The news started spreading in hushed tones as the players arrived to the clubhouse Tuesday afternoon. A phone held up between Cedric Mullins and Heston Kjerstad, showing a tweet that their teammates Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers were heading to Miami.

Two more gone. Another locker cleaned out only to be quickly refilled hours later.

By the start of Tuesday’s 6:35 p.m. game, three more major league trades would be made, with the Orioles not completing their final move until just minutes before the deadline. They had their medical team on Zoom, reviewing information in real time as they raced against the clock.

The players heard bits and pieces of the news as they readied for the game, but most would not digest the full magnitude until later that evening.

“I think I’ve seen most of them, but I still need to figure it out,” starting pitcher Corbin Burnes said Tuesday night. He was not the only one trying to piece it all together.

When all the trade acquisitions report, the Orioles will have seven new faces in the clubhouse from their deadline haul — Zach Eflin (acquired from the Rays), Seranthony Domínguez, Gregory Soto and Cristian Pache (Phillies), Trevor Rogers (Marlins), Austin Slater (Reds) and Eloy Jiménez (White Sox).

Some, like Ryan Mountcastle, know just a few facts about them. Soto throws hard, Mountcastle remarked Wednesday. That’ll be good, he added. He’ll get to know them quickly — it will be like the first day of spring training again; just it’s August and the team is in a pennant race.

It’s an unusual spot for a first-place team to find itself in, to make so many moves just to backfill the roster. The Orioles did not acquire a star — they already have five All-Stars on their roster — but these were the moves they had to make after injuries plagued the first half of the season, particularly to their rotation.

It would have been hard, four months ago, to imagine the Orioles needing to do this. When they arrived in Sarasota, Florida, to start spring training, general manager Mike Elias expressed confidence that Kyle Bradish and John Means would contribute after dealing with elbow injuries. And he believed their pitching depth could carry them until those two returned.

“We like the talent we have,” Elias said then. “We like the resources we have.”

Since then, the roster has been remade. Nearly half of the players they started the season with are no longer available to them.

Means, Bradish and Tyler Wells are done for the season. Infielder Jorge Mateo and reliever Danny Coulombe are out until at least September. Cole Irvin, Michael Baumann and Tony Kemp were designated for assignment, and Austin Hays was traded. Dillon Tate and Nick Vespi are still in the organization, but with the new additions it’s hard to imagine a place for them on the major league roster.

Their lockers have been turned over, their jerseys removed from the team store. And the team’s hopes for a World Series title are vested in a batch of fresh faces.

“I think we have an excellent team with as good a shot as anybody, and we have a lot more pitching than we did a week ago,” Elias said. “So overall I’m happy with the process, the work that we did.”

“I think this team can get really deep in the playoffs, and we want to go all the way,” Elias added later.

Eflin, who made his Orioles debut Monday, will slot in as the No. 3 starter. Rogers, who will likely make his first start in Cleveland this weekend, will be the No. 4 or No. 5. Eflin is under team control through 2025, Rogers until 2026. Elias said the Orioles engaged in conversations with teams on rental starters but focused more on acquiring players who can help them in the future as well.

No, they didn’t get another ace like Corbin Burnes, whom they acquired in February from the Brewers. But neither did other teams.

“Some of the real crazy big names that people were throwing around didn’t get traded at all,” Elias said. “I think, all things considered, we got two of the better starting pitchers available this deadline.”

This also allows them to move Albert Suárez to the bullpen as a long reliever and keep top pitching prospects Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott in Triple-A as depth while they develop.

“Look, I don’t want to tempt the baseball gods any more than I have to in this job, but we’ve got five really good starters now,” Elias said. “We’ve got depth in Triple-A, and we’ve got Albert Suárez, who’s going to move into a long relief role in all probability here. He’s shown that he can kind of step in and step out and take the ball as needed, so I’ll take it. That’s for sure.”

While the Orioles could have sought out a closer, they stuck with Craig Kimbrel in that spot, despite two blown saves last week. Domínguez, a right-handed pitcher, and Soto, a left-hander, have closing experience.

“There’s nights where Craig’s not available, or there’s going to be matchups that are better for some of the other pitchers, the lefties, what have you, and I think we have a lot more options than we did, too,” Elias said.

Jiménez and Slater are right-handed bats to replace Hays, a key member of the rebuild who was sent to the Phillies for Domínguez and Pache.

Jiménez and Slater are not upgrades over Hays — Jiménez and Hays profile very similarly against left-handed hitting. But trading Hays was necessary to get Domínguez, and Elias knew he could find someone like Jiménez later to add a right-handed hitter back.

“You can’t keep players forever and you got to balance a roster and certain fits, and we needed pitching and relief pitching,” Elias said.

To make these moves, the Orioles had to part with players who may, Elias said, come back to haunt them. For the players in the clubhouse, the ones still trying to keep track of their new teammates, it’s more than that.

Irvin, designated for assignment Tuesday, was the architect of the homer hose. Norby and Stowers, traded for Rogers, were especially tight with members of the young core. Hays was a clubhouse leader.

Elias considered that clubhouse chemistry as he made moves. But he thinks the new players will slot right in.

“It’s something that, whether by luck or design or a mixture of both, we’ve been fortunate with this year that we’ve gotten good people in here,” Elias said. “I’m hopeful with these guys that will be the case. I’ve gotten a lot of good reviews in that regard. I think hopefully this is a good clubhouse, an easy clubhouse to weave into.”