The Orioles didn’t just cycle through a rotation this season - they had to patch it together. Ten pitchers made starts for Baltimore in 2026, which was tied for third fewest in the majors with the Angels and Cardinals and only behind the Mariners’ seven and the Guardians’ eight. That total includes Keegan Akin’s two turns as an opener.
Even with all the moving parts, it was still the Orioles’ second-lowest starter count in a season since 2017, not counting the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. They used nine starters in 2023, with Akin once and John Means four times in September after he returned from Tommy John surgery.
The overall results were middling. Baltimore’s rotation finished with a 4.24 ERA, 17th in the majors, and a 1.38 WHIP that ranked 26th.
Injuries wrecked the plan from the start. Zach Eflin had elbow-reconstructive surgery after one outing.
Chris Bassitt went down with a lower-back procedure that kept him out for more than two months. Dean Kremer strained his right quad after the Orioles brought him back from Triple-A Norfolk, missed 2 1/2 months, and then was traded to the Twins on Aug.
- Kyle Bradish was shut down in September because of a sports hernia that required surgery, though by then Baltimore’s season already was toast.
Bradish still left behind a few eye-catching numbers. He gave up four first-inning runs all year, and opponents hit just .204/.291/.296 against him in those frames with six doubles, one homer, 11 walks and 34 strikeouts. That four-run total tied for second fewest in the majors among pitchers with at least 20 starts, behind only the Phillies’ Jesús Luzardo, who allowed three.
There was also a dominant stretch in mid-June. From June 17-22, Bradish allowed one run and struck out 21 over 15 2/3 innings in two starts.
That made him the third pitcher in franchise history to post 20-plus strikeouts and allow one run or fewer across two starts in the same season, joining Mike Mussina in 2000 and Erik Bedard in 2007. Then on Aug. 8, a strikeout of the Rangers’ Jake Burger gave Bradish his 500th career punchout, and he reached that mark in his 90th game, making him the fastest Oriole to get there.
Bedard had done it in 97 games in 2007.
Bassitt’s season had its own quirks. Only 17 of his 339 batted balls were barreled in 2026, a five percent barrel rate that was the second-lowest of his career behind only the 4.7 percent he posted in 2015.
That mark also landed in the 88th percentile across Major League Baseball. At home, Bassitt has gone 12-2 in 22 games since 2025, a .857 winning percentage that is tied for second best in the majors in a minimum 20 starts, trailing only the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski at 11-1.
He’s a free agent again and expected to return for his 13th season, though he made it clear in September that family matters will be part of the decision.
“I’ve got a 7 year old at home, I’ve got a 3 year old at home and a wife that wants me to be home. So yeah, we’ll cross that bridge when we do,” he said in September.
“Overall, I still have a lot of fire in me to definitely do something. I’m gonna have to win the wife over, I’ll tell you that.
But yeah, there’s a lot of fire still in me. I know I still can play this game at a really high level.”
Cade Povich’s curveball gave the Orioles another useful piece. Opponents hit .192/.344/.231 against it, going 5-for-26 with one double and nine strikeouts.
Right-handed hitters were 3-for-21 against the pitch, with a 42.5 percent whiff rate. Among pitchers who threw at least 100 curveballs to right-handers, that whiff rate ranked seventh in the majors.
In 2025, righties had done much more damage against the pitch, hitting .289/.333/.467 with five doubles, a triple, three homers, 24 strikeouts and a 29.6 percent whiff rate.
Povich wasn’t leaning on the curve alone in 2026, either. He used his four-seam fastball 45.5 percent of the time, up from 37.2 percent in 2025, and opponents hit .197/.269/.328 against it with two doubles, two homers and 10 strikeouts. Right-handers were 8-for-45.
Povich had surgery in October to remove loose bodies in his elbow, and he is expected to be full-go in spring training.
Trevor Rogers, meanwhile, spent the season attacking the strike zone. After landing on the injured list in late April with a severe case of the flu, he put together a 69.7 percent first-pitch strike rate, the best in the majors.
The Pirates’ Braxton Ashcraft was next at 68.4 percent. Rogers’ mark was also the highest by an Orioles pitcher since tracking began in 1988, topping Wei-Yin Chen’s 68.3 percent in 2015.
He also matched a franchise record by striking out at least six batters and not walking anyone in three straight starts from July 24-Aug. 5, a run that tied Scott McGregor’s stretch from July 13-24, 1979. And against left-handed hitters, Rogers was stingy in another way: he faced 174 of them and allowed just one homer, Trent Grisham’s three-run shot for the Yankees on May 12. Since tracking began in 1974, only seven Orioles pitchers have faced at least 170 lefties in a season and allowed one or fewer homers, and Rogers joined a list that includes Mark Williamson, Erik Bedard, Andrew Cashner, Mike Flanagan, Mike Mussina and Doug Sisk.
Brandon Young’s splitter had a clear before-and-after to his season. Over his last 20 starts from May 24-Sept. 25, the pitch averaged 83.6 mph and 1,416 revolutions per minute, and opponents hit .221 against it with three doubles, a triple, two homers, five walks and 24 strikeouts. In his first six starts, though, the splitter averaged 87.7 mph and 1,501 RPM, and hitters crushed it for a .476 average with three doubles, two walks and two strikeouts.
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