Liftoff, or maybe a little less? Parsing the signals for the Orioles on how they'll handle the offseason.

In the last week, Mike Elias has talked about how the Orioles will approach the winter. What stands out in his comments about the direction they'll go to improve for 2023?

Tuesday’s Rule 5 protection deadline checked a box for the Orioles in terms of necessary steps in this offseason, but even as someone who collected nearly 30,000 words of notes on Orioles prospects this winter, such transactions aren’t really anyone’s idea of a good time.

This Orioles offseason in particular is going to be about the big moves, and until they happen, there will be no shortage of speculation on what they’ll be—if they even materialize at all.

This newsletter has a nice tract of land marked off between the liftoff camp and the see-it-to-believe-it camp; I see both sides, and validate everyone who thinks the Orioles won’t spend and those who truly believe they will.

There are always breadcrumbs, though, and between Mike Elias’ media session with reporters at the GM Meetings, his interview with MASN, and other snippets in the last week-plus, there’s plenty of information to sort through as it relates to the Orioles intentions for this winter.

Here are some key words, phrases, and themes that have emerged over the last week and what they could mean.