The Orioles are still hanging around the Wild Card race, but the timing could hardly be worse with Milwaukee coming to Camden Yards and Baltimore’s rotation looking shredded.
That matters because the Brewers aren’t just another opponent. They arrive as the kind of club Baltimore was once supposed to study and copy: a smaller-market team that keeps finding value, develops pitching, wins in different ways and doesn’t give games away. Instead, the Orioles’ rebuild has looked far less like Milwaukee and much more like a mess they never fully escaped.
Milwaukee has been the best team in baseball because it is balanced, disciplined and hard to beat. The Brewers lead MLB in runs scored per game and rank fifth in runs allowed per game.
They field cleanly, throw to the right base and play the kind of smart baseball the Orioles have too often failed to match. They understand situational hitting, they put the ball in play and they do not try to win everything with launch angle.
They also know when to buy low on players like Quinn Priester and Kyle Harrison and when to sell high on Freddy Peralta.
If that sounds like the opposite of Baltimore, it is.
The Orioles, meanwhile, have not even announced their starters for the series, and the state of the rotation explains plenty about where they are. Kyle Bradish is finished for the year with a sports hernia after his command vanished and he was already running on fumes following Tommy John surgery. Shane Baz was not slated to start this series, and after taking a 109-mph liner off his right elbow in New York, he may not be back anytime soon either.
Cade Povich is back in the majors, according to reports, and he’s coming off a 6.50 ERA in Triple-A while continuing to be erratic. Baltimore has not made anything official, but Friday would seem to be his turn. The guess here is Trevor Rogers goes Saturday and Brandon Young gets the ball Sunday night, though nothing has been announced.
Rogers has had his moments, but 2025 has been the outlier, not the rule. He has a 4.22 ERA this season, after posting a 4.52 mark in 2024, barely pitching in 2023 and carrying a 5.47 ERA in 2022.
Over his last nine starts, he has allowed 54 hits in 54 innings, along with nine home runs, and has a 4.33 ERA in that span. The Orioles should have moved him at the deadline when his value was high, and if they do hand him a qualifying offer, they had better be ready for him to accept it.
Young’s situation is different, but the results have started to tilt the same way. He has never been this deep into a season before, and the second-half drop-off has shown up. In his last nine starts, he has given up 53 hits in 48 innings, walked 21, struck out 38 and surrendered 12 home runs, with a 4.69 ERA.
The one unit that has held up has been the bullpen. It has been shockingly good and will need to keep carrying the load if Baltimore is going to survive the rest of the season. Since July 31, the rotation has posted a 4.34 ERA, which ranks 20th in baseball and looks much more like what the industry expected from this group all along.
In Other News...
Orioles Suddenly Have Surprise Contributors They Cant Easily Ignore
A few unexpected names have started to make the Orioles roster picture a little more complicated. Josh Walker has given Baltimore useful innings out of the bullpen, Alex Hoppe has turned heads on the right side of the staff, and Coby Mayo has added another layer to the clubs list of players forcing their way into the conversation as the season goes on.
Luis De Len is part of that same group of surprise contributors, and his work has made the Orioles think more carefully about how he fits going forward. Craig Albernaz has pointed to those kinds of developments as part of the larger point of player growth, with Baltimore now weighing not just who has helped in the moment but who deserves a longer look when the team keeps sorting out roles. [Read more 🡒]
Gunnar Henderson Has Become A Bigger Orioles Problem Than Fans Expected
Gunnar Henderson arrived in Baltimore looking like the rare young star who could anchor a contender for years, and for a while he looked every bit the part. After winning American League Rookie of the Year and reaching All-Star status in his first two full MLB seasons, he seemed to be the kind of everyday force the Orioles could build around as the lineup matured behind him.
Instead, his production has slipped in 2025 and again in 2026, with key offensive numbers trending the wrong way and his overall value dropping with them. For a team that has watched its playoff hopes fade in recent seasons, Hendersons decline has added a frustrating layer to the bigger picture, because the Orioles are no longer just waiting on team-wide improvement. They are waiting for one of their most important players to look like himself again. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Front Office Shakeup Could Signal More Changes Ahead
The Orioles appear to be in the middle of a quiet front-office reset, with assistant general manager Sig Mejdal reportedly moving out of his longtime role overseeing the analytics department and into a new job centered on emerging technologies and innovative practices in baseball operations. It is a notable shift for an organization that has leaned heavily into data and process under its current leadership, even if the team has not confirmed the change.
Matt Bloods departure adds another layer to the uncertainty, especially because it has not been officially announced either. For a club that has built a reputation for staying ahead of the curve, any movement involving key voices in the front office naturally invites questions about how the Orioles want that structure to look going forward and whether more changes are coming. [Read more 🡒]