SARASOTA, Fla. — Mike Elias partially rejected the premise of the question, but he answered it anyway.

“I think that’s a little simplistic,” the Orioles general manager said Sunday morning.

Elias was asked about his strategy from an offseason that resulted in the Orioles losing ace Corbin Burnes, not signing a pitcher close to his caliber and instead bringing in three veteran pitchers aged 35, 37 and 41 years old.

What’s “simplistic,” as Elias said, is equating the combination of those pitchers’ salaries and production as a replacement for Burnes. Of course that’s right, and Elias’ front office rightly doesn’t view baseball as a simple game. But Baltimore fans don’t have the probabilistic models the Orioles’ front office does or the meticulous baseball knowledge their coaching staff possesses.

Fans will pay to watch a rotation this season that could be MLB’s oldest (once Kyle Gibson joins it) at 34.88 years old. The group is so, well, distinguished — to use a different word than “old” — that 16 of the 30 MLB teams don’t have a single starting pitcher older than the Orioles’ median one. Fans will also watch a rotation that is notably without a bona fide ace atop it after enjoying life with Burnes last season, the franchise’s first with a pitcher of that caliber since it lost Mike Mussina.

While this isn’t the way Elias views his offseason moves, it’s not unfair for fans to view the strategy of signing three veteran starters — Charlie Morton, Tomoyuki Sugano and Gibson — for a combined $33 million as a counter to spending similar money (this season) for an ace. Burnes, for example, signed for $35 million per season over six years with the Diamondbacks.

This offseason, whether it was the strategy or not, Elias prioritized depth over dominance for his starting rotation.

“The experience is certainly nice to have,” he said when asked about having one of the oldest rotations in MLB. “It certainly isn’t a goal in and of itself to have the oldest rotation, but I do think it speaks a little bit toward the durability and track record that these guys have presented. … I think Charlie’s looked great in spring. I think Sugano’s looked great. We’ll get Gibson up and running.

“I don’t care how old the people are as long as they stay healthy, get outs, throw the ball over the plate and help the team win.”

Burnes’ projected wins above replacement on FanGraphs is 3.6. The combination of Morton, Sugano and Gibson’s WAR is 3.0, though that number could be lower considering Gibson recently signed. That’s a flawed way to view it, of course. This isn’t a “Moneyball” situation. Burnes isn’t Jason Giambi. The Orioles aren’t trying to “recreate [Burnes] in the aggregate,” to use the phrase from the movie adaptation of the book.

It’s also a false equivalence to say it was an either/or situation between acquiring an ace or bolstering the club’s rotation depth when both could have been done, but that would’ve taken significantly more money than the large sum the Orioles already added to the club’s payroll this offseason. No MLB team increased its year-over-year payroll more than the 76.9% Baltimore did, though it’s worth noting it’s easier to have a large percentage increase over a small number as the Orioles did sport a bottom-five payroll in 2024.

However, it’s not hard to understand why Elias valued depth this winter after the Orioles season he just watched. Last year, Baltimore lost starters Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells to season-ending elbow surgeries in the first half, receiving only 15 combined starts from them, and Grayson Rodriguez missed the final two months with a shoulder muscle injury.

There’s little way to know which pitchers will have injuries pop up in the winter or spring training, but without fail, it happens every year. This time, it was Trevor Rogers and Rodriguez, two pitchers who would’ve likely been in the Orioles’ five-man rotation had Elias signed an ace but no other starter this offseason. The loss of Rodriguez is especially difficult given his upside as a potential No. 1 starter in the future. He’s expected to return in the first half, but the elbow inflammation he experienced this spring is his third injury to a different part of his arm or back over the past year.

The additions of Morton, Sugano and Gibson to a group with Eflin, Dean Kremer and Cade Povich as well as the injured Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Chayce McDermott, Rogers and Rodriguez give the Orioles almost too much pitching depth — something manager Brandon Hyde and Elias would say doesn’t exist.

“I do think looking at the landscape of Major League Baseball right now and the amount of pitching injuries and the amount of attrition in pitching, it’s almost like a survivorship to guys that can get that late in their career and stay healthy and stay productive and log innings,” Elias said. “We certainly have that on our side, at least as it stands right now. I hope they can continue to do it.”

When examining the Orioles’ rotation in 2025, it will be of little use to focus on Burnes and how he pitches for the Diamondbacks. The ace had a clear preference to sign with them because of the club’s proximity to his home in Arizona.

But it doesn’t change the fact that the Orioles won 91 games last season and were swept out of the playoffs while having a bona fide ace. Now, they don’t have one, and what that means for the potential of this club remains to be seen.

It’s important to remember, though, for all the handwringing about Elias hugging onto his prospects or his unwillingness to spend in free agency that he was the one who gave up two valuable prospects for one year of Burnes in the first place. And this offseason, while no long-term commitments were made, he added about $70 million of new owner David Rubenstein’s money to the 2025 payroll.

“I think we approach every winter, every offseason as we’re building a roster trying to compile a team that can get us into the playoffs, produce a certain number of wins,” Elias said. “And that can come in different shapes and sizes.”

The Orioles will have a 162-game campaign — and maybe a postseason — to determine whether the path Elias took this offseason was the right one.

Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.