The Orioles don’t have many reasons to lean in over the final two weeks of the season, but Blaze Alexander is one of them.
What he did from late April through the All-Star break doesn’t look like a fluke you can just ignore. If that version of Alexander is real, then you’re talking about one of the 10 most valuable bats in MLB, with a glove that can handle just about anywhere except catcher. That’s the sort of player who could draw MVP votes and profile as the kind of top-of-the-order spark plug and run producer Gunnar Henderson was supposed to be.
That said, the source of the optimism is also the warning sign. That first-half run was a stretch, not a promise.
Alexander may never be more than a utility infielder or a bench piece. But he also might be a lot more than that, and the Orioles ought to be finding out right now.
The case for maximizing his at-bats is simple: this season is already headed nowhere, so the rest of it should be about gathering information. The Orioles should keep Alexander near the top of the lineup and see whether any of that first-half production can actually hold.
Batting him eighth or ninth feels like a waste at this point. After a few shaky early at-bats, there was some reason for that - he was coming back from a broken hand, a long absence, and a rehab assignment that barely counted as a rehab assignment.
His ability to draw walks is still going to matter. That could ultimately be the thing that keeps him from sticking at the top of a lineup for good. But Monday offered a good example of why the Orioles need to keep watching closely: he fought back from an 0-2 count and drew an 11-pitch walk with the bases loaded.
There’s more to like in the recent results, too. Alexander has seven hits in his last six games and walked twice Monday, which at least suggests he’s settling into the leadoff role. One steal and five strikeouts over that span isn’t ideal, but he’s also just getting reacquainted with MLB pitching after a long layoff.
The larger point is that the Orioles need to see a lot more of him, whether that means moving him around the diamond or settling him in at one spot. Third base is tricky, especially with Coby Mayo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand also in the mix and carrying the only hot power bats right now. Alexander’s season line - a .302 batting average over 286 plate appearances and a .360 on-base percentage - still stands out despite the slow start.
And the lineup around him doesn’t offer much comfort. Alonso has cooled off after a blistering run, which was bound to happen.
The outfield still isn’t producing with any consistency. At least Alexander, Mayo and Encarnacion-Strand give the Orioles something to look at down the stretch, with Alexander 27, Mayo 24 and Encarnacion-Strand 26 all offering some possibility of being interesting.
It’s almost comical that all three are tied to third base, but that kind of roster construction has become a familiar Elias story. There’s also a path for Mayo and Encarnacion-Strand between first base and DH, and both right-handed bats could keep doing damage against left-handed pitching. Mayo is up to a .749 OPS and has driven in more runs than Henderson, while Encarnacion-Strand has 31 RBIs in 43 games.
Even beyond the numbers, Alexander brings something the Orioles have been missing: energy, intensity and a little bit of edge. He even got under the Red Sox’s skin during a four-game sweep in which Boston barely had to fight off an Orioles team that didn’t offer much resistance. That kind of presence stands out on a club slogging through another wasted season.
In Other News...
Orioles Late-Season Injury Picture Just Got More Complicated
The Orioles spent part of their series against the Guardians sorting through a late-season injury picture that keeps shifting around the edges. Keegan Akin and Ryan Mountcastle are both with the club, giving Baltimore at least a couple of familiar faces back in the mix, while the team also laid out where several others stand in their recoveries as the calendar keeps moving toward the finish.
Mountcastle will not play again this season because of an oblique injury, a reminder of how much attrition has worn on the roster, and the rehab updates do not bring a simple wave of reinforcements just yet. Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin are working in Sarasota, Flix Bautista is at Triple-A Norfolk on assignment, and Kyle Bradish is being handled carefully after Tommy John surgery, with his workload watched closely as the Orioles keep managing one of the more complicated health charts on the board. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Face Two Big Questions As Wild Card Push Gets Tighter
The Wild Card race has tightened enough that every little update matters, and Craig Albernaz had a familiar opponent in mind when he talked about the Orioles place in it. The Baltimore manager, who spent time on the Guardians coaching staff, knows how closely these two clubs are watching each other as the standings compress and the margin for error shrinks. For the Orioles, the late-season picture is being shaped not just by the schedule, but by the health of a roster that has had to juggle a few key moving parts.
Ryan Helsley, Tyler ONeill, Flix Bautista, Ryan Mountcastle, Keegan Akin, Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin all figure into that evolving injury picture, and Baltimores recent stretch has made each of those updates feel more important. The club has been trying to keep pace while sorting through those absences and tracking its recent results, but with the Guardians right there in the mix, the bigger questions are starting to come into focus. How quickly those players can return, and how much they can help once they do, may decide just how long the Orioles stay in the hunt. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Fans Just Got Another Brutal Reminder About This Rebuild
A rough week for the Orioles in Boston did not end with much comfort for anyone still tracking where this rebuild stands. The Red Sox completed a four-game sweep, and in the same stretch of bad news for Baltimore, former Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman was already making noise in his new home with Boston by leaving the yard against Angels pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, another familiar name to Baltimore fans.
Rodriguez, once a first-round pick the Orioles hoped would help anchor the next wave, is now with the Angels after being dealt last winter for outfielder Taylor Ward. His Baltimore exit followed a frustrating run of injuries and uneven performance, which only adds to the sting when ex-Orioles keep popping up in meaningful moments elsewhere. Baltimore did at least stop the bleeding with a win the same day, ending a six-game skid, but the bigger picture for fans remains hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]