No Oriole in 2026 lived a more split-screen season than Colton Cowser. On one side, he turned into a legitimate force in center field. On the other, his bat kept flashing the same old promise without delivering enough punch.
That contrast defined Cowser’s year and, in a lot of ways, the Orioles’ too. The 26-year-old entered the season under plenty of skepticism after hitting .196/.269/.385 with a 35.6% strikeout rate in 2025. He also had to step into the role vacated by Cedric Mullins, replacing a fan favorite and a steady defensive presence as Baltimore’s Opening Day center fielder.
What followed was a major defensive breakout. Cowser, who had long looked more like a corner outfielder than a true center fielder, settled in up the middle and looked far more comfortable than he ever had before.
His reads sharpened, his first step improved, and he started gliding to balls instead of chasing them. Among all outfielders, he finished 20th in quality of jumps and 10th in Fielding Run Value, both just behind Mullins.
The numbers matched the eye test. Cowser was the only Orioles player to post a positive defensive contribution by Fielding Run Value in 2026.
Baseball Reference credited him with 13 Defensive Runs Saved, while the rest of the team combined for -7. He also delivered one of the year’s signature defensive plays with a walk-off home run robbery in Colorado.
In a Baltimore outfield that struggled to hold up, Cowser’s glove was the one thing that consistently played.
The offense, though, stayed frustratingly uneven.
For the first two full seasons of his career, Cowser had been known as a hitter who handled fastballs but couldn’t do much with a changeup. He had entered this season with a career average under .200 against the pitch and a whiff rate around 45%.
In 2026, that profile shifted a bit. He started to struggle more against four-seam fastballs, but he did improve against changeups, hitting .246 with a career-best 36.5% whiff rate.
That progress didn’t show up right away. In April, Cowser hit just .186 with a .489 OPS and a 35.6% strikeout rate.
May brought a much better stretch, as he batted .275, slugged .529 and posted an .891 OPS. That month also produced the biggest offensive moments of his season.
On May 24, he hit a three-run walk-off homer off Kenley Jansen. The next day, he did it again, crushing a two-run walk-off shot to finish off an Orioles 13-inning comeback over the Rays.
But the hot streak didn’t last. From the start of June through the All-Star break, Cowser fell back to .198 with a .625 OPS and a 36.3% strikeout rate.
His one clear step forward from 2025 was simply staying on the field. He played in 84 of 97 first-half games in 2026 after injuries limited him to 37 first-half games the year before.
Even so, the production still didn’t match the tools.
After the deadline deal that sent Taylor Ward away, Cowser got even more run in the second half and gave Baltimore a boost in August, when he put up a .273/.300/.545 line with five home runs. September brought a decent average at .250, but the power dipped hard, with his slugging percentage dropping more than 200 points from August.
By the end of the season, the offensive gain was real but modest. Cowser was better than he was in 2025, but a 30-point bump in batting average and a 32-point rise in OPS only moved him a small step forward.
Against right-handed pitching, he hit .293 against fastballs and .199 against offspeed and breaking pitches. Against left-handers, he hit .158 against everything and struck out in nearly half of his plate appearances.
That leaves Cowser heading into 2027 as one of the Orioles’ most closely watched players, assuming baseball gets played. The recent drama around Craig Albernaz and Jim Palmer’s advice about how to coach Cowser only added to the attention around him.
Palmer’s comments made clear what so many around the club already see: Cowser has real tools, but there are still glaring holes in his game. His defense should lock him in as a starter again next year. If the Orioles want more than that, though, the bat has to catch up.
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