As the offseason starts to take shape, scouts around the league are circling the Orioles for the same reasons everyone else is circling everybody else: pitching first, then the pieces that help cover the rest. The club needs arms, and multiple scouts said that’s the universal theme right now.
Some teams are chasing bullpen help above all; others are trying to line up starter depth. Either way, the market is going to get crowded.
For Baltimore, the pitching search is easy to understand. Trevor Rogers and Chris Bassitt are eligible for free agency, and the Orioles already spent this season watching the rotation depth get hit from every angle.
Zach Eflin lasted one start. Dean Kremer missed time with a quad strain.
Bassitt had back surgery. Cade Povich landed on the injured list with left elbow inflammation.
Kyle Bradish was shut down in September because of a sports hernia. Rogers, meanwhile, was sidelined by a severe case of the flu.
The bullpen is going to turn over, too, and the Orioles appear to have a specific type in mind. They need a matchup lefty, and they may also be looking for another right-handed reliever to work late innings now that Andrew Kittredge is headed to free agency.
Catcher is another area drawing league-wide attention, and Baltimore could join that hunt if it wants more offense than it got from Carlos Narváez and Yohel Pozo. Narváez came over in the Adley Rutschman trade and handled the defensive side well, but the bat never came around this year. He went 8-for-77 with 24 strikeouts, and his lone extra-base hit was a double.
Still, the Orioles do have a reason to think carefully about that spot. They want to reduce the physical burden on Samuel Basallo, and their plan is for him to split time as a backup at first base and as a designated hitter. That means they want someone behind the plate who can defend and contribute more than Narváez did.
Narváez’s broader track record is better. He finished sixth in American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2025 after hitting .241/.306/.419 with 27 doubles, 15 home runs and 50 RBIs in 118 games. Baltimore may still be able to get more out of him.
The bigger name scouts keep bringing up is Ryan Mountcastle. If the Orioles decline his $7.5 million option, he should have a market in free agency. That outcome is the expectation, though nothing is final until it is.
Mountcastle has plenty going for him. He’s a right-handed power bat, and he’s also a two-time Gold Glove finalist at first base after being drafted as a shortstop and moving around the diamond to third base and left field before settling in at first.
The Orioles signed him for $6.787 million, matching his 2025 salary, and attached the option. They did not trade him or non-tender him, and president of baseball operations Mike Elias said in March that Mountcastle was not simply going to be pushed into a bench role.
“Mounty has historically been great against left-handed pitching, and so I think he’s going to be a front-line player for us against a lot of opponents,” Elias said. “We believe in his stick.”
Then came the injuries. Mountcastle played in eight games before fracturing his left foot on April 11, then suffered a severe oblique strain before even getting into his first rehab game with Triple-A Norfolk.
That has only added to the sense around the league that he might benefit from a change of scenery. Multiple National League scouts raised his name unprompted and asked whether the Orioles still controlled him. One scout believed he could be a 30-homer player in a different ballpark.
The fit in Baltimore has only gotten tighter. Alonso is in place, Coby Mayo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand are in the mix at the corners, Jordan Westburg is part of the same picture if healthy, and Blaze Alexander can move all over the field. The designated hitter spot also gets crowded quickly with Mayo or Encarnacion-Strand depending on who is at third, plus Basallo getting some starts there against right-handed pitching.
The Orioles tried to make it work with Mountcastle this year before Mayo earned regular playing time and before Encarnacion-Strand arrived from the Reds organization and revived his career. That leaves Mountcastle as one of the more intriguing names on the roster.
Heston Kjerstad is another player other teams are asking about. The Orioles will listen, but they are not forced into anything.
He’ll be out of minor league options next year, and he sits behind left-handed hitting outfielders Colton Cowser and Dylan Beavers. Baltimore could also simply bring him to camp and sort it out then.
Scouts who saw Kjerstad with Triple-A Norfolk saw the power show up the way it was supposed to, and there’s some belief that the market for him could be stronger than expected.
Mayo and Encarnacion-Strand create their own question if Westburg is healthy next season. Everyone can see the overlap: two right-handed power bats, both corner infield types.
The Orioles used them this year by alternating between third base and designated hitter, but Westburg spent the entire season on the injured list. If he’s on the field on Opening Day, the math gets tricky.
The numbers can be made to work, and the bench would get deeper. But Mayo is still too important against lefties and too early in his career to be parked on the side, which is why scouts are watching that situation closely.
Jeremiah Jackson is another name that keeps coming up, though in a different way. The view from scouts is that he’s a lesser utility version of Blaze Alexander, which makes him available.
Jackson was optioned several times this season and hit .217/.247/.365 in 102 games. One scout said he’s fine if he isn’t forced into everyday work, and that seemed fair. Alexander occupies the kind of roster spot Jackson would otherwise have.
Jackson does still have minor league options, so the Orioles could keep him around as depth unless an appealing offer comes along. He made $788,700 this year, with no bonus in his contract for getting hit by a line drive from his manager.
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