​Hello, friends.The All-Star break continues. There’s still not going to be any more Orioles baseball until tomorrow when they start the non-mathematical second half of the season in Houston. We can hope the break is a good mental reset for those players who need one and a good physical reset for those who need one of those. It is a near-certainty that more than one player has been pushing through minor dings. Four days off might actually help with some of that.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUnfortunately, four days off isn’t going to do much to solve the challenge of Blaze Alexander’s broken hand bone. That’s not something that resolves in half of a week. Today is probably the day they’ll make their short-term decision about what to do to replace him on the roster for at least a few days, because they’ll want that player to be able to get to Houston to join the team coming out of the break.We probably won’t find out until they announce the roster move tomorrow afternoon, or perhaps if the beat writers start putting “So-and-so has a locker here” posts on social media. Tomorrow’s roster move does not necessarily have to be the solution that the team will use from here until when Alexander is back. It also might be. Mike Elias generally does not act with the urgency that Orioles fans would like him to act with.How much it’s worth paying the urgency premium for this 46-51 team is kind of an ongoing question. The odds for the Orioles are what they are, in the range of about one in eight to about one in five. You don’t want to bet a meaningful piece for the future on a one in eight chance. The odds could change if the Orioles keep playing well. The idea of a long winning streak has always been there for those who want to believe in it. “Well, if they could just win like seven in a row…”The Orioles finally made it to four. If they were to sweep the Astros coming out of the break, the odds would be much better. They probably won’t sweep the Astros coming out of the break. The more they win over the rest of July, the more the math points more in their favor towards the value of seeking external improvements for this year’s team. Even if they stay on the fringes, finding someone who can help for the rest of this year and next year too might be worth getting. That’s something Elias will have to figure out between now and August 3.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThere was some other injury news during yesterday’s off day. The team announced that lefty reliever Keegan Akin underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. Things had been pointing in that direction for a while based on what was known of his elbow injury and they reached the inevitable conclusion yesterday. At this point, Akin may not throw another real MLB pitch until late next season, if not all the way into 2028. Best wishes to Akin as he begins on the long road to recovery here.The cold reality is this isn’t much of a loss for the 2026 Orioles