The Orioles’ decision to trade Jorge López at last year’s deadline was heavily criticized. In shipping off López to the Minnesota Twins and Trey Mancini to the Houston Astros, Baltimore was parting ways with two of its most important players — an All-Star closer and a team leader, respectively — in the middle of a wild-card race. Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias knew as much, and he flew to Texas to talk with the team about the moves that were seen to hurt the club’s chances of making the postseason.