In the four months since David Rubenstein took over as Orioles owner, he’s been front and center for Baltimore fans to see.

He frequently attends games at Camden Yards, walking around the park and interacting with fans. He’s made a habit of standing at his seat next to the Orioles’ dugout and tossing hats or drink koozies or other goodies to those nearby. He danced on top of the dugout with The Oriole Bird to John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” doused fans with water as Mr. Splash and appeared in humorous commercials with Cal Ripken Jr. and Gunnar Henderson.

Rubenstein and his ownership group have aced their early days by pandering to Baltimore fans with a level of enthusiasm and humility that made the aforementioned acts feel genuine. But this past week had the potential to end Rubenstein’s honeymoon with fans.

MLB’s trade deadline was the first true test for Rubenstein — the first data point that could inform how he would operate his hometown team. He passed the test and perhaps foreshadowed what the Rubenstein era could look like.

It appears Rubenstein, a private equity billionaire and Baltimore native, gave the Orioles’ front office — led by general manager Mike Elias — the runway to explore the trade deadline in whatever manner it deemed most prudent. The Orioles did not make any splashy trades at the deadline because no team in baseball did. The top players on the market were not dealt, and not a single top 100 prospect was moved.

But the Orioles made perhaps one of the deadline’s best deals, and it was likely a possibility because of Rubenstein.

On July 26, Elias acquired Zach Eflin from the Tampa Bay Rays for three prospects, giving the Orioles one of the best starting pitchers dealt at the deadline. Eflin made perfect sense for Baltimore given his pedigree, consistency and strike-throwing ability. But he was also a fit because he was under contract through 2025 — clearly a preference for Elias since all four of the pitchers he added are controllable past this season.

However, Eflin isn’t cheap. He’s due $18 million next season — a factor that likely lowered the prospect capital the Orioles had to give to their American League East foe. Now, $18 million is a modest price for a free agent starting pitcher, but in Baltimore under Rubenstein’s predecessor, adding an $18 million contract to the top-secret books might not have been possible.

Under Rubenstein, it might just be how the Orioles do business now.

“It was wonderful. They were very eager,” Elias said during a news conference Wednesday about navigating the deadline with his new bosses. “This was really the first opportunity that they had to show their willingness and ability to improve the roster. They certainly gave us everything that we needed to explore everything.”

The $18 million Eflin is owed marks the largest salary Elias has taken on during his six years as Baltimore’s GM, the first five with John Angelos as the Orioles’ Chairman and CEO. The only other Orioles player to earn more than Eflin will next season is Chris Davis in 2019 after he was given a massive deal by Elias’ predecessor when Peter Angelos was the Orioles’ control person.

Ahead of last year’s deadline, Elias said he had the “flexibility” from John Angelos to boost payroll — which ranked bottom five in MLB in each season Angelos was the Orioles’ control person — at the deadline. But that didn’t happen as the Orioles instead acquired a project reliever in Shintaro Fujinami and a rental starter in Jack Flaherty.

Elias said members of the new ownership group have “participated in meetings” with the front office and provided “valuable input.”

“They’ve been here in person quite a bit. We had a lot of meetings. Very interactive with the front office. Not just me, a lot of people in our front office,” Elias said. “They’re experienced business people, and they’re some of the best investors in the entire world. So there’s a lot of cool input and insights that you get from that. They also know baseball, too, so it’s been fun working with them.”

Eflin wasn’t the only contract Elias took on at Rubenstein’s approval, though. In total, the Orioles made seven trades, including the acquisitions of experienced big leaguers Eloy Jiménez, Trevor Rogers, Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto. Along with Eflin, those players add about $11 million to Baltimore’s payroll this season.

The Jiménez deal was originally seen as a salary dump on the part of the lowly Chicago White Sox. The struggling ex-Silver Slugger is due about $4.3 million for the remainder of this season with a $3 million buyout of his exorbitant club option in 2025. But the White Sox will pay a majority of the money owed to Jiménez as part of the cash in the trade, according to a source with direct knowledge of the move.

Still, Soto, a lefty reliever, is entering his final year of arbitration, which could see him paid north of $6 million. Domínguez, a right-handed reliever, has an $8 million club option for 2025. And Rogers, a left-handed starter, is due two significant pay bumps in arbitration the next two seasons.

When asked if his experience with Rubenstein and company at the deadline increases his confidence about increasing payroll or signing young players to long-term extensions, Elias said he believes the new ownership group will “maximize the potential of this franchise.”

“This is not New York City. This is not Los Angeles. But it is a really good baseball town with an extremely passionate, historic fan base and a beautiful stadium that we’re not only going to renovate but hopefully monetize a lot better in the next few years,” Elias said. “And these guys are great businessmen. They’re great investors. And augmenting the health and the economic engine of this franchise is going to enable us to be super competitive on all these fronts. But I emphasize the word ‘competitive’ because we’re competing against 29 other cities and a lot of them are a lot larger than this one.

“We’re gonna run the franchise optimally and do the best we can in that regard. That’s basically the most direct way I can say about what we’re going to do here the next few years, and I think it’s gonna be great. The rest of it’s all case by case.”

This deadline served as just one data point about the type of owner Rubenstein will be, but it’s one more than existed a week ago. The hopes from fans of higher payrolls, free-agent acquisitions and long-term extensions for Henderson and Adley Rutschman might not be so unrealistic after all.