We are 28 days away from the All-Star break. The Orioles have played 73 games and have a record of 34-39. They are a little bit like the “Three Stooges” bit when the brothers are in the French Foreign Legion. The commanding officer says, “I need three volunteers to step forward.” The rest of the legionnaires take three steps backward, leaving the Stooges as the volunteers.
The whole of this team to date is less than the sum of the parts, rarely a recipe for a winning team.
There are times when the starting pitching looks up to the task, then there are just enough banana peels stepped on. Kyle Bradish started slowly and then looked like pre-injury Bradish for several starts, but he has been awful in his last two outings. Trevor Rogers was mystifyingly bad early in the season but has looked much better in his last five starts. Shane Baz has turned around his season after a tough start to his Orioles career.
Chris Bassitt was supposed to be the heady veteran who would offer solid performance and impact his fellow starters. He may have had some impact on others, but by and large he has been a big disappointment. He is now on the injured list with a back issue.
Zach Eflin recorded 11 outs before needing Tommy John surgery. Dean Kremer was deemed excess when the club was ready to head north, but now the team needs him. The timetable on his return from a quad injury remains unclear. Cade Povich, also on the IL, continues to be more of an enigma than a true help to the team.
The brightest starting pitcher has been Brandon Young. Jim Palmer likes to point to how the club scores him a ton of runs, and while that may help him settle down sometimes, he has just done a great job at giving his team a chance to win in every outing but one.
The bullpen has been a seesaw affair as well, with injuries and inconsistency all over the place.
Ryan Helsley was brilliant and by the looks of his two rehab appearances with Triple-A Norfolk (five strikeouts and one hit allowed), he should be activated for the club’s West Coast trip (June 16-24 through Seattle, Los Angeles and Anaheim).
Andrew Kittredge is finally looking the part of the guy president of baseball operations Mike Elias signed to a one-year deal with a club option a couple of offseasons ago. Elias thought enough of him to reacquire him and exercise that $9 million option. Elias may finally be rewarded for his faith. The dollars aren’t the same, but Elias has stood by Tyler Wells and of late, the big right-hander has stepped up.
Rico Garcia was absolutely brilliant (or was he just lucky?) in the first two months of the season, but he has allowed three home runs in the past two weeks. With Helsley out and Anthony Nunez taking a step backward, a lot has fallen on Garcia’s shoulders. The club could easily have a few more losses without him. He figures to do well in tandem with Kittredge and Wells in the seventh and eighth innings once Helsley is activated.
Keegan Akin got hurt late in camp and looks out of shape. While his numbers are inflated from a couple really bad outings, he is far from the consistent reliever he was the past few years.
This is a formidable offense on paper, but the games are not played on paper and far too often this offense disappears.
Taylor Ward has been a solid pickup. His 63 walks and .404 on-base percentage have been huge additions to the top of the lineup, but he was brought in to hit for power. His three home runs and just 20 RBIs seem to take away from the aforementioned attributes he has brought to the team.
Tyler O’Neill has been better lately, but the bar is so incredibly low that a .190 batting average represents improvement. Colton Cowser may actually have figured some stuff out at the plate. He remains the best defensive outfielder on the roster. His future is a mixed bag with our collective fingers crossed.
Leody Taveras, who signed a one-year, $2 million deal at the beginning of free agency, has been a lifesaver. The 27-year-old has one more year of club control remaining. He does have problems tracking fly balls over his head in center field and seems better suited for right.
Pete Alonso has now officially arrived. He is in a lot of ways what this club needed the past two years. It’s a shame all of his production of late has been mitigated by the inconsistent performance from Gunnar Henderson.
The talk of dropping Henderson down in the lineup doesn’t seem like it would solve whatever ails him. I wrote several weeks ago that I think some of what contributes to Henderson’s issues is the pressure of living up to the extension agent Scott Boras wants to will into existence. Sure, Henderson will make a lot of money, but it still seems he might have more fun playing if he’d put that initial money out of the equation.
Jackson Holliday has had a trying start to his season, but the net result still seems to be that he is a work in progress. I see a better version of him around the corner. He seems much more confident defensively at second base.
Like Cowser, Coby Mayo has overcome a lot. The numbers don’t shout that he has arrived — that will be determined by his performance the rest of the way — but the game seems to have slowed down for him. He actually puts together some good at-bats now. His 14-to-64 strikeout-to-walk ratio is not good, unless it can eventually be accompanied by more contact and consistent power. He is mashing left-handed pitching, though.
Blaze Alexander and Jeremiah Jackson have both had their moments. Alexander is a gifted athlete who is an excellent infielder with quick-twitch actions you cannot teach, but manager Craig Albernaz has miscast him as an outfielder. He is OK in left, but center is well beyond his depth, unless the club wants him to work on it during the offseason to be a full-time center fielder. I don’t see that in the cards.
Jackson has gotten much better at second base under the tutelage of infield coach Miguel Cairo. I figured Jackson might get more opportunities in right field given the struggles O’Neill has had, but Albernaz might not view Jackson as an outfielder.
The catching tandem of Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo has been one of the strengths of the team. Their bats are good enough that both should be in the lineup every night. The only downside is that an injury to a given night’s starting catcher forces the designated hitter into the field unless a third catcher is on the roster.
The Orioles do currently have a third catcher on the roster in Sam Huff, a one-time highly rated prospect. He brings very little to the table from an offensive perspective. Next year, the club might want to consider bringing in a former catcher like Isiah-Kiner Falefa, giving the manager an emergency catcher every night instead of having to roster a third catcher who can’t hit.
So, there you have it. The club is 34-39 as we near July. Can the Orioles still make the playoffs? Sure. Will they? At this time, I don’t see anywhere enough consistency in performance all over the roster.
As Brian Billick was fond of saying, I think the 2026 Baltimore Orioles are what they are.
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