Well, the 2026 regular season is a wrap. Now all we have left is another fall without the home team having even a chance to get to and win their first World Series since all the way back in 1983.
In case you are counting, that is 43 years and counting for the Baltimore Orioles. The best chances the Orioles have had in all that time were the two years Pat Gillick and Davey Johnson were running things on the field, 1996 and 1997.
There was nary a glimmer of hope of reaching the World Series until 2012. Then in 2014, I really felt the Orioles would beat the Tigers in the ALDS. They did. Then blinded by my love and affection for my home team, I thought the Orioles would blow the Royals away.
Instead, the Orioles got swept out of the ALCS. While those years that teamed Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter produced a lot of wins, it just wasn’t meant to be for their collaboration to pay off with the ultimate prize.
But the years they ran the show were some of the most enjoyable years of Orioles baseball I have experienced.
For a time during Mike Elias’ rebuild I had a deep belief that he was going to pull it off. By 2023, when the Orioles won the AL East with 101 wins and were led by Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Anthony Santander and had so many up-and-coming prospects, it looked like the future was so bright.
Despite new ownership, which has stepped up in a big way to make it possible for the Orioles to have the necessary financial capabilities to again compete for a World Series, I am not sure Elias will be the one to get the club across that finish line.
We’ll see. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that there is baseball in 2027 in a timely fashion and that this offseason the brain trust does a better job at creating a balanced roster with enough depth to really be relevant.
For now, here are the last 2026 regular-season MLB power rankings. Thanks once again to my friend Byron Warnken of Warnken Law for powering my power rankings:
1. Milwaukee Brewers (103-59, No. 1 last week)
2. Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62, No. 2)
3. Tampa Bay Rays (98-64, No. 3)
4. Atlanta Braves (94-68, No. 4)
5. San Diego Padres (91-71, No. 5)
6. New York Yankees (93-68, No. 6)
7. Cleveland Guardians (85-77, No. 10)
8. Boston Red Sox (87-75, No. 8)
9. Chicago Cubs (89-73, No. 7)
10. Philadelphia Phillies (88-74, No. 9)
11. Houston Astros (81-81, No. 13)
12. Chicago White Sox (84-78, No. 11)
13. Arizona Diamondbacks (86-76, No. 14)
14. Pittsburgh Pirates (82-80, No. 15)
15. Texas Rangers (80-82, No. 12)
16. Baltimore Orioles (79-82, No. 17)
17. Toronto Blue Jays (79-83, No. 16)
18. Miami Marlins (80-82, No. 18)
19. Minnesota Twins (77-85, No. 19)
20. Detroit Tigers (76-86, No. 20)
21. Washington Nationals (77-85, No. 23)
22. St. Louis Cardinals (77-85, No. 22)
23. Seattle Mariners (76-86, No. 21)
24. Cincinnati Reds (75-87, No. 25)
25. New York Mets (74-88, No. 24)
26. Kansas City Royals (69-93, No. 26)
27. San Francisco Giants (65-97, No. 27)
28. Athletics (64-98, No. 28)
29. Los Angeles Angels (62-100, No. 29)
30. Colorado Rockies (58-104, No. 30)