It should be apparent that Elias is following the same long slow rebuild process that the Astros followed when Luhnow and company took over the Astros in December 2011. If you study the Astros during the next few years, they spent spent virtually nothing on major league talent, especially that is not going to be around when their competitive window started in 2015. Once the Astros began their competitive window, they have proven very willing to spend big.
From Astroball
Jeff Luhnow followed through on his promise to Jim Crane to rid the club of high- priced, underperforming veterans, in order to squirrel away the savings to spend in a future in which they could realistically hope to compete.
I do have enough confidence in Elias to think that if he lets Villar go for free, it is because other teams are offering very little or nothing.
There is a ruthlessness to this process that will make it very difficult to be a fan for the next few years. However, it is more realistic than the the orioles plan for the decade of 2000s which usually involved building around mediocre players coming off of career years and over the hill stars looking for the fountain of youth.
The three most important priorities for the 2019 and 2020 Orioles are
1. The draft.
2. Improve and modernize player development
3. Develop an in international scouting presence.
At the major league level there may be young players (Hays, Mountcastle etc) that have a chance to be around when the competitive window starts. However, other than that, I don't think Elias cares too much about the major team at this point.