It is typically not easy to be sure of oneself when a baseball season has just begun, but the Orioles are sitting at 3-6 after being swept in Pittsburgh this past weekend.
I am not going to throw the baby out with the bath water, but as Bob Dylan once wrote in his song Subterranean Homesick Blues, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” And only the wildest optimist would like the smell of these first nine games.
Just tell me what has looked good so far?
Starting pitching? Nah. Trevor Rogers, still not extended, has looked very good so far, with a 1.38 ERA and 1.07 WHIP through his first 13 innings.
Kyle Bradish hasn’t been very good or lengthy in either start. Shane Baz is 1 for 2 in quality starts. Zach Eflin is at the very least gone for some time after he looked good enough in Florida to option Dean Kremer. Eflin failed to last more than 3.2 innings in his lone start and is getting a second opinion on his elbow. That’s never a good scenario. Chris Bassitt? So far he looks like a 2026 version of Charlie Morton, maybe worse.
I loved how decisive Orioles GM Mike Elias was in moving on from Grayson Rodriguez. You can only wait so long for someone to be able to post. The Angels are finding that out now. But in spending $28.5 million on Eflin and Bassitt for 2026, the club in less than 10 games may be back depending upon Dean Kremer and Cade Povich. It’s questionable whether any of the starters behind them are ready to help. Kremer and Povich were two of the guys who were awful early last season, part of the reason the ’25 campaign was done before it really began.
In giving Shane Baz a $68 million extension, owner David Rubenstein pointed out for the umpteenth time that the club is well-funded enough to give Elias a lot of what he wants.
So, why Bassitt instead of Framber Valdez? It was a head-scratcher when Valdez and his valuable, durable left arm ended up getting just a three-year deal for $115 million to go to Detroit. So far, Valdez in two starts is 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP in 12 innings.
Bassitt through two disastrous starts is 0-2 with a 14.21 ERA and 2.52 WHIP in 6.1 innings. He has walked six and struck out just three in his two starts and also hit two batters.
There was a great story in spring training about Bassitt jumping on his teammates about a sloppy drill they were running and showing great leadership in making his teammates redo the drill more crisply. I think I’d still prefer Valdez on my team.
The bullpen has been erratic. Closer Ryan Helsley has looked good, Saturday’s game against the Pirates notwithstanding. Yennier Cano, Dietrich Enns and Yaramil Hiraldo were always questions for me. Andrew Kittredge, whom I loved from afar, has offered very little in terms of quality performance and has had to deal with an injury in each of his two seasons in Birdland.
A groin injury to Keegan Akin depleted an already thin ‘pen. Maybe Ryan Mountcastle’s $6.79 million would have been better spent on a meaningful back-end reliever, instead of his five at-bats.
The defense through nine games has been, in a word, putrid. It got me thinking of the unflappable days of Chris Davis, J.J. Hardy, Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop in the infield. Coby Mayo has had a few more good moments than expected at third base, but twice in that Saturday loss in Pittsburgh the ball found the lesser side of Mayo’s glove work.
No question the losses of Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg have thrown the club out of sync defensively. Blaze Alexander is the best and most sure-handed glove in the infield. But if this club can’t improve in this aspect of the game, 2026 is going to look a lot like 2025.
Offensively, Adley Rutschman and Taylor Ward have been solid. But Pete Alonso, Samuel Basallo, Colton Cowser, Jeremiah Jackson, Tyler O’Neill and Mayo are all struggling to varying degrees. Cowser is beginning to look more like a bust than a player. He may just start losing more time to Leody Taveras if he can’t figure out how to handle non-fastballs.
Yes, it’s only nine games. But so far, injuries, poor pitching and maybe most notably some questionable decision-making on high is all adding up to diminish a good bit of excitement that the club created with some dynamic and lucrative investments this past offseason.
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