The Orioles’ season was already a dead season long before Thursday’s off day officially closed the book on it, and the final record only confirmed what had been obvious for months: this was a team going nowhere.
The collapse traces back to the way the roster was assembled in February, when the fit looked wrong from the start. The outfield had no real pop or defense, Colton Cowser was the only fringe fourth outfielder who could handle center, and even that came with a bat that didn’t offer enough. The bench made little sense, the defense was headed for trouble, and by April it was clear Craig Albernaz was in over his head as the latest manager under Mike Elias.
Elias even had to start softening expectations around April 24, telling people that 2026 was not going to be anything close to 2025. The season kept sliding in exactly the direction that warning suggested. By May 10, the team had already been identified as a below-.500 club that should lead to widespread changes, and even before the trade deadline it was clear that none of it would matter because Elias was going to remain in place.
The problems ran through the core. Adley Rutschman, described here as Elias’s first decision, was not producing as a regular catcher or when he DHed.
Gunnar Henderson, the second first-round pick Elias made, was already sliding into the same kind of rapid decline. Henderson’s season was called “stunningly bad,” and the piece says he’ll be the next to go.
Colton Cowser, Jackson Holliday and Heston Kjerstad - all top-five picks - gave the club nothing, while the rest of Elias’s drafts were so weak that September brought names like Christian Franklin and a waiver claim on Lius Robert instead of any meaningful look at other first-round outfielders.
The final numbers tell the same story. Baltimore finished 78-81 and last sat above .500 on April 14.
Since June 21, 2024, the Orioles have been a bottom-eight team in baseball. They managed only one meaningful winning streak all season, and they were MLB’s runaway leaders in unearned runs allowed.
They couldn’t handle good teams, and whenever the schedule turned tougher, they fell apart.
At home, they went 39-42 at Camden Yards, a park the article says Elias “butchered, twice.” In one-run games they were 18-24, which ranked 26th. Against teams that were .500 or better, they were 28-45, a mark that stands out even more with the AL East likely to feature at least four such teams again next year.
The bullpen was the one area that worked. Everything else broke down.
The rotation was strong only from early June through late August, and outside that stretch it was below standard and eventually ran out of gas. The lineup never really came around and is expected to finish in the bottom three in strikeout rate and bottom eight in OPS.
The style of play was part of the problem, too. The Orioles could not manufacture runs, they were poor on the bases, and Henderson getting picked off twice in the same game was held up as the perfect snapshot of the team’s flaws.
The article describes the offense as homer-or-bust, with the same approach helping explain a lifeless clubhouse and those slow starts that left them flat for the first six innings most nights. Their fundamentals were called morbid, and the team was criticized for playing like a collection of individuals rather than a unit, even with Pete Alonso hitting 40 homers and serving as the leader while making $30M a year.
With Elias and Albernaz both set to return, the article says not much will change. More coaching staffers and middle managers are expected to be shown the door, similar to Matt Blood, but the larger structure remains the same.
The GM hire, it argues, is not really for a real general manager, and nothing changes until Elias is eventually fired. The final line is blunt: next year is over before it begins.
In Other News...
Orioles May Have Their Future Shortstop If One Question Holds Up
Wehiwa Aloy has moved quickly enough to make the Orioles think seriously about what comes next at shortstop. After being taken 31st overall in the 2025 draft, he put together a strong 2026 across High-A and Double-A, posting a .288/.358/.506 line with 25 home runs and earning the Brooks Robinson Minor League Player of the Year award in the organization. For a club that always seems to be balancing the present with the pipeline, that kind of production is the sort that gets attention.
The question now is less about whether Aloy can drive the ball than whether the rest of his game holds up well enough to keep him on a shortstop path. Strikeouts remain part of the evaluation, even as scouting reports point to a player who projects as at least an average defender at the position. If that defensive baseline proves real, the Orioles may have something more than a power-hitting prospect - they may have a long-term answer at one of the games most important spots. [Read more 🡒]
Pete Alonso Just Gave Orioles Fans A Reason To Twist The Knife
Pete Alonso is settling in with Baltimore in a way that would have been hard to imagine not long ago, and hes not shy about saying it. After the Mets decided not to bring him back, the franchises all-time home run leader signed a five-year deal with the Orioles and has been productive for his new club, even as the season has gone sideways for both teams.
Alonso recently said he believes he was always meant to be an Oriole, and he made a point of thanking Baltimore fans for sticking with him through a difficult year. For Orioles supporters, its the kind of comment that feels both flattering and just a little sharp, especially with the sting of missing the postseason still fresh and the sight of Alonso doing well in orange and black now impossible to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Could Be Headed For A Painful Offseason Shakeup
The Orioles are already staring at a winter built around tough calls, with the roster carrying several players whose situations could quickly force the front offices hand. Pending free agents and arbitration-eligible pieces have put the club in a familiar spot for a team trying to balance immediate competitiveness with longer-term flexibility, and the names floating through that conversation underscore how much can change in a single offseason.
Chris Bassitt, Andrew Kittredge, Leody Taveras and Zach Eflin are all among the players viewed as likely to be on the move after the 2026 season, depending on performance, contract status and where Baltimore sees itself going next. None of that is a final verdict from the organization, of course, but it does frame the kind of shakeup that can catch a contender in between eras if the results and the spending dont line up just right. [Read more 🡒]