As the Orioles were flailing away to the tune of 48 strikeouts and losing three out of four in Cleveland this past weekend, the rebuild years came to mind.
That’s not to suggest this year’s club is doomed and on its way to anything resembling those miserable 100-plus-loss seasons. But a 10-12 start is only one game better than the Orioles were through 22 games last year, and we all remember how that turned out. Baltimore already owns two different stretches of five losses in six games and needed two major comebacks to avoid going winless this past week, which speaks to a formula that’s not sustainable for a team that considers itself a contender.
Even when this team has won games, it isn’t doing anything particularly well in the process.
To put it frankly, fans didn’t sit through the rebuild years of president of baseball operations Mike Elias not even trying to field competitive clubs to have Jeremiah Jackson and Leody Taveras — who have been among the few bright spots — leading the way offensively in the present. The same was true last season when Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano led last-place Baltimore in on-base plus slugging percentage before being dealt at the trade deadline.
Unfortunately, the injuries that were a major factor last year have continued, but that can’t be the blanket excuse for what we’re seeing from too many individuals who are healthy.
The rotation has been disappointing through its first four turns, but no one predicted this group to be one of baseball’s elite groups either. In contrast, even with some injuries, the bullpen has been a pleasant surprise, which has resulted in an overall team ERA ranking a competitive 13th in the majors entering Monday. The Orioles certainly need better from their starters, but the pitching hasn’t been a disaster.
The defense is bad, and that’s not surprising from an organization that simply doesn’t appear to prioritize it when seeing the clunky roster construction even before the health challenges mounted.
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The offense?
Relative to high expectations — and the long-term vision of what this group of homegrown position players was intended to provide — for the second straight year, the bats have disappointed to this point. The Orioles entered Monday tied for 18th in runs scored per game, 29th in strikeout rate, 16th in home runs, 19th in slugging percentage, 20th in OPS, and 18th in weighted on-base average.
If you’re going to strike out that much, you better slug, and the Orioles aren’t doing nearly enough of the latter.
Pete Alonso’s track record and five-year, $155 million contract offer no choice but to assume he’ll rebound from a poor start to his Orioles career, but the patience to continue pointing to his defense as a positive is wearing thin. Needless to say, Baltimore needs much better from the five-time All-Star first baseman, especially with other right-handed bats on the injured list at the moment.
The less-heralded veteran additions made by Elias have worked well to this point with Taylor Ward slashing an impressive .295/.388/.455 and the 27-year-old Taveras looking even better than the valuable contributor he was with Texas in 2023.
Despite entering spring training on the roster bubble, Jackson, 26, continues to be a breath of fresh air carrying a bat with pop and playing above-average defense at second base. Jackson has played as well as anyone would have hoped to see from Jackson Holliday before the hamate bone injury the 22-year-old suffered days before the start of spring training.
The home-run power has returned for Gunnar Henderson after a challenging 2025, but a growing strikeout rate has accompanied the early long balls. The 24-year-old star would be the first to tell you he needs to be more consistent than a .204 average and .279 on-base percentage through his first 104 plate appearances. Still, Henderson remains among the least of Baltimore’s concerns.
8But what about the rest of the talented young position core™?
No matter how else Elias augmented the roster this offseason, so much rides on the players the Orioles drafted and developed as the alleged reward for those terrible rebuild seasons, and it still isn’t looking all that pretty beyond Henderson. The lack of availability and productivity from this group continues to be disappointing.
One hopes Adley Rutschman’s first 10 games were a sign of better things to come after his previous 1 1/2 seasons, but his minor ankle injury — and third trip to the injured list since last June — only added to the health woes already created by the absences of Holliday and Jordan Westburg this spring. And as more time passes, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to know what to expect from Holliday — whose rehab assignment had to be paused and then extended recently — or Westburg in 2026.
As for the other members of the young core actually on the field, Colton Cowser, Coby Mayo, Dylan Beavers, and Samuel Basallo all entered Monday’s action below replacement level statistically. And though it’d be unfair to judge each individual the same way when factoring age and experience level in the majors, expecting more from some combination of these players was reasonable after years of hearing Elias laud his “elite talent pipeline.”
With Beavers and Basallo still rookies and under 200 career plate appearances apiece, patience is warranted for them. In Basallo’s case, it’s fair to wonder if moving into the starting catcher role for the time being has simply been too much too soon for the 21-year-old, but he’s at least flashed power with three long home runs this season. Beavers isn’t hitting well with a .588 OPS, but his batting average is at least above the Mendoza line.
Cowser and Mayo are different stories as they’ve been Baltimore’s two worst offensive regulars with a combined three extra-base hits and 34 strikeouts over 116 plate appearances. Mayo not building on a good September to finish last season is discouraging, but the 24-year-old may have been at Triple-A Norfolk — or with another club entirely — in an alternate timeline in which Westburg and Holliday were healthy. Having just eclipsed 400 career plate appearances in the majors this past weekend, Mayo still has time to avoid “bust” status, but his defense isn’t going to do anything to keep him in the majors if he continues to do so little with the bat.
The 26-year-old Cowser was the most pivotal position player on the roster entering the season after Elias elected not to acquire a high-profile center fielder, and his offense only looks worse after his injury-plagued 2025 and unimpressive spring training. Even those trying to advocate for defense to be prioritized on this club, there’s no amount of good fielding that will justify keeping Cowser in the lineup if a .148/.258/.185 slash line doesn’t improve sooner than later. We’re talking about someone with over 1,000 plate appearances in the majors and continuing to move in the wrong direction from a 2024 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up campaign.
8With a new manager and new hitting coaches, it’s tough to continue blaming the coaching for the disappointing offense. Are there serious flaws to the organization’s philosophy that’s stalling out young hitters after graduating from Triple-A to the majors? Are these former top prospects simply not good enough?
No one could have expected every prospect to be an instant All-Star upon arriving in the majors, mind you, but you’d like to see a couple more guys holding their own and playing above replacement level at least. That the Orioles have batted Johnathan Rodriguez in the cleanup spot three times in the last week is an indictment of pretty much everyone other than the 26-year-old who was designated for assignment by Cleveland last month.
Perhaps Rutschman will pick up where he left off over the season’s first two weeks and Holliday will return to rake in the near future. One hopes Basallo and Beavers start looking like the talents Elias refrained from promoting too early last August to maintain their 2026 rookie status. And maybe the bats of Cowser and Mayo will come alive after looking so punchless over the season’s first month.
Henderson and Alonso obviously must be better to lead the way.
But as more time passes and the Orioles’ offense and young core remain stuck in this pattern of mediocrity or worse that began midway through 2024, the more and more this feels like blind hope rather than justified optimism.
Yes, it’s still early, but we kept saying the same thing last year.
