Before Wednesday’s game at Camden Yards, one of baseball’s best prospects, a member of perhaps the top collection of young talent in MLB, sat down in the dugout and talked about the “life-changing” contract extension he had signed earlier that day.

The dugout just happened to be the visitors’, and the player was wearing a Red Sox cap, not an Orioles one.

Kristian Campbell, a 22-year-old infielder who played in his sixth career MLB game Wednesday, signed an eight-year, $60 million contract extension with Boston.

“I know we have a really good team and minor league system,” said Campbell through a baby-faced smile. “It’s a winning culture, a winning organization, a winning history, a winning people in the city of Boston. That made the decision fairly easy.”

While agreeing to long-term contract extensions is often a difficult process, the floodgates were opened this week. Campbell’s deal was the first of three extensions signed Wednesday, and it wasn’t even the first given out by Boston this week. A day earlier, unhittable left-hander Garrett Crochet, who twirled eight shutout innings against the Orioles on Wednesday, signed a six-year, $170 million extension with the club that acquired him via trade this offseason.

Contract extensions are in vogue. Will the style ever make its way to Baltimore?

Despite overflowing with young talent, the Orioles haven’t signed any of their stars to extensions. In fact, Mike Elias has yet to sign a single player to a long-term contract extension during his successful six-and-a-half years as the Orioles’ general manager.

Since Elias was hired in November 2018, Baltimore is the only team to not give out any extension of four-plus guaranteed years, according to Spotrac. More than 100 players have agreed to such contracts, but none of them have been Orioles. More than half of them have been young players like Campbell and Crochet who are still in their pre-arbitration or arbitration period — the same stages most of the Orioles’ young stars are in.

The Atlanta Braves have led the way by signing a whopping seven players to extensions. Even the small-market Pittsburgh Pirates have signed three players, while the penny-pinching Athletics this offseason locked down their two best hitters. The Milwaukee Brewers, a franchise similar to Baltimore in several ways, has signed three players to extensions in recent years, including Jackson Chourio for $82 million over eight years before he ever played a major league game. The San Diego Padres, who operate in a similar-sized market to Baltimore but have run much higher payrolls, have done so with three players, including Wednesday when they gave Severna Park native Jackson Merrill a nine-year, $135 million extension.

Of course, not all of these contracts have worked out for the team, while others have been home run values. That’s the risk organizations (and players) take when signing extensions, yet most front offices have chosen to accept that unknowable variance to lock down their key players. Why the Orioles have yet to do the same remains a mystery.

Any time Elias is asked about his interest in signing Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, et al. to extensions, he (obviously) doesn’t talk about specific negotiations. When asked last summer, he said his focus was on running the Orioles “optimally” and that every player is a “case-by-case” basis.

Of course, none of this is simple. For an extension to work, the player also needs to be interested in staying long term and likely voiding free agent years. But the Red Sox have now convinced four players in the past 13 months to sign extensions after signing Brayan Bello for $55 million over six years in March 2024 and defensive wizard Ceddanne Rafaela for $50 million over eight years last April.

“It takes two to tango, right?” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We’ve been able to secure some guys in this organization now that are going to be huge for us. It’s a good business decision, to be honest with you. It’s a good business model. Hopefully we can continue that and secure more players.”

One hurdle Elias potentially had for most of his tenure was the tenuous state of the franchise before owner David Rubenstein took over. Under former CEO and Chairman John Angelos, Elias didn’t sign a single free agent to a multiyear contract and operated bottom-five payrolls every season. In his first offseason under Rubenstein, though, Elias dished out over $70 million to eight free agents, including his first (Tyler O’Neill) to a multiyear deal, though none of those signings were the type of splash many in the fan base were hoping for.

Additionally, three of the Orioles’ best young players — Henderson, Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday — have chosen mega-agent Scott Boras to represent them. Most Boras clients decide to pursue free agency, which can result in larger contracts if teams get into a bidding war against each other like the Yankees and Mets this past offseason for the now-$765 million man Juan Soto. Though it’s worth noting that some Boras clients over the years have signed extensions, such as Elvis Andrus, Jose Altuve, Stephen Strasburg and others.

When Rubenstein was asked about extensions during spring training, the 75-year-old Baltimore native said that he’s “not unaware” of the fervor among Orioles fans for the franchise to lock down some of its young stars.

“We’d like to have players stay with Baltimore for a long, long time — their entire career,” Rubenstein said. “We think that we’re putting together a team they’re very happy with, and we’re providing an atmosphere they’re very happy with. We’ll just have to see what unfolds.”

Not every extension is equal, either. Crochet is a dominant starting pitcher, and his contract is proof of that. The Orioles don’t have a pitcher of Crochet’s caliber, though they did last season before Corbin Burnes left for Arizona this winter. A year ago, Campbell was in High-A and wasn’t a top prospect. Now, he’s Boston’s starting second baseman.

“As an organization, we’re in a good spot,” Cora said. “Doing deals like that, it means a lot, not only for the players, but for the fan base.”

Campbell’s contract locks him down for the rest of his 20s and covers the next six years before he was originally set to hit free agency and his first two post-arbitration seasons. It’s the same type of deal Rafaela agreed to a year ago. The 24-year-old outfielder said that the main reason he signed that deal was for his family to “make sure they’re OK.”

“Then,” he said, “you play more relaxed.”

Campbell expects to feel the same relief.

“I just got to worry about baseball right now,” he said.

Campbell and Rafaela’s backgrounds are much different than those of most of the Orioles’ young core. Campbell signed for just under $500,000 as a fourth-round draft pick in 2023. Rafaela signed for a minuscule $10,000 out of Curacao at 16 years old. Meanwhile, Rutschman, Holliday, Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad were all top-five picks and signed large signing bonuses before ever playing professional baseball. And, unlike Campbell, most of those Orioles players, in addition to All-Stars Henderson and Westburg, have proven themselves in the big leagues and might be less likely to take a low-risk deal that’s seen as team-friendly. Henderson, for example, is already one of the sport’s best players, and after the contract Soto just received, it might behoove him to pursue the free market, too.

“I think that adage is something that yours truly has been talking about for a long time with select players,” Boras said during MLB’s winter meetings in December.

The cornerstone of the Orioles — a club that’s won more regular-season games since 2023 than any other in the American League — is their young core. They share a house during spring training, wear similar necklaces and go to Disney World together in the offseason. But it’s possible that could change in only a few years. Rutschman is set to be a free agent after the 2027 season. Then Henderson in 2028 and Westburg in 2029.

The Red Sox are building a similar young core, but theirs might have a longer shelf life than Baltimore’s. Star third baseman Alex Bregman, who signed a $120 million contract with Boston this offseason, said that these moves send a message to the clubhouse and the fan base that the organization is serious about winning a World Series.

“It shows how willing ownership is to try and win,” Bregman said.

What message are the Orioles sending?

Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer @baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.