The season was still young and the Orioles were playing at an elite level, but owner David Rubenstein — a pragmatic financier accustomed to seeing the economy rise and fall — knew better than to imagine that either he or his team were above reproach.

“If you’re going to be visible and doing visible things, you will be criticized,” he said in an interview on a sunny May afternoon at Camden Yards in which he joked that “I’d be hiding out or something” if the team started losing.

Four months later — with fans grumbling as the club has fallen back to the pack — he’s not hiding.

“Obviously everybody knows that the team played better in the first half than the second half,” he told The Baltimore Sun in an interview Wednesday. “Baseball is 162 games a year. Players have injuries, players have slumps. We’re in reasonably good shape because we are what, half a game out of first place? Do I wish we won every game we play? Of course.”

Anxious fans are questioning whether the injury-riddled club could have done more before the July 30 trade deadline to buttress its roster. It’s the first time the popular new owner — who has danced on the dugout with the Oriole bird and sprayed fans in the stands as a guest “Mr. Splash” — has faced such questions about the club’s approach.

The Orioles, who were 20 games over .500 just 64 games into the year, have played .500 ball since that June period entering Wednesday’s play.

Rubenstein, an author and philanthropist who co-founded The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, is not a meddler.

He told The Sun he talks to general manager Mike Elias once a week and that Elias briefs him and co-owner Mike Arougheti about planned trades. Rubenstein said he trusts Elias’ judgment and that Arougheti “is much more knowledgeable about many baseball things than I am, so Mike weighs in.”

Rubenstein, the son of a mailman and a homemaker who grew up in Baltimore, says he bought the club largely to give back to his hometown. He officially became owner, taking over from the late Peter Angelos and his family, in March.

John Angelos, the team’s former control person, often spoke of the limitations of signing top players because the Orioles’ budget was limited by playing in a relatively small market. Rubenstein has said it’s too soon to make such judgments and that he will rely on Elias.

Rubenstein periodically attends games, eschewing the owner’s box for the stands, and often poses for selfies with fans. His attendance has not diminished, he said, since the club tailed off, and he plans to return to the stadium during the next home series against the San Francisco Giants.

Rubenstein badly wants to win but takes an economist’s long view about the club’s fortunes.

Injuries, particularly to the pitching staff, have hit the club hard. Fans complained on social media that the team could have done more before the trade deadline to bolster its pitching. The team did acquire some new pitchers but didn’t want to surrender many young prospects to get more.

“We’ve got really good young players — in many ways the envy of the professional baseball world,” Rubenstein said Wednesday. “There’s so much young talent on the team and in the farm system, so I’m feeling pretty good about where we are.”

He noted in the interview that the Texas Rangers, last season’s World Series champion, finished second in their division during the regular season, making the playoffs as a wild card.

The Orioles entered Wednesday night one-half game behind the New York Yankees in the American League East.

“We’d like to be in first place. There’s an advantage to it, but I’m not at all worried about our being in the playoffs,” Rubenstein said. “I think we will be, for sure, and I just don’t know which position we’ll come in.”