The Orioles punted on an already lost 2026, which was the only real course of action to take for a team so fundamentally flawed.It is not surprising in the least, but the over-the-top praise owner David Rubenstein heaped on top baseball exec Mike Elias in the face of more unmitigated failure in roster building was flabbergasting and begs major questions of any hope for this organization learning from repeated mistakes and actually winning anything anytime soon. The Orioles continue to overpromise on their suspect product every winter and under-deliver in spring and summer only to change the stated goals and objective by the time the trade deadline comes around.That’s why it feels inevitable that we will be right back here next August with Gunnar Henderson the next former All Star to go, with Elias seemingly never held to account for anything and content to gaslight fans. Despite the overwhelming sense of doom in Birdland, understandably so, the front office didn’t butcher everything about the deadline.Here’s what they got right, and what they also got wrong at another critical deadline as Elias somehow heads towards a ninth year on the job. We’ll start with the positives:Prioritized Starting PitchingWe told you they had to do it, focusing on legit arms in AA or higher with a real pedigree, not teenage projects like last year. And they brought in three potential impact that arms, in getting Michael Forret back in the fold from Tampa and adding Boston’s top two pitching prospects (Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon). There had to be some focus and direction to their returns, and they checked some of those boxes Moved Rutschman And WardHe had to go with the team being this bad and with two years of control left and with three teams in the division all pursuing him with some vigor. It’s shambolic we reached this stage with Rutschman in stead decline for two years and him never a part of a playoff win and this franchise – that pretended he was much better than he was – choosing (rightfully so) to have journeyman James McCann catch Game 1 of a playoff series over Rutschman. But that happened and should have been enough to get Elias fired way back when.Keeping Ward – especially if they weren’t going to eat money to make Tyler O’Neill go away – would have been blasphemous given his scant production clogging up the top of the lineup with his two-true outcomes (walk or get out).Infrastructure For SamAdding a Latin catcher for 21-year-old Samuel Basallo to learn from and bond with was a nice touch and a human element generally missing from anything these guys do. Carlos Narvaez should be a great resource for Basallo. Of course, overmatched puppet skipper Craig Albernaz took it way too far when addressing the additions – in constant deference and service to Elias – and they parted with a strong defensive catcher in Jake Rogers as part of this trade with Boston, but this smart for a franchise player still learning English and mastering his craft.As to what they got wrong …Elias Has More Power Than EverThere is no reason to believe anything is changing in this regard, ever. This clown might have a job for life. This ownership group, that inherited him, loves in him ways the old one never even did. Trust me.Reality and truth don't seem to apply. He is never under pressure to produce and Rubenstein made that clear to a degree that didn't seem forced or fake - that was his version of a sales job on why fans should rally behind someone who is clearly there to hold the line financially and meet certain goals in that regard.Rogers Is Still HereThey better hope he doesn’t crater again, or get hurt. They have more elbow injuries than any franchise this year and Trevor Rogers is prone to tailspins. We’ll see whether the Qualifying Offer apparatus is still in place in the next labor deal, to try to recoup a comp pick for him, and whether he pitches here beyond 2026.I have a hard time thinking they couldn’t have landed more for him than they got for Dean Kremer, and a top 10 prospect from a good farm system should have been enough for a guy who spent a good chunk of two of his three seasons here in AAA. Expiring contract, high-variance. This is a risk for a final 50 games we know Elias doesn’t believe in.More Pen Arms Had To GoTrading Tyler Wells had to mean they were cleaning out the bullpen. If you sell him sorry, 32-year-olds like Yannier Cano – even on that new contract extension – and Rico Garcia, and especially 36-year old Andrew Kittredge needed to go to boost the future too in however they could. Wells could have been a really nice part of 2027 in a way I could never project for any of the names in the above paragraph. You swap him for Forret, get these other guys out of here and let’s see Trey Gibson in a relief role or Nestor German. The old guys here were overachieving and regression is coming.Nothing Elias does will ever be totally congruent and really make sense, because he is serving a fiscal master and the baseball is secondary. This deadline was another indicator of such, even when they did hit a few notes they absolutely had to strike. Subscribe To "The Daily Flock' On YouTube For The Most Passionate Orioles Coverage:Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow