Eventually, the Orioles ownership group will acknowledge if they have, in fact, chosen Houston Astros assistant general manager Mike Elias as the team's new head of baseball operations.
That will allow the team and its new leadership group to move on from what's been a bizarre period of silence since USA Today first reported his hiring late Tuesday night, and allow Elias to get to the business part of putting his stamp on the worst team in the majors, starting with staffing a threadbare front office.
He'll have a blueprint to follow, both from his boss in Houston, Jeff Luhnow, and his former colleague David Stearns, who left Houston's assistant GM job in 2015 to take over the Milwaukee Brewers.