More on tonight's deadline and Elias' radio interview

The latest deadline in baseball's offseason has arrived tonight with teams needing to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players by 8 p.m.

I've hit this subject harder than a Chinese food buffet, but hey, let's review it anyway:

The Orioles have three obvious decisions regarding Dylan Bundy, Mychal Givens and Jonathan Villar. They aren't candidates to be non-tendered and we'll find out later if executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias is willing to trade them over the winter.

Separate topic and article.

MLBTradeRumors.com projects Bundy to receive $3 million, Givens $2 million and Villar $4.4 million.

With Tim Beckham's projected raise to $4.3 million and no position waiting for him, the infielder remains the most vulnerable player in the group.

Caleb Joseph is facing some uncertainty, his salary projected to increase to $1.7 million after he batted .219/.254/.321 with 14 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 17 RBIs in 82 games and threw out 20 of 60 runners attempting to steal.

There isn't a veteran catcher in the organization or a prospect who slots ahead of Joseph, but the Orioles could try to persuade him to accept a pay cut and go the non-tender route if he declines. He, too, is on shaky ground.

Elias, as I passed along last night, didn't anticipate reaching agreements on new deals with anyone in the group until perhaps later in the day. Closer to the deadline.

"I think both sides kind of learn to wait a little bit, usually until the day of," Elias said during the "Orioles Hot Stove" show on 105.7 The Fan. "I know our staff is working on it and has had preliminary conversations. I've been briefed on it a little bit, but we'll have to see. It's tough to call that stuff. Even right now, which is almost 24 hours out, it's too soon."

Elias is leaning on guys like director of player development Brian Graham and vice president of baseball operations Brady Anderson to help him learn more about the players on the 25- and 40-man rosters and with each affiliate.

"Very much so," he said. "You can study players on paper as much as you like, but until you have some of the mental impressions and a visual of the player that's sealed in your mind, it can be a little blurry. But I've been going over the organization. I did a lot of preparatory work on the organization prior to interviewing with the team. And I think the advantage in my case is, having been a scouting director, I just happened to have seen a lot of these players over the years, so they're not just names on paper to me, most of them.

"But I am very much relying on the expertise of the people who have been here, who know the players personally, who kind of know the trajectory the players have been on and some of the recent trends and so forth."

* The Orioles hold the first overall pick in the June draft for the second time, and Elias said "it's always the best player" who should be selected. Having shortstop Carlos Correa in Houston didn't stop him from wanting Alex Bregman.

"We loved Alex Bregman, we couldn't pass on him, we figured we'd worry about that later, so you're always looking for the best talent available," he said. "I think there are more than two options for this pick right now. I'm pretty familiar with the top of this draft class and I expect to become way more familiar with it going forward.

"I think there are multiple options right now. We're going to keep a wide pool and then make a decision as late as we can once we've gathered all of the information and put our heads together in the draft room, and we'll make a final determination.

"My experience with Houston gave me, really, an uncommon amount of experience with very high draft picks. We didn't do perfectly, but we did great and we ended up with two MVP-caliber players, a third who's a rookie right now who's going to be an MVP-caliber player.

"We had one pick who didn't work out, but the good news for me and for the Orioles is that all of that experience, the Orioles will be the beneficiaries of that experience, even the bad experiences. So, I feel good about the class. I know how to do this process, I know how to do this well and we're going to do real well with the pick."

* The manager who replaces Triple-A Norfolk's Ron Johnson could be someone who moves up from a lower affiliate or comes from another area of the organization, or it could be an outsider.

"I think everything that you mention is a possibility," Elias said. "I am going to focus on completing the major league manager hire first, because I'll want that person's input on the Triple-A spot. And I view the Triple-A manager and Triple-A in general as really an extension of your major league staff and dynamic.

"There's just so much communication going on between the major league level and the Triple-A level. There's players coming and going throughout the year. You want to make sure that those two managers and those two staffs have a good relationship. Maybe some teaching that was going on at Triple-A is continued when the player gets to the major leagues, or vice-versa.

"There's just so much traffic back and forth between those two levels that it's really kind of an outpost of the major league staff. So, I want to get the manager here in Baltimore decided upon first before we take a look at the Triple-A situation."

* I like how the Orioles are doing everything in the proper order, beginning with the hiring of Elias, who shed some light on the interview process that was so secretive.

"It was a great process," he said. "I had multiple in-person meetings and also multiple phone portions. It was very thorough. It took several weeks from beginning to end, and it did begin for me after the Astros were eliminated."

* The immediate reaction Wednesday night to the Orioles signing Josh Lucas to a minor league contract went something like this:

"He quit acting?"

Oh Twitter, you're hilarious.

The "Sweet Home Alabama" actor is not the same guy who's hoping to win a job with the Orioles in spring training. I'm assuming that he'll be included among the invites.

This particular Josh Lucas is a 28-year-old pitcher who's mostly been used in relief and has ties to Elias from their days together in the Cardinals system. But yes, it would be funnier if he worked for the Montgomery Biscuits or the Birmingham Barons.

I offered some background on Lucas in this article. I performed extensive Google searches to find out why he didn't pitch in 2012, found nothing and skipped over it.

I'm finally able to confirm that he suffered an injury to his right elbow that required surgery. I'm guessing it was Tommy John because he made only eight appearances the previous year and was idle until 2013.

Lucas joins infielders Jace Peterson, Chris Bostick and Zachary Vincej and right-hander Jeffeson Medina as players signed to minor league deals since Elias' hiring.

And no, you shouldn't start printing those playoff tickets.