Coby Mayo has turned one of the Orioles’ biggest headaches into one of their clearest reasons for optimism.
That was hard to see early. For the first month of the season, the 24-year-old looked a lot like another Baltimore prospect who had plenty of loud tools but no real major league answer.
Mayo hit just .169/.244/.325, struck out 25 times and managed only 13 hits. His first defining moment was a rough one, too: an error against his hometown team helped cost the Orioles a loss to the Marlins in May.
Then came a short burst that hinted at what the Orioles have always dreamed he could be. Mayo followed the error with a .876 OPS over 15 games the rest of May.
The power was obvious, and so was the idea that he might eventually make this work. But the questions came right back from the start of June through the All-Star break, when he slumped to a .183 average, a .698 OPS and a 41.7% strikeout rate.
The second half has changed the conversation.
Since the All-Star break, Mayo has hit .279/.331/.574 in 42 games. His .905 OPS in that span trails only Pete Alonso among Orioles regulars. He also ranks second on the team in post-All-Star home runs with nine and third in RBIs with 24, while trimming his strikeout rate to 32.6%.
The biggest wrinkle, though, is that Mayo remains a player with two very different versions of himself depending on the pitcher in front of him. Against lefties, he has been absurd.
Mayo leads MLB in home runs against LHPs with 16, along with a .752 slugging percentage and a 1.136 OPS. At that pace, over 500 at-bats against southpaws, he’d be on a 60-homer track with numbers that look like Aaron Judge’s MVP seasons.
Against right-handers, the story is far less flattering. In 219 at-bats against RHPs this season, Mayo is hitting .163 with a .513 OPS and a 37.9% strikeout rate.
Even there, though, the trend line is moving in the right direction. From April through June, he hit .148 with a .235 slugging percentage against righties.
From July through the early part of September, those numbers climbed to .203 and .391. His strikeout rate against right-handers also dropped from 40.3% in the first stretch to 31.9% in the second.
And as was seen yesterday, he can turn on pitches from pitchers on both sides.
That kind of second-half push should put Mayo in position for more playing time in 2027. His game is built around elite raw power, and players with that kind of profile often need more time to adjust to big league pitching.
The comparison that comes to mind is former All-Star Troy Glaus. In Glaus’ first full season, he hit .240 with a .781 OPS and 29 homers in 551 at-bats.
The next year, he led the AL with 47 home runs, posted a 1.008 OPS and made his first All-Star team.
Mayo’s current line - a .224 average, .748 OPS and 21 homers in only 352 at-bats - fits that kind of first-step breakout. But if the Orioles want him to make the next jump, they’ll need to give him something closer to a real role than a super-platoon setup.
That creates a roster puzzle.
If Jordan Westburg returns healthy from Tommy John surgery, Baltimore will have five players competing for time at second base, third base and designated hitter. Westburg and Alexander can handle both second and third, Mayo and CES are limited to third, and Holliday has spent most of his career at second.
There are other ways to shuffle the pieces. Alexander has logged 120 innings in the outfield this year, and as one of the lineup’s few steady on-base threats, he may need to take at-bats from Leody Taveras and Tyler O’Neill next season.
Mayo could also end up as a more regular DH option. Craig Albernaz has used Pete Alonso, Taylor Ward and Adley Rutschman at designated hitter this year to keep them fresh, but a cleaner split between Mayo and Samuel Basallo might be the better path than the current DH-by-committee setup.
And then there’s the possibility of a trade. A Grayson-Rodriguez-style move could help ease the infield logjam, with Westburg, CES or even Holliday potentially available if the right upgrade appears. The front office has shown lately that it will move players who no longer fit the long-term plan, and any of those deals would clear more room for Mayo.
This season’s problems are going to be blamed mostly on an offense that too often failed to carry its share. If the Orioles want to avoid repeating that in 2027, Mayo has to play more - and that needs to start now. How Albernaz and the front office make that happen will be one of the key things to watch in September and beyond.
In Other News...
Orioles Late-Season Injury Picture Just Got More Complicated
The Orioles spent part of their series against the Guardians sorting through a late-season injury picture that keeps shifting around the edges. Keegan Akin and Ryan Mountcastle are both with the club, giving Baltimore at least a couple of familiar faces back in the mix, while the team also laid out where several others stand in their recoveries as the calendar keeps moving toward the finish.
Mountcastle will not play again this season because of an oblique injury, a reminder of how much attrition has worn on the roster, and the rehab updates do not bring a simple wave of reinforcements just yet. Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin are working in Sarasota, Flix Bautista is at Triple-A Norfolk on assignment, and Kyle Bradish is being handled carefully after Tommy John surgery, with his workload watched closely as the Orioles keep managing one of the more complicated health charts on the board. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Face Two Big Questions As Wild Card Push Gets Tighter
The Wild Card race has tightened enough that every little update matters, and Craig Albernaz had a familiar opponent in mind when he talked about the Orioles place in it. The Baltimore manager, who spent time on the Guardians coaching staff, knows how closely these two clubs are watching each other as the standings compress and the margin for error shrinks. For the Orioles, the late-season picture is being shaped not just by the schedule, but by the health of a roster that has had to juggle a few key moving parts.
Ryan Helsley, Tyler ONeill, Flix Bautista, Ryan Mountcastle, Keegan Akin, Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin all figure into that evolving injury picture, and Baltimores recent stretch has made each of those updates feel more important. The club has been trying to keep pace while sorting through those absences and tracking its recent results, but with the Guardians right there in the mix, the bigger questions are starting to come into focus. How quickly those players can return, and how much they can help once they do, may decide just how long the Orioles stay in the hunt. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Fans Just Got Another Brutal Reminder About This Rebuild
A rough week for the Orioles in Boston did not end with much comfort for anyone still tracking where this rebuild stands. The Red Sox completed a four-game sweep, and in the same stretch of bad news for Baltimore, former Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman was already making noise in his new home with Boston by leaving the yard against Angels pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, another familiar name to Baltimore fans.
Rodriguez, once a first-round pick the Orioles hoped would help anchor the next wave, is now with the Angels after being dealt last winter for outfielder Taylor Ward. His Baltimore exit followed a frustrating run of injuries and uneven performance, which only adds to the sting when ex-Orioles keep popping up in meaningful moments elsewhere. Baltimore did at least stop the bleeding with a win the same day, ending a six-game skid, but the bigger picture for fans remains hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]