The Baltimore Orioles aren’t tiptoeing into the 2026 season - they’re kicking down the door.
With the addition of slugging first baseman Pete Alonso and a trade bringing in promising right-hander Shane Baz, the Orioles are making it clear: the goal is October baseball. After a disappointing 2025 campaign, these moves signal a shift in tone and urgency from a front office that, just a year ago, left fans wondering what the plan really was.
Let’s rewind for a second. In 2025, the Orioles stumbled to a 75-87 finish - a dramatic fall from grace just two seasons removed from a 101-win high.
It was a year marked by inaction and frustration. Ownership, under David Rubenstein’s first full season at the helm, stood mostly pat during the 2024-25 offseason.
Instead of making a splash, Rubenstein voiced concerns about MLB’s lack of a salary cap - all while the team quietly slid into the AL East basement.
That offseason strategy (or lack thereof) came with consequences. Baltimore’s rotation, once a strength, was patched together with aging veterans.
Charlie Morton, then 41, and 34-year-old Tomoyuki Sugano were brought in to stabilize things, but neither delivered the kind of impact the team needed. The result: a rotation that lacked both consistency and upside.
Fast forward to now, and the picture is starting to look a whole lot different.
The Alonso signing isn’t just about adding power to the lineup - though his bat will certainly help. It’s a statement that Baltimore is ready to spend and compete again in a division that doesn’t allow for half-measures. Alonso brings a proven track record of run production, and his presence in the middle of the order gives the Orioles a legitimate threat that opposing pitchers will have to game-plan around.
But as much as Alonso moves the needle offensively, the bigger question remains on the mound.
Enter Shane Baz. The 26-year-old righty comes with some injury history, but also electric stuff and frontline potential.
If he can stay healthy, Baz could be a game-changer - a young, controllable arm with the kind of upside Baltimore’s rotation desperately needs. He joins a projected starting five that includes Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, and Tyler Wells.
Now, that group isn’t without its question marks. Rogers and Bradish both have the talent to be top-end starters, but they’ll need to stay on the field and deliver over a full season.
Kremer and Wells have flashed at times, but consistency has been elusive. Baz, meanwhile, is still something of an unknown at the big-league level, but the ceiling is high.
So is the rotation complete? Not quite.
The depth still feels thin, and in the AL East - where lineups are relentless - you need more than five arms you hope will hold up. But compared to where things stood a year ago, this is progress.
Real, tangible progress.
The Orioles still have work to do if they want to keep pace with the likes of the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Rays. But for the first time in a while, they’re making moves that suggest they’re ready to be part of that conversation again.
Baltimore fans have been waiting for signs that the rebuild wasn’t just a flash in the pan - that the 101-win season wasn’t a fluke. With Alonso’s bat in the heart of the order and Baz’s arm added to the mix, the Orioles are starting to look like a team that remembers how to win - and is ready to prove it again.