After the Orioles moved Cedric Mullins in July 2025, the center field job naturally shifted toward Colton Cowser. A year later, the picture is still cloudy.
His glove looked the part. His bat never fully caught up.
And that leaves Baltimore with a real offseason call to make.
If the Orioles buy into Cowser as their everyday center fielder, they can turn their attention to the corners and spend elsewhere. If they don’t, then center field becomes one of the biggest pressure points on the roster. That’s why this decision sits right at the center of the winter, with president of baseball operations Mike Elias and manager Craig Albernaz holding the cards - and maybe not even agreeing with each other.
Cowser, for his part, seemed to know exactly where his strongest case was. When he spoke near the end of the season, he leaned hard into the defensive side of the ball.
“There were question marks about, defensively, if I could handle certain situations, certain positions, and I’ve always felt like I could,” he said. “I think being able to emerge and hopefully continue to play center field is something I feel like I showcased pretty well.”
The numbers back that up. Cowser was credited with 10 defensive runs saved in center field, fourth-best among players with at least 600 innings there, according to FanGraphs. He also finished with seven outs above average in center, which ranked 11th in MLB among 41 players with at least 100 chances there, according to baseballsavant.com.
He was strong in the corners, too, though those opportunities didn’t come often because of his issues against left-handed pitching. That weakness shaped his usage all year.
Cowser posted a .445 OPS and a 29 wRC+ against lefties, struck out in 43.1% of his plate appearances against same-side pitching, and found himself in more of a part-time role as Leody Taveras was still often preferred in center. That meant some starts, some days on the bench, and a season spent adjusting to the platoon reality.
There were bright stretches. In May, Cowser put up a 1.004 OPS against right-handers during a surge that got him back into the starting mix.
Then June knocked him back down. He finished strong enough to salvage some of the damage, but his final numbers against righties still landed at a .735 OPS and 111 wRC+, with an overall line of .687 OPS and 98 wRC+.
Cowser said after the season that he didn’t hit the way he wanted to and planned to dig into why. He pointed to the mental side of it as much as anything else.
“I’ll have these really hot streaks and play really well, and whenever I’m not playing well, it’s like the low streaks just aren’t great at all,” Cowser said. “It’s like a .400 OPS and if I could just push that up to a .600 OPS, then the whole season’s statistics would be different.
I don’t know what it is, it’s just sometimes I’m seeing the ball really well, and something will happen and the next day I show up and it’s like, ‘What the heck? The ball looks like it’s completely different right now.’”
He said part of the struggle early in the year came from getting beat by changeups, then thinking about them too much inside each at-bat before eventually backing off that approach. Even with that adjustment, the lows were too severe to ignore.
Still, there’s a version of this where Cowser is the answer. Even if he only gets back to the level he showed against lefties in 2024, when he had a .661 OPS and an 89 wRC+, or 2025, when he put up a .638 OPS and a 78 wRC+, the Orioles could make a case for him playing every day. Before this season’s downturn against lefties, his numbers against them were right in the same neighborhood as Mullins’ in an Orioles uniform.
But because this is center field, and because the position matters that much, Baltimore needs a strong conviction that 2026 was the outlier if it plans to stay out of that market this winter. The free-agent group isn’t deep, but options exist.
New general manager Jared Banner was in Boston when the Red Sox drafted Mauricio Dubón and in Chicago this summer when they traded for Tyrone Taylor, both players who would add versatility alongside Cowser, not replace him. A trade is also on the table.
Cowser knows the conversation won’t be about just one side of the ball. He’s had time to sit with that, and he knows what the Orioles will be weighing.
“I haven’t hit as well as I’d like to,” he said, “so I think for me, it’s understanding that, and I think in my head, there’s a little bit of disappointment in that, but also, understanding that I can impact the game on both sides of the ball.”
In Other News...
Mike Elias Just Raised A Bigger Orioles Power Question
The Orioles used Mondays introduction of Jared Banner as their new general manager to clarify how the front office will be divided going forward. Mike Elias said Banner will handle the clubs internal side of the operation, including players, coaches, player development, performance and healthcare, while Elias shifts more of his attention toward scouting and acquisitions.
That setup says plenty about where Baltimore thinks its next gains can come from. Elias also acknowledged that Banner is stronger than he is in the areas tied to internal growth and development, a notable admission for a club trying to keep its young core moving in the right direction while still chasing bigger roster upgrades. [Read more 🡒]
New Orioles GM Just Changed The Mike Elias Conversation
Jared Banner used his introductory media conference as Baltimores new general manager to sketch out how he plans to fit into an Orioles front office that already has a clear hierarchy. He talked through his background, the clubs strengths and weaknesses, and the working relationship he expects to maintain with president of baseball operations Mike Elias, while also signaling that continuity could matter on the coaching side as the organization keeps trying to build a winner.
The more revealing part was how the two leaders are separating the work. Elias is still the one driving the broader talent pipeline and acquisition side of the operation, while Banners role centers on the day-to-day baseball side inside the organization, from players to coaches to performance. That division gives the Orioles a little more definition heading into the next phase, even if the real test will be how smoothly the arrangement works once roster and staff decisions start piling up. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Burnes Trade Is Suddenly Tied To A World Series Collapse
Corbin Burnes has long been the centerpiece of the Orioles deal with Milwaukee, a trade that brought one of the games premier starters to Baltimore in exchange for Joey Ortiz, DL Hall and a draft pick. For the Orioles, it remains one of the defining roster moves of this era, the kind of swap that gets revisited every time Burnes takes the ball or the other side starts making noise in October.
What makes the conversation even sharper now is the way Ortizs postseason has unfolded for the Brewers, with his defense still carrying value even as his bat has been quiet. Hall, meanwhile, has emerged as a useful relief arm in the playoffs, giving Baltimore another reason to keep tabs on the deal, but the broader fallout from that exchange suddenly feels bigger after Milwaukees latest World Series disappointment. [Read more 🡒]