The Orioles have reached the point where the rest of the season has to mean something for Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo and Colton Cowser. If this is still a developmental project - and eight years into a rebuild, that part of the job is still very much unfinished - then the path is obvious: play them every day and let them sink or swim.
That means real run, not the occasional start, not the quick hook, not the lineup shuffle that keeps them from building anything. Holliday and Cowser are already well past 1,000 plate appearances, and Mayo needs the same kind of uninterrupted opportunity at the plate. His glove at third base remains a problem, first base is blocked, and the Orioles have long resisted the most sensible option: giving him work in right field, where his arm would at least fit the profile.
The timing makes the issue even harder to ignore. The Orioles have spent most of the season below .500, and now 100 games in they’re also dealing with three of their better bats on the Injured List in Blaze Alexander Samuel Basallo and Adley Rutschman.
If there was ever a stretch to let these young players settle in and show what they can do, this is it. If not now, then when?
That’s the basic argument: now or never. The 2027 season also sits under an ominous labor cloud, which only sharpens the urgency.
The Orioles should not be making this complicated. Yet here they are.
Holliday’s situation is especially puzzling. After a four-hit breakout performance, he still wasn’t given a chance to build on it, and at 22 he has barely been allowed to face left-handed pitching.
Cowser’s path has been just as frustrating. He came off a month-long tear only to post a .330 OPS with 0 RBIs over his next 22 games.
Orioles Hall of Famer Mike Bordick took aim at that approach on his latest appearance on “The Daily Flock Show,” this week. He pointed to the way Holliday finally gets away from pullside “turn and burn,” as Bordy puts it, only to end up benched. He also noted that Cowser doesn’t look like he can hit enough to hold down a regular run in centerfield, but still isn’t seeing lefties much and hasn’t been helped against offspeed pitches.
“They think the match-ups can play all the time,” Bordy told me, “whether you’re a righty or a lefty, just do it. Whether it's reverse splits - I guess they read into all of that stuff. But it’s pretty standard now.
“And it’s unfortunate because baseball for so long we’ve hears about managers have great gut instincts. Well, is it really a gut instinct if a guy has gone four-for-four one day you’d think he’d be in the lineup the next day?
Or a guy who has gotten three hits in a row with three home runs, why would you pinch hit for that guy? …
“But none of these guys have any track record at all to say you’re going to flip the card over - lefty/righty match-up stuff. It doesn’t make sense to me. And how are these guys ever going to learn?”
That’s the heart of it. The Orioles seem intent on boxing these players into platoon roles because they believe matchup management makes them look sharp. Instead, it has left their supposed core players stuck in place, both in the field and at the plate.
With no wave of prospects forcing the issue from below, no major outside investment in an everyday bat beyond Pete Alonso, and so many injuries already thinning the roster, there’s no excuse left. If Holliday, Mayo and Cowser can’t get a real runway now, the Orioles might as well trade them.
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