Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias didn’t deny the importance of the next few games this weekend. All of them are played to win, but the results carry more weight with the trade deadline Monday at 6 p.m.

However, Elias already knows how the Orioles are approaching it. The strategy can’t be formed in only a matter of days.  

“We are watching game-by-game,” Elias said in the home dugout earlier today. “This has turned out to be an inordinately kind of razor-wire situation going into this deadline. We’re 2 ½ out and we’re three games below .500. I think both of those are really disappointing, particularly where we hoped to be with the talent level on the team. In our view we should have a better record than this (53-56). I think we’ve had a lot of misfortune, but there’s just also a lot of stuff where all of us have underperformed what we should be doing. But we still have a good shot in the American League and we’re keeping an eye on that.”

Elias said it’s important that the Orioles “have an idea” what they’re going to do. They aren’t going to be strict buyers or sellers. The industry perception is right. They can bounce between the two.

“I look at where we are in the standings, and we do have a shot,” Elias said. “We do care about making the playoffs in 2026, but we put ourselves a little bit behind the 8-ball and we’ve got some ground to make up. We’re not gonna have a strong bias towards being in one of those buckets, buyer or seller. I think we put ourselves in a position where we can’t have a bias in either direction, so we are out in the market, on the phones, finding out what’s going on out there and looking at things on a case-by-case basis, looking for trades that we like, looking for exchanges of talent that we think makes sense for the organization.

“Maybe those are short-term moves, where we bring players in. They’re gonna help us right now or next year. Maybe those are longer-term moves where we’re sending out guys that are on this team right now and bringing in players for the future of the organization. I think we’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re not declaring ourselves being in one bunker or the other.

“We are going to be kind of assessing moves as the market dictates. So it makes for a complicated trade deadline and an unpredictable one, and we’re preparing for everything.”

Elias said the team can’t push in all of its chips into 2026. He doesn’t think it would be responsible.

“I’m happy that we still have a shot,” he said. “I think we’re still in this thing. I wish it was stronger. … We’re going to go out in the market with an open mind in both directions. That’s just where we are and that’s just what we’re doing this deadline.

“We’re living and dying with every pitch. There’s been a lot of games this season that have driven us crazy. There’s several games where you could easily have envisioned us winning the game. And you’re going to have bad luck, you can’t win every close game, but we’ve had more than our fair share of losses in that direction. It is what it is. And it’s put us in a position where we’re 50-53 and 2 1/2 games out, and we could easily in our view be the reverse of those things.

“We are keeping that all in mind. We still are respecting our chances for 2026 and repeatedly believe that this is the talent to be a playoff team if we get things pointed in the right direction. So we’re gonna be doing both out in the market place, but we want to win tonight’s game. We want to win as many games as we can going forward.”

Extended use of the injured list is a valid reason why the Orioles are in fourth place, but Elias also pointed to the defense, which has contributed to the team being 10-17 in one-run games.

Even the 10-9, 12-inning victory Wednesday in Detroit included three errors.

“The results have been bad there,” he said. “I think we knew going into this that the team wasn’t built around defense, but we could have played better than we have been. When you have some defensive lapses, it’s going to show up in close games. But there’s certainly been a lot of bad misfortune, too.

“The injury stuff continues to really burn us, and it’s not soft tissue stuff that guys can control. It’s guys getting their hands broken, it’s throws hitting our catcher (Adley Rutschman) in the head while he’s running on the baseline. There’s just been a lot of things there. Not a lot has broken our way. But certainly when it comes to those closes losses, I think we look in the mirror and I think that this team can play better defense.

“We talk about it. I don’t think it’s the coaches fault, and the players are working hard. I look at it, me and my staff, I think we need to do a better job in that regard. You can’t go all-in on defense. You still have to worry about other parts of the game, scoring runs. But we’re trying to get better and get smarter in the front office. This isn’t something that we don’t emphasize or don’t care about, but just the execution of it and the evaluation. So I’m focused on me and what I can do better in that regard.”

Extending the conversation about Rogers

Trevor Rogers is a pending free agent who could be moved by Monday with the Orioles in, as Elias called it, “a strange limbo zone” that also has other teams straddling the buyer/seller line. Rogers stated that the team hasn’t discussed a contract extension with him.

Elias has made it clear that he won’t talk publicly about any talks, but he gets asked about them on a routine basis.

“I’m never going to be the one to bring it up,” he said. “As you’ve seen, we do work on this stuff behind the scenes. Some of them happen. He is terrific, he’s been terrific, and we absolutely love him and he’s a great fit here. I’ll leave it at that.”

What about Rutschman?

Elias said in an earlier media scrum that he wanted Rutschman on the team past the deadline and spoke of the appeal of having a long-term relationship.

Teams are checking on the three-time All-Star’s availability and Elias naturally is going to listen.

“We love him,” Elias said. “You feel that when he’s gone from the team. Yeah, absolutely love Adley and having him as long as we can. But as I mentioned, I think we put ourselves in a position where we’ve got to be pretty open-minded here as we go into these talks. But Adley is one of the best things we have going for us.”