President of baseball operations Mike Elias, general manager Jared Banner and the rest of the Orioles’ contingent returned from Las Vegas yesterday, boarding their flight and blowing past another offseason mile marker.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America handed out its final awards last night, with the Astros’ Yordan Álvarez and the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong named Most Valuable Players in their respective leagues. More deadlines arrive on Tuesday with players announcing whether to accept or decline the $23.15 million qualifying offer – left-hander Trevor Rogers won’t take it – teams setting their 40-man rosters by protecting players eligible for the Rule 5 draft, and winners revealed for the Silver Slugger Award.

Pete Alonso and the Red Sox’s Willson Contreras are finalists at first base. Alonso was chosen this week to the All-MLB first team and he finished fifth in MVP balloting with two third-place votes, seven fourth, four fifth, five sixth, five seventh, one eighth, three ninth and one 10th for a total of 144 points. Álvarez was a unanimous choice, followed by Junior Caminero, Bobby Witt Jr. and Cam Schlittler.

The quarterly owners meetings also begin Tuesday in New York, with the Dec. 1 expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and strategy moving forward certain to be the primary topic.

The non-tender deadline for arbitration-eligible players is Friday afternoon, and the Orioles drained the drama by moving on from outfielder Leody Taveras and reliever Albert Suárez, and with Codi Heuer accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. Contracts are coming to shortstop Gunnar Henderson, reliever Félix Bautista, infielder Jordan Westburg and outfielder Colton Cowser, who won the Play of the Year Award for his fence-climbing, game-saving catch on Aug. 31 in Colorado.

Exact salaries could be determined early or down the road. A lockout would have an obvious impact on negotiations.

The last regular season games were played Sept. 25 in a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, with rain cutting the schedule to 161. We’re about two months past. What’s important beyond the changes to the roster? What do we know?

*The hiring of a general manager signaled an important shift in the organization, with a new voice and new ideas.

Banner didn’t stay back while Elias met with agents in Las Vegas. He was a prominent figure.

Asked to explain the division of responsibilities last month, Elias said, “By and large we’re going to be partnering on everything, but there are certain aspects of baseball operations that we are going to split up and direct more exclusively between ourselves.

“Our setup right now is that Jared will take over everything to do with our internal players, our internal coaches, player development, performance, healthcare. All of that is going to fall under his umbrella. I will then work more directly on the scouting and acquisition side of the equation — pro, international, amateur, contracts, things like that. But we will be running the whole team together and working in concert with one another.”

*There’s transparency in the team’s offseason goals for improvement.

Everyone knows they need starting pitching, which puts them in a long line. It’s like the wait times at Magic Kingdom. But interesting to me is how Elias talked about seeing “a lot of good quantity on the starting pitching side” in the free-agent market. Trades also are possible, but free agency might be a wider avenue than perhaps expected.

Besides the rotation, the Orioles also want to strengthen the bullpen and have a preference for a left-handed reliever. They need an outfielder who can play every day. They’d like another catcher to add some weight to the depth.

Elias seems content with Carlos Narváez, and confident that the former Red Sox’s backstop will hit a lot better. But the Orioles aren’t treating their backup like a one-start-a-week catcher. The workload is going to be much heavier. Running back the Samuel Basallo/Narváez tandem is a bit of a gamble.

*All of the coaches are invited back, which seemed like a good possibility when Banner spoke at his press conference about “hoping for some continuity.”

He said it twice.

Elias also used the word when interviewed at the GM Meetings and said the team had “arrangements” to bring back everyone.

Coaches could leave if given a better offer. Poaching is a possibility. But for now, we’re working under the assumption that Donnie Ecker (bench), Dustin Lind (hitting), Brady North (assistant hitting), Drew French (pitching), Mitch Plassmeyer (assistant pitching), Ryan Klimek (pitching strategy), Jason Bourgeois (first base/outfield), Buck Britton (third base), Hank Conger (bullpen), Miguel Cairo (infield) and Joe Singley (catching) will be introduced on Opening Day.

Also, former major league manager Mike Shildt was hired last November as upper-level minor league coordinator, and he’s staying in the organization, as expected. However, he’s now director of on-field instruction.

His influence is important, no matter the title. He serves an important role in developing the younger players and working outside the analytics to make them more fundamentally sound.

*The Orioles will listen to any offers. Every team does it. That doesn’t imply that they’re actively shopping players. So rival executives can check on Henderson’s availability, or work their way through the entire infield. Elias picks up the phone but doesn’t seem motivated to make a deal.

He doesn’t view the Orioles as having a surplus or a roster crunch. There’s room for every infielder, even with Westburg returning. And Elias also could be reacting to the injuries that have battered the team. Never have enough pitching? That saying applies everywhere in this organization.

“We are in a position where we can entertain trading from that group, and we’re getting inquiries on that front and we’re not closing them off. But we’re also fine keeping all these guys,” said Elias, who seemed to quiet the speculation over Henderson’s possible departure in a blockbuster deal.

“We like the players and we could make it work if the entirety of this infield group is with us when we get to Sarasota.”

*Manager Craig Albernaz has reached out to some of his infielders about working out in the outfield this winter and switching positions during exhibition games. Nothing permanent, but a plan to find extra at-bats and stay flexible.

Elias didn’t bite when asked multiple times about specific players. When I mentioned Coby Mayo, Elias responded, “I haven’t gotten to the point of wanting to go public with the types of conversations that we’re having with some of our guys, but there are players that, their bats are emerging, we’re trying to get them in the lineup as much as possible, and they’re young, athletic guys that we could imagine working out in the outfield, even though they don’t have much experience.

“I don’t know whether this is gonna happen, but these are conversations that we’re having internally and we want to be collaborative with the player about.”

The crowd at third base can be thinned with Blaze Alexander getting starts all over the outfield, but that isn’t a fresh idea. He made 14 starts among 22 appearances on the grass this year. Westburg missed the entire 2026 season after his elbow surgery, and after he had oblique soreness in camp, and he could be a candidate for some outfield reps.

Jackson Holliday has the athleticism to play center, but let’s not pretend it’s that simple. Jorge Mateo would like a minute for rebuttal.

They can’t all be Melvin Mora or Adam Jones.

Coby Mayo expected to get some looks in right field in previous spring trainings and it didn’t happen. Maybe this is the time.

It’s also time for the Orioles to improve their defense, which is harder to do while experimenting.