Free agency has barely opened, but the pressure is already on in Baltimore.
With the General Manager Meetings set to begin Tuesday, November 10 in Las Vegas and a lockout looming on December 1, the Orioles are staring at a winter that could vanish in a hurry. Around the industry, the expectation is that the market will move fast before everything gets frozen. That leaves Mike Elias and the front office with little margin for error, especially with Jared Banner now in the mix to help broaden the club’s thinking on acquisitions and player development.
Banner was brought in, in part, to help Elias identify players who can grow into bigger pieces down the line. That matters.
The Orioles need a 2027 roster built to get back to the playoffs, and finding value where others don’t is part of that job. But there’s a difference between being patient and being passive.
If Baltimore waits too long, it risks watching the best available talent disappear before the lockout even hits.
And that’s the danger here: the wrong offseason plan would leave the Orioles looking a lot like the team they’ve already been.
The first mistake would be treating Trevor Rogers as the only meaningful addition to the rotation.
Extending the qualifying offer to Rogers made sense, and it should give Baltimore a path to bring back the 29-year-old southpaw. If he returns on a shorter-term deal, that helps.
It makes the rotation better than it is right now. But it still doesn’t solve the bigger issue.
The Orioles have been reluctant to hand out long-term deals to top starters, with Corbin Burnes standing as the clearest example. If they again pass on the class of front-line arms available on two- or three-year deals, they’ll be choosing to live with the same rotation problems that have dogged them for years.
There are quality options out there, including Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes, and others. Baltimore can’t afford to let that group go by untouched.
Catcher is another spot where settling would be a mistake.
Samuel Basallo’s .222/.291/.406 line in 2026 wasn’t eye-popping, but the 22-year-old remains the present and future behind the plate. He also needs support, not a burden dumped on him.
Ryan Jeffers may be tough to land because of the qualifying offer, and Tyler Stephenson could end up getting pushed up the market because of that situation. That leaves Carson Kelly as the cleanest fit.
Kelly is the last catcher in free agency who can step in and handle a starting job if needed. Baltimore already got burned by leaning on glove-first, short-lived options like Carlos Narvaez, whose .104/.198/.117 line down the stretch was a warning sign.
Kelly also brings a real edge against lefties, posting a 134 wRC+ versus southpaws since 2023. That kind of bat would give Basallo some cover and let him settle in.
The Orioles also can’t afford to sit on Jordan Westburg while pretending the third-base market will solve itself.
On the surface, moving Westburg might feel like selling low. But the market matters, and so does the risk of waiting.
Plenty of teams need help at third, and Westburg’s ability to play second base only broadens the list of possible suitors. Teruaki Sato may be the best free-agent third baseman available, but there’s uncertainty with the NPB import, and some clubs don’t even see him as a true third baseman.
Alec Bohm brings a career 100 wRC+ and below-average defense. Eugenio Suarez is 35 and coming off a down offensive year, with his best fit now looking more like DH than everyday third baseman.
That’s why Westburg still has value. Baltimore also has Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Coby Mayo available for the hot corner, and both showed flashes in 2026.
Even so, Westburg may still carry the higher ceiling. The problem is durability: he has never played more than 107 games in a season.
Another injury-marred year in 2027 would crush whatever trade value he has left.
The biggest swing, though, is in the outfield.
Baltimore’s outfield production was a mess, with the unit posting a .680 OPS. Only the Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds were worse.
The Orioles need a real upgrade, and the market offers two big names in Seiya Suzuki and Randy Arozarena. Both were tagged with the qualifying offer earlier this month, which can scare teams off because of the draft-pick cost.
This is not the time for Baltimore to flinch.
The club ranked 22nd in slugging percentage at .396 and 21st in OPS at .710. Pete Alonso needs help, and the Orioles cannot treat bounce-back seasons from Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, and the rest of the young core as a plan. If Baltimore misses on Suzuki or Arozarena, it will be left with the same offensive holes and a lot less time to fix them.
In Other News...
Orioles Are Suddenly Becoming A Real Destination For Top Young Talent
Baltimores rise in the international market has become one of the quieter but more important parts of its rebuild. Under director of international scouting Koby Perez, the Orioles have pushed harder into identifying and developing young talent early, and the results are starting to show in their 2026 signing class. It is a sign that the organization is no longer just trying to draft and develop well at home, but is also building a reputation abroad as a place where top prospects can see a path forward.
That momentum helps explain why the Orioles are being linked to Antonio Figueroa, a highly regarded outfielder from the Dominican Republic in the 2027 international class. Figueroa is expected to command a bonus of more than $1 million, a level that reflects both his standing and Baltimores growing willingness to compete for premium talent. The bigger question is whether the current international signing system will stay intact long enough for teams like the Orioles to keep taking advantage of it. [Read more 🡒]
Steven Kwan Could Fix Two Orioles Problems At Once
The Orioles have spent much of the winter looking for ways to sharpen both their lineup and their outfield defense, and Steven Kwan fits neatly into that conversation. The 29-year-old brings a disciplined approach at the plate, strong defensive value and the kind of on-base profile Baltimore has been trying to add as it looks to balance a roster built around younger talent and a more aggressive organizational plan.
Kwans appeal goes beyond a simple fit on paper. He also comes with playoff experience and a contract situation that makes him an attractive target for teams weighing a trade, which is why his name keeps surfacing in discussions around clubs like Baltimore. For the Orioles, the draw is obvious: one player could help address more than one weakness at once, even if the path to making that kind of move is still very much the part left to sort out. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Rotation Told A Bigger Story Than The Injuries Did
The Orioles spent much of the season managing the ripple effects of injuries to key arms like Zach Eflin, Chris Bassitt, Dean Kremer and Kyle Bradish, but the bigger picture in the rotation was how stable it stayed despite all of that. Baltimore used 10 pitchers in a starting role, tied for the third fewest in the majors, a sign that the club leaned on a relatively tight group even while shuffling through the usual late-season uncertainty that comes with a pitching staff.
The numbers tell the rest of the story. A 4.24 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP were not the kind of marks that put the rotation among the elite, yet they also suggest a staff that kept the team in games more often than the injury list might have implied. Bradish reaching his 500th strikeout was one of the seasons notable milestones, and the broader takeaway is that Baltimores rotation was defined as much by who it had available as by who it lost. [Read more 🡒]