The ticking clock doesn’t make a sound in baseball parlance. It’s more of a visual thing, counting down until reaching a date and time of particular importance.

For the Orioles, the exactness is missing in their response to the trade deadline. Though it arrives on July 31, how they react remains in discussion.

When must the front office reveal itself as sellers or buyers? And is it pink for sell and blue for buy?

The day started with the Orioles 11 games below .500 and seven behind for the last Wild Card. They’d need to perform an Olympian vault over seven other teams to reach the postseason for the third year in a row.

The math says it’s a stretch.

Mike Elias says he’s got to plan for “both scenarios.”

“I’m hoping that we aren’t sellers, but we’ve got to realistic, look at the standings, look at how much time’s left before the deadline, how much time is necessary to execute a deadline, because that’s not one or two days,” he said.  

“The way this works, the conversations start to happen around now and kind of comparing notes with other GMs, and that’s been going on the last few days. People are making their preparations, they understand that we’re not committed to a path yet, but we’re doing preparation in both directions and have an understanding of where that might go. So we want to keep playing, keep giving this team that we think is very talented, but unfortunately has started off with a bad record, as much chance as we can. But we’re gonna have to ultimately make a decision at some point here in July.”

The new ownership group led by David Rubenstein remains supportive, however the Orioles decide to proceed through next month.

“It’s been, since they’ve taken over, very healthy, very constructive,” Elias said. “They’ve demonstrated already between the trade deadline last year, the free agent budget this year, the facility in Sarasota, the hirings on the business side, they’re very serious about applying financial resources to support and grow this franchise. But unfortunately, those of us in baseball, we just haven’t gotten this off to a good start in 2025.

“There’s reasons for that, I’ve talked about it, and we’re determined to not let it happen again. But they’ve been very supportive, understanding that this isn’t something that anybody wanted and it’s not going to plan and they’re gonna help us right the ship.”

No one is capable of keeping the shelves of the injured list from being stocked. Losses aren’t restricted to game results. 

Eleven players are on the IL and infielder Jordan Westburg is day-to-day again after jamming his sprained left index finger into second base last night. Ten of the 13 position players on Opening Day have been lost at some point, and that doesn’t included shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who stayed back in Sarasota with an intercostal strain.

“It’s been a contributing factor,” Elias said. “I think when we’re underperforming as much as we have, it’s a perfect storm of ingredients for something like that. The injuries have certainly been a big part of it, and a big part of last year, us tapering off. And I’m frustrated for the players.

“If you’re Jordan Westburg and you haven’t really gotten a real steady run of play since last June, that’s very frustrating. You see what a huge part of the team he is. (Colton) Cowser, also. Now Adley (Rutschman), for the first time we’re missing him. It’s been really hard to not see all these guys out on the field together for the first time. It’s been over a year.”

The Orioles are expecting a big bump in the second half with pitchers Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Grayson Rodriguez and Albert Suárez returning, and they’ll also get Rutschman and first baseman Ryan Mountcastle back onto the roster. But the cruel twist is that the club may be out of the running for a playoff spot.

“I think everybody’s gonna have injuries, but the simultaneous nature of the injuries, having Grayson and (Zach) Eflin go down at the same time, having multiple layers of position players at the same time, it’s almost impossible to plan for that,” Elias said. “And it’s been pretty deep.”

Tony Mansolino became interim manager on May 17 and the Orioles are 20-18 under his guidance. The energy level increased along with the wins, but they haven’t made up much ground in the standings.

“I think he’s handling it extremely well,” Elias said. “It’s a very difficult thing to be asked to do, it was very sudden. There’s nothing that can prepare you for it. People don’t really want to be put in that situation. But I do think that the team has responded well to him. They’ve been playing very hard and very loose for him, and I think we’ve seen some improvement in the record, and we’ve gotten things moving in the right direction. He’s doing a good job with a tough circumstance."

Elias isn’t ready to lay out his plan for the offseason and detail his approach to a managerial search. Mansolino wears the interim tag, presumably for the remainder of the season, and could be a candidate to stay.

“I think that’s something, if and when we do start to talk about it, it will be after the draft and trade deadline and a little later into the year,” Elias said.

The amateur draft is held July 13-14 to again bump up against the All-Star festivities and the trade deadline. Executives throughout baseball are multitasking.

The Orioles hold the 19^th pick in the first round, along with the 30^th, 31^st in the compensatory round and 58^th in the second.

“I’ve been, and I know other executives are, too, pretty vocal about how problematic it is to have those two events right on top of each other, on top of the All-Star Game,” Elias said. “It does strain your front office and scouting resources to prepare for both of those. We’re getting into very serious draft meetings right now, so we’ve been slowly preparing all of spring and all of June, but our primary focus will be the draft starting next week. But at the same time, we prepare for the trade deadline, too, so we’ve got draft meetings, let’s say like two large meetings a day from here to the draft, but we’ve also got some trade deadline meetings stacked in there. We’ll have to stay on the phones.”

The organization’s No. 1 prospect, catcher Samuel Basallo, remains down at Triple-A Norfolk but should earn a promotion later this summer, perhaps after his 21^st birthday in August.

Basallo is batting .269/.392/.579 with eight doubles, 15 home runs – many of them moon shots – and 35 RBIs in 52 games. He’s caught in 18 to go with his 10 starts in Triple-A last summer.

His skills as a hitter are on full display this month. They can’t be ignored. He’s slashing .339/.467/.678 with six homers and 15 RBIs in 18 games.

“I hope that he debuts this year,” Elias said. “I think it’s really hard to nit-pick anything offensive right now and he’s still getting better. He’s still refining his approach. He had three walks last night, which was good to see from such a young guy. There’s a lot of people really excited about his bat.

“Catching is the area that there’s still a lot of development left for him, and not all of that’s gonna be in the minors. But his bat is more ready than the catching and that tends to happen, and it’ll be developing in the majors, too. But I think the experience that he’s getting, catching in Triple-A right now, is still really, really valuable. The game-calling, the handling veteran pitchers.

“Tim Federowicz, our manager down there, is an ex-major league catcher, so that’s been really helpful. And you look at it going back into last year, I think he’s only caught like 30-ish games in total in Triple-A, so it’s really not very much because of the injuries that he’s had during this time. It’s getting closer and closer by the day, knock on wood. It keeps moving in the right direction every day. But there’s still a lot for him to learn.”