he expected that meeting to take place, Angelos said he would follow through before spring training ends in late March.

“I’m not gonna be able to pull out the payrolls and show you everything financially,” Angelos said. “But I will give you a full picture for the business. I can give you certainly a picture for what our objectives are on the field.

“When I say something, like I’m gonna sit down with you guys explain the business from my perspective, I’m gonna do it. I’m not gonna say it and walk away from it.”