The Orioles are headed into an offseason where almost nothing feels settled, and that uncertainty runs from the lineup to the rotation to the bullpen.
There are obvious areas that need help. There are also plenty of places where the roster already looks crowded, which is its own kind of problem. That leaves president of baseball operations Mike Elias trying to sort through a team that just finished a second straight losing season and, by his own admission, left him with a “bitter feeling.”
Elias knows what that means, too. If the bitterness does not swing sharply the other way in 2027, this winter may end up being his last as the man running baseball operations in Baltimore.
The Orioles can’t keep leaning on the same excuse. Yes, injuries mattered this year.
They always do over the course of a season that stretches nearly eight months with spring training included. But with a few exceptions, the healthy players didn’t do enough at the plate or in the field to cover for it.
That’s what makes this winter tricky. A lot of the problems are about performance, not just availability. And that means the fixes are not as simple as waiting for everyone to get healthy and calling it a day.
Colton Cowser is one of the clearest examples. Three full years into a career that began with him finishing second in the 2024 American League Rookie of the Year balloting, he still looks lost against decent left-handed pitching. His career .219 batting average is sitting there for everyone to see.
Gunnar Henderson is another big question. He has been slowed by injuries for two seasons, and he recently said he played with a sore wrist for much of this year after dealing with a shoulder impingement in 2025.
He also admitted that his mental approach this past season was not the best, which matched what anyone could see from the frustration and pressing in his body language. He’ll be okay, but the Orioles can’t just pencil him in and assume he’ll be an MVP-level threat next season.
If there was one offensive bright spot beyond the tremendous season from Pete Alonso, it was Coby Mayo’s second-half surge. Mayo had a rough start, both defensively at third base and at the plate, but he caught fire in the middle of the summer and finished as the best hitter in the sport against left-handed pitching, posting a 1.105 OPS and 16 home runs.
That kind of breakout opens the door to bigger things. If Mayo keeps trending up against right-handers, he could become a major star.
It also creates a problem for the Orioles, because Jordan Westburg is expected back at third base next spring. That could leave Mayo hunting for at-bats at DH or even forcing a move to the outfield.
Jackson Holliday remains another unfinished project. The Orioles wanted the 2022 No. 1 overall draft pick to take a step forward this season, but a fractured hamate bone in his wrist cost him the first third of the year, and he ended the season on the injured list with another wrist injury. He is still loaded with talent, and he’ll remain 22 for a couple more months, so it would be too early to draw a hard conclusion from a half-season that was softer than expected.
Baltimore also needs more defense and more offense from a lineup that wasted a lot of strong starting pitching. The trouble is figuring out where new pieces would fit.
Outside of a quality corner outfielder with some pop - or maybe two - and a second catcher who can hit, most of the non-pitching spots already look spoken for. That leaves the front office with some painful choices.
If control owner David Rubenstein approves another major deal like the one for Alonso, then Craig Albernaz will have a place for a true difference-maker. But that kind of splash is the exception, not the rule.
The rotation brings its own questions. The Orioles already handed Shane Baz and Kyle Bradish big long-term contracts, so the next move there is not simple. Brandon Young is staying put, but the fact that Trevor Rogers has not already been signed doesn’t exactly help Baltimore’s chances if the club tries to chase him in free agency.
Elias and his staff have had more success finding useful relief pitchers than they’ve had gambling on late-career starters, though they could use more bullpen help, too.
That’s the shape of the winter ahead: a roster with holes, a roster with clutter, and no easy path through either one. The Orioles can’t afford to be stuck on the outside looking in.
In Other News...
Former Orioles Arm Could Still Haunt Baltimore's ALDS Picture
Tyler Wells has already left one familiar stop in the Orioles organization, but his name could still matter to Baltimore as the postseason picture gets sharper. Traded to the Rays at the deadline, the right-hander dealt with forearm tightness and landed on the injured list, a setback that briefly pushed him out of the mix as Tampa Bay lined up for October.
Now there is at least a path back, with Wells reportedly turning in a successful bullpen session on Sept. 29 and potentially putting himself in line for the Division Series against the Yankees. For the Orioles, the bigger concern is simple: Wells has long been especially effective against left-handed hitters, which makes him the kind of bullpen piece the Rays could lean on in a short series if he is ready in time. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Just Closed The Book On A Trade Fans Still Debate
Dean Kremers path through 2026 offered a little bit of everything the Orioles have come to expect from a pitcher on the margins of their rotation picture. He opened the year in Triple-A, got pulled back into Baltimores starting mix because of an injury elsewhere, and then flashed enough early on to make the assignment look like a good one. For a while, it seemed like Kremer was settling into a useful role before the season started to tilt the other way.
By the time the trade deadline arrived, the Orioles had made their choice and sent Kremer to Minnesota, ending a run that had turned uneven as injuries and inconsistency crept in. The move still lingers because of what followed: Kremer looked sharp in his Twins debut against Baltimore and then finished with a strong stretch that has him lined up as a likely back-end starter for Minnesota in 2027. For Orioles fans, it is the kind of trade that still invites debate, not because the decision was hard to understand, but because the return is always measured against what the pitcher became somewhere else. [Read more 🡒]
Gunnar Hendersons Orioles Slide Comes Back To One Lingering Concern
Gunnar Hendersons uneven stretch has put a familiar Orioles concern back in view: what happens when a young cornerstone never really gets a full spring under his belt. The discussion around his recent slide points back to a spring disrupted by injury and World Baseball Classic participation, two things that can leave a player trying to catch up before the season even settles in. For Baltimore, it is another reminder that development is not always linear, especially when a key bat is asked to keep grinding through complications that would normally slow anyone down.
The broader issue is bigger than one player, because the same Classic could be tied to a mix of outcomes across the league, from injuries and flat performances to seasons that went just fine. But for the Orioles, the hard part is the balance between protecting a player and respecting the reality that some guys will keep pushing through pain rather than disappear onto the injured list. Hendersons situation leaves that tension hanging over Baltimore, with the club still having to manage both the player in front of it and the concern that his season never got the clean runway it needed. [Read more 🡒]