The Orioles were outclassed in the Bronx over the weekend and are flirting with having their season spiral out of control before Memorial Day for a second straight year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After losing three straight games to the first-place New York Yankees, they enter Monday a season-worst four games under .500 and sport the worst run differential in the American League despite playing a relatively forgiving schedule to this point. Baltimore ranks 27th in team ERA (4.79) with the bullpen (4.58) rapidly catching up to the starting rotation (4.95) in terms of ineffectiveness. Despite an offseason of hype and excitement, the offense remains closer to painfully mediocre than elite. And your eyes don\u2019t need any metrics to evaluate a horrid defense that makes the routine plays look tough and the tough plays look impossible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For as often as the Orioles \u2014 from top to bottom \u2014 mention how talented they are, poor fundamentals continue to make them a difficult watch on a nightly basis. \u201cTalent\u201d is supposed to show up at some point, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was three weeks ago that the Orioles erased a six-run deficit for a 9-7 win over Arizona on the night a Jeremiah Jackson liner into the dugout struck first-year manager Craig Albernaz in the face. The vibes of that comeback victory reminded of 2023 and led fans to hope it would serve as a galvanizing moment for a club needing to get off to a good start to put 2025 behind it. Instead, the Orioles have gone 6-12 since that night. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s at a crucial point where, \u2018What team do we want to be? We can fold up and just think that everything will turn around just by itself, or we\u2019ve got to put the work in and really make this happen,\u2019\u201d Albernaz told reporters at Yankee Stadium after Sunday\u2019s 11-3 loss. \u201cI feel with those guys in the clubhouse, I feel it\u2019ll be the latter. These guys will put the work in, and we\u2019ll be better as the season goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The injuries continue piling up and remain a significant reason for the struggles, but when do we stop chalking that up to bad luck and seriously question why this organization\u2019s strength and conditioning and training staffs show so little success in keeping players on the field and nursing them back to good health<\/a> in a timely manner?<\/p>\n Injuries don\u2019t explain why Gunnar Henderson sports a .275 on-base percentage and is striking out more than ever, Pete Alonso only elevated his OPS above .700 this past week, and most of the talented young position core\u2122 continues to make fans wonder why it was so critical to suffer through multiple seasons of tanking to draft these guys. The absence of starting pitchers Zach Eflin and Dean Kremer has hurt, but Shane Baz\u2019s 4.50 ERA being the best of the healthy rotation members says it all about the rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n If one thing has become clear a year later, ex-manager Brandon Hyde wasn\u2019t close to being the Orioles\u2019 biggest problem. That\u2019s not to say Albernaz and a revamped coaching staff are absolved from any blame or questioning, but one has no choice but to look higher in the organizational pecking order with the same problems persisting. \u00a0<\/p>\n What is president of baseball operations Mike Elias going to do about this?\u00a0<\/p>\n “I feel with those guys in the clubhouse, I feel it’ll be the latter. These guys will put the work in, and we’ll be better as the season goes on.”\u2014 WNST Baltimore Positive (@WNST) May 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n If there were ever a time for a roster shakeup, this is it. Demote a player or two. Make a trade for a decent third baseman or an outfielder. Do something that gets the attention of both your clubhouse and fan base to signal that none of this has been good enough. \u00a0<\/p>\n Infielder Coby Mayo continues to be below replacement level at the plate and in the field, and a pair of mental lapses defensively in Sunday\u2019s defeat looked like an opportunity for the organization to send a message. Utility man Blaze Alexander may not be any better with the bat in the meantime, but he\u2019ll play better defense at third base, which will help a struggling pitching staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n Outfielder Colton Cowser has looked lost at the plate since spring training. If an organization that doesn\u2019t prioritize defense isn\u2019t going to utilize his above-average skill in that area, why wouldn\u2019t a trip to the minors to try to fix his swing and rebuild his confidence be in order rather than having him rot on the bench? If the Yankees could demote 2024 AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil recently, the Orioles can certainly send that year\u2019s runner-up to the minors.\u00a0<\/p>\n When is Tyler O\u2019Neill going to show signs that the three-year, $49.5 million deal he signed two winters ago is anything but a sunk cost? The man signed primarily to mash left-handed pitching hasn\u2019t done any of that<\/a> since arriving in Baltimore.\u00a0<\/p>\n No, the alternatives at Triple-A Norfolk don\u2019t look appealing, but that\u2019s not really the point.\u00a0Players aren\u2019t on scholarship. As Buck Showalter would bluntly say, this is the big leagues.<\/p>\n The Orioles have gone 128-146 since July 1, 2024, which amounts to just over a 75-win pace for close to two calendar years now. Many of the players from that 101-win club from 2023 are gone now, and what remains continues to look nothing like a playoff-caliber product about which to be excited. <\/p>\n Is there going to be any accountability and urgency from this organization?\u00a0<\/p>\n Or are we content to \u201cthink that everything will turn around just by itself\u201d soon?\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n