I don’t care if David Rubenstein’s money could fill a swimming pool. I don’t care if his billions could create cash stacks large enough to fill the cabin of a private plane.

I don’t want to hear one more word from president of baseball operations Mike Elias about how vast the Baltimore Orioles’ resources are, not until they spend a decent-sized chunk of it on an ace pitcher.

No, I’m not talking about Zac Gallen, even though he is still unsigned and may yet be a notable free agent addition to this roster.

I’m talking about Ranger Suárez. I’m talking about Framber Valdez.

I’m talking about elite starters the Orioles don’t — and never ever seem to — actually sign.

An ownership group’s money is only good if the owners (and their front office) are willing to spend it. That has made a difference, insomuch as the Orioles spend more now than they did under penny-pinching John Angelos. But it’s still not enough to actually push this team into serious World Series contention.

“We’re very fortunate now to have a great ownership group that puts us in really good position to make some big moves when they make sense and when we see an opportunity,” Elias said Tuesday, recapping an offseason that started with the bang of signing first baseman Pete Alonso, only to fizzle when the best starting pitchers on the market went to other teams.

For the Orioles, it’s not really about making big moves as much as making only one big move. You shouldn’t brag about how much money you have to spend if you don’t actually spend it in free agency.

As of now, the Orioles are projected to spend less on payroll in 2026 ($149 million) than they did at the end of 2025 ($160 million), according to FanGraphs.

While the FanGraphs forecast likes them to return to winning baseball next year (.516), they’re still just projected to finish fourth in the cutthroat AL East. With the 17th-highest payroll in baseball, why should Orioles fans feel excited about how this offseason fully stacks up?

Please, please, please — no more about how you’re willing to spend until you sign the checks.

Signing Alonso and trading for Taylor Ward to bolster the lineup, only to underwhelm with pitching additions, is akin to remodeling your kitchen but never finishing the marble countertops. It’s hard to look at the renovation of the Orioles’ roster from its 2025 disaster and feel like the job got fully done.

“It’s the AL East – people make big moves,” Elias said. “There are big swings and impact players being added to the division every winter. And it’s just life in this division. I think we made some ourselves. I think we’re right in the thick of things.”

The Orioles should be in the thick of things, based on the roster they built. But real winners want to be ahead of the pack, not just in the mix.

I admit that back in December I started getting excited by the Alonso signing and the trade for former first-rounder Shane Baz. To me, it signaled a shift in the Orioles’ mentality from constantly doing work around the margins to finding real needle-movers. I eagerly anticipated the follow-up.

Only the follow-up feels like more of the same deflation that we’ve seen over the past few seasons.

Does this strike anyone a bit like 2024, when the Orioles made a trade for Corbin Burnes — who truly fulfilled his role as an ace starter — yet never really made impact signings or trades to add to the group in a jaw-dropping way? Elias and this front office have needed swagger and boldness, yet even with new ownership, they’ve never really found it to a satisfactory degree.

We’re in Year 4 of the contention window, and in any given offseason in that time, we’ve never seen the front office actually string big moves together in the same year. If the Orioles had found a way to lasso Valdez — a tempestuous but talented lefty — that would package nicely with the moves they already made.

Instead, all the waiting Orioles fans went through for an exciting finish to this offseason landed with a thud. Valdez to the Tigers. What a letdown.

Individual misses can be excused. But a complete strikeout on an ace? That’s brutal. The fact that the Orioles may have to go through one or both in the AL playoffs is a terrible runner-up consolation prize.

Elias on Tuesday called the rotation “very strong and very talented,” and trumpeted it as one that’s ”capable of winning the division.” You can see the optimism there. If Kyle Bradish returns to his dominant 2024 form, if Trevor Rogers is close to the Cy Young-level starter he was last year, if Zach Eflin is fully healthy, if Baz benefits from escaping the hitter-friendly conditions at Steinbrenner Field, this rotation could be really good.

But hope shouldn’t be a factor when collecting talent for a roster that can compete for a World Series. You shouldn’t strive for optimism, but for sure-handed confidence. You want to look at a finished roster and think, Yep, these guys will get it done.

The Dodgers added Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz. The Blue Jays added Dylan Cease and few expensive foreign signings. The two teams that competed in last year’s World Series haven’t stopped adding big pieces with just one — why should the Orioles?

It’s a question that has sadly become an annual rhetorical exercise with this front office. You wonder how many times the franchise can choose the same strategy and hope for the best possible results.

It’s not how a team that is hell-bent on winning behaves, and I doubt this approach gets Baltimore much further than it has been so far, even if key players bounce back in 2026. This fan base would be willing to forgive the sin of trying too hard and overspending, but folks have already seen what happens when the Orioles don’t try hard (or spend) enough.

It’s great that the Orioles just shelled out for a player development facility. Wake us up when you shell out for more freakin’ players.