Keegan Akin’s 2026 season never got a chance to become anything else.
The longtime Orioles left-hander entered the year as a platform player headed toward free agency, but a rough start, a June elbow injury, and eventual Tommy John surgery turned what had already been a shaky season into a lost one. For a pitcher who first arrived in the organization in the 2016 draft, it may also have been the last chapter of a long Orioles run that never settled into a single clear version of him.
Akin’s Baltimore career has always felt a little unstable from one year to the next. He went from failing out of the rotation in 2021 to looking like a useful relief conversion in 2022.
Then came 2023, when the results fell apart even though the underlying numbers were still decent. He bounced back in 2024, though the Orioles still seemed uneasy enough to keep him in low-leverage spots.
He was good again in 2025, but the peripherals raised enough questions that he entered 2026 with some real uncertainty hanging over him.
This season answered those questions in the harshest way possible.
Akin missed the first month with a groin strain, and when he finally returned, the warning signs showed up fast. On April 25, in a 17-1 loss to the Red Sox, he gave up six runs in one inning. That was the first look at his season, and it was a mess.
He managed to make that kind of outing feel less like a one-off and more like a recurring nightmare. On May 16, he did it again against the Nationals, surrendering six runs while recording only one out and helping turn a close game into a 13-3 blowout.
Strip away those two disasters, though, and the year looks very different. In his other 22 appearances, Akin allowed just four earned runs. If he had stayed healthy long enough to keep pitching through July, August, and September, there was at least a path to cleaning up the ugly 5.68 ERA.
The Orioles likely would have kept giving him those chances. That has been their pattern before with Cionel Pérez, another lefty who stumbled early but kept getting rope.
There were a few encouraging signs in Akin’s Statcast profile, most notably that hitters weren’t squaring him up often or hitting the ball especially hard. But the lack of swing-and-miss was a problem.
His 6.0 K/9 was the lowest of his career, and that kind of strikeout rate usually leaves little margin for error. Albert Suárez can survive without piling up strikeouts.
Most relievers can’t.
Akin never got the chance to see whether he could stabilize things. His elbow injury at the end of June ended his season, and mid-July Tommy John surgery is expected to sideline him for nearly all, if not all, of the 2027 season too. By the time he’s ready to pitch seriously again, he’ll be 33.
That combination of injury and poor performance makes a real free-agent payday look unlikely. Even a one-year deal for a few million would have been a better outcome than the kind of returns he got for most of his arbitration years.
A minor league deal with a spring training invite in 2028 still seems possible, and maybe even likely. The Orioles could be one of the teams to offer it.
If he wants to keep going, he’d probably take a shot at it. There’s little downside in giving a pitcher that kind of look, so long as a team understands what it’s getting before handing out a roster spot.
By the end of the season, the role Baltimore had penciled in for Akin had gone to another age-31 lefty, Josh Walker. As with so many roster changes, someone struggles, someone gets hurt, and the next arm takes the job. Akin wound up on the wrong side of that cycle in 2026, and that may be the last thing Orioles fans remember from his time in Baltimore.
In Other News...
Orioles GM Just Sent A Clear Message About Fixing The Young Core
Jared Banners first public remarks as the Orioles new general manager offered a clear look at the kind of front-office voice Baltimore is bringing in. At his introductory press conference, Banner placed player development at the center of his philosophy, stressing that the organization has to keep raising standards while helping young talent keep moving forward. He also pointed to Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong as an example of the type of growth a player can make when development takes hold.
For Orioles fans, the most notable part was how Banner framed the young core without rushing to judgment. He said it is too early to make any final call on shortstop Gunnar Hendersons future, which fits the broader message of patience and structure around Baltimores next step. Banner also made clear that the club will lean on analytics, but not as the only tool in the room, signaling a more flexible approach to teaching as the Orioles try to keep their promising group on track. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Just Put More Pressure On Their New Front Office
The Orioles have spent the opening stretch of the offseason trying to reset their baseball operations structure, and the introductory press conference for new general manager Jared Banner only added to the sense that this front office is still taking shape. With a lockout looming and roster decisions piling up, Baltimore is asking its new setup to move quickly while also sorting out who will handle what inside the organization.
Mike Elias has already signaled that Banner is expected to shoulder a significant workload, which only raises the stakes for the decisions ahead. Baltimores path is a little more complicated now, too, because the Brewers just finished a championship run that put a spotlight on how quickly an organization can turn a strong plan into a parade, and the Orioles are still in the middle of defining their own next step. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Suddenly Have A Bullpen Dilemma For 2027
The Orioles bullpen picture for 2027 is already getting complicated, and Ryan Helsley is a big reason why. After missing significant time in 2026 because of right elbow injuries, the veteran reliever is expected to be back for Spring Training, giving Baltimore another high-end arm to sort through as it plans out the back end of games.
Helsleys return alone would be notable, but it comes with an even more intriguing layer for the Orioles. Flix Bautista is also expected to be in the mix after his own recovery, setting up a spring competition that should give Baltimore plenty of late-inning options and just as many decisions to make. The club wanted depth in the bullpen, and now it may have more than enough of it. [Read more 🡒]