ORLANDO – The Orioles went through a prolonged Winter Meeting phase when they sat out the big-ticket negotiation dance and settled for the occasional under-the-radar move and a Rule 5 selection.

One year, they drafted three.

Mike Elias arrived in the front office and spent his first Winter Meetings, less than a full month on the job, interviewing candidates for manager and other important positions in the organization. He had to build analytic and international scouting departments. Fielding a winning team wasn’t on the agenda.

The sessions this week aren’t guaranteed to bear fruit, but the Orioles have become the apple of everybody's eye. They've raised expectations to a level unseen in a long time.

They made a huge splash back in 2003 by signing shortstop Miguel Tejada, the reigning American League Most Valuable Player, to a six-year, $72 million contract at the Winter Meetings in New Orleans. 

"How many chances do you get to add an MVP-caliber player to your club who wants to be there for a long time?" new Orioles manager Lee Mazzilli said at the time.

The current team is linked to the top hitters and starting pitchers on the market and they would cost a lot more than $72 million. The Orioles are in negotiations with the pretty much anyone, and the industry is forced to notice.

The pursuit of a frontline starter has taken them to Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez and Tatsuya Imai. They checked on Dylan Cease multiple times over the years, including as a trade target, but he signed a seven-year, $210 deal with the Blue Jays.

Michael King remains on the board, and part of the lobby buzz yesterday centered on the Orioles being a good match and in the running to sign him.

Valdez is seeking a deal in the six-to-seven year range. King is more likely to get four years.

Elias doesn’t have a history of handing out long-term contracts. The Orioles offered Corbin Burnes $180 million over four years but he wanted to pitch near his Arizona home, signed a six-year, $210 million deal with the Diamondbacks and blew out his elbow.

The willingness to give a significant amount of years, along with dollars, was expressed in Elias’ suite yesterday evening.

“Trust me, we’ve offered them a lot,” he said, “and we’re absolutely willing to do that.”

In other words, this wouldn’t be an unprecedented attempt.

The battle rages over finalizing a deal first with a starter versus a hitter. Perhaps the most interesting development yesterday was confirmation that the Orioles don’t care about the position. Outfield or first base. Or it could be no position at all. Kyle Schwarber is a designated hitter who mashed 56 home runs with 132 RBIs and is a leader in the clubhouse, and he won’t cost as much as Kyle Tucker.

Not that there’s anything wrong with shattering the bank for Tucker.

Don’t put anything past the Orioles in Orlando. They also seem determined to break the mold.

Now, they just have to do it.

* A utility infielder is much less interesting, but the Orioles are deciding whether they need to go outside the organization or perhaps try Jeremiah Jackson, who impressed with his bat this year but didn’t gain full trust in right field or at third base.

“He’s always been such a promising young hitter as a prospect,” Elias said. “I like his swing, I like his power. He seemed to adapt well to being in the major leagues. The defensive versatility is good. The exact best home is still kind of TBD, but I thought he picked up the outfield pretty well, so we’re gonna keep developing him as a multi-positional guy.”

* Manager Craig Albernaz clearly is a fan of pitching coach Drew French, assistant Mitch Plassmeyer and pitching strategy coach Ryan Klimek.

They're studs, they're elite,” he said of the three holdovers. “It's been refreshing to come in because you don't really know the staff when you come in, the people that are there. But with Frenchy and Mitch and Ryan, those guys are as elite as they come.

“The best part about all three of those guys is we have the same philosophies and views on this, where everything we do is for the boys. Everything we do is for the players to make sure that they're heard, that they're a strong voice in their development process, and they feel the same way.”

* Albernaz also expressed confidence yesterday that catcher Adley Rutschman will ditch the struggles of the past 1 ½ seasons.

“For a young player to come up and make the impact like he did and now he has these expectations, that's a credit to Adley of how good of a player he is,” Albernaz said. “Development is messy, especially for a young catcher. To me, obviously I'm biased because I was a former catcher, but catcher is the hardest position in baseball. They make every decision on defense. Then they get their butts kicked and then they have to go hit.

“So for Adley, and any young catcher, you have to learn how to navigate the grind of the season. And Adley has that baseline now, so now it's us as a coaching staff with him to figure out what's the areas that he needs to really focus in on, whether that be in the weight room prep or if it's like how he even structures his day.

“A lot of it is not actually like the skills. A lot of it has to do behind the scenes, like the leadup to the game and where he's putting his energy and direction.”

* First baseman Coby Mayo is now represented by Roc Nation because his representative, Roger Tomas, joined the agency last month.

* Seen in the lobby: Former Orioles infielder Robert Andino.