The Orioles’ rotation has become the rare part of this team that can still make you squint and find something worth watching. It’s not because it’s dominant. It’s because, in a season full of broken pieces, this is the one area that has offered a little structure in June.
Even that comes with a catch. There’s no true ace here, the staff’s best arm is still working through the fallout of a delayed elbow surgery, and the innings-eating types are already described as a lost cause.
Add in poor defense, and the whole thing gets dragged down anyway. But with Zach Eflin done for the season, Chris Bassitt not close to pitching again, and Dean Kremer still working back from long-term injury, it’s worth sorting out what’s left.
At the top of that list is Young. He’s been the most reliable starter by a mile, and he’s done it by leaning into a fastball profile that works with what he has.
He hasn’t looked scared, he hasn’t looked timid, and he has regularly gone deep into games. His 3.11 ERA leads the Orioles’ starters by a wide margin, and his 1.30 WHIP is best on the staff as well.
He’s not a frontline arm, but he gets the most out of his stuff, and there’s a real case that he’s the lone All-Star in the group.
Rogers comes next, and his season has already flipped from what looked like a mess into something much more useful. Last year was a mirage, and he’s earned credit for putting himself back together after being shattered in May.
He said again after his last strong outing that he had lost his confidence, which fits with the issues he’s had before. The fastball is carrying him right now, especially up in the zone, and if he can keep using it to set up the changeup over a stretch of outings, he could run off another wild stretch.
For now, he’s the second most trustworthy starter in the rotation.
After that comes a pitcher who is much harder to believe in. He’s going to keep teasing.
The stuff can look nasty in spots, but the consistency isn’t there, the hard contact keeps coming, and the big inning never really goes away. On average, he’s allowing three runs or more in an inning once a start, and hitters are slugging .462 off his fastball.
He sits in the bottom 33 percent of MLB pitchers in just about every meaningful metric, and the second half should look a lot like the first. Even the workload is a problem: he’s already well over twice the innings he threw from 2024-2025, which is why a six-man rotation once Kremer returns makes sense.
Trying to push him toward 180 innings would be a stretch.
That leaves Gibson, who belongs near the back of the group but still has a chance to matter in a season that is already lost. There’s swing-and-miss in there, and some of what made him interesting in the minors is starting to show up.
The command is shaky - he can’t throw strikes 60 percent of the time - and there’s still plenty to prove. Even so, the Orioles need to give him a runway in starts and in this rotation.
He may wind up as a bullpen arm in the end, but for now Baltimore needs to commit to him, or to a Nestor German or another prospect like that, at the back end.
In Other News...
Orioles Reach Another Embarrassing Low As Camden Yards Turns On Them
Camden Yards has been a place where Orioles fans usually show up expecting baseball with some edge, but lately the mood has shifted from restless to openly sour. Baltimores latest skid has only deepened the frustration, and the on-field mistakes have made it harder to separate the noise from the baseball. Craig Albernaz said the fans have every right to boo, a blunt acknowledgment that the people paying to watch are reacting to what they see, not to any larger theory about patience or process.
Mike Elias is still talking like a club that can be fixed in season, saying the Orioles intend to add to the roster before the trade deadline and still believe they are right there. But belief is getting harder to sell when the losses keep piling up and the atmosphere at home keeps turning colder. For a team that expected to be in the race, the challenge now is not just finding help, but convincing its own ballpark that there is still something worth sticking around for. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Fans Are Running Out Of Patience With Mike Elias
The Orioles biggest problem has been easy to spot for a while now, and it is the same one that keeps hanging over every conversation about the roster: pitching. Baltimore has built enough around its young core to stay in the playoff picture, but the staff has not been fixed well enough to match the rest of the organizations progress, and that leaves President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias under the microscope as the season moves into its most important stretch.
The frustration is only sharpened by what happened elsewhere in the division of baseballs front-office patience. The Nationals moved on from Mike Rizzo midseason last year and have looked better since, a reminder that a reset can sometimes come before the deadline or draft rather than after it. For Orioles fans, the question is no longer whether Elias has had time to solve the pitching issues over his long run, but whether the club can afford to keep waiting any longer if it wants a real shot at building a contender. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Finally Get A Key Arm Back But The Cost Is Real
The Orioles got a much-needed rotation piece back when Dean Kremer was reinstated from the injured list, a move that brought some stability to a staff that has spent plenty of time juggling arms. To make room, Baltimore sent Trey Gibson to Triple-A Norfolk, designated catcher Dom Keegan for assignment, optioned left-hander Josh Walker and recalled Cameron Weston, a flurry of roster shuffling that shows how one return can ripple through several spots at once.
For Gibson, the demotion comes after a rough recent stretch, and Weston is back in the majors after a brief earlier look. The bullpen and catching depth were always going to feel the squeeze once Kremer was ready, and the Orioles have now paid that price in more than one area, with the next question being how long this alignment holds once the staff settles back in. [Read more 🡒]