Dylan Beavers entered 2026 with real momentum, but the follow-up season didn’t come close to matching the buzz he built the year before.
The former first-round pick forced his way onto Baseball America’s Top 100 prospect list after a strong 2025 at Norfolk, where he hit .304/.420/.515 in 94 games before Baltimore finally brought him up in the middle of August. The Orioles could have made that move earlier, but they held off to protect his rookie eligibility for 2026.
That also kept open the possibility of a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick if Beavers had gone on to win Rookie of the Year last season. He didn’t.
For a brief stretch, though, Beavers looked like he might keep climbing. In his first 35 big league games, he posted a .375 on-base percentage and showed the kind of plate discipline that gets people talking.
He hit four home runs, added five doubles and drew 26 walks in 137 plate appearances. That run was good enough to fuel a steady stream of Moneyball “he gets on base” jokes all through September.
Then came the reset.
Beavers’ 2026 season never really took off. His .228 batting average was actually a one-point bump, but his on-base percentage slid to .307.
He logged 226 more plate appearances than he had the year before, yet managed only nine additional walks. The end result was a 93 OPS+, a mark that landed below league average.
Baltimore had hoped for more than just a rookie-year flash. The Orioles were staring at a rough outfield picture, and Beavers was supposed to be part of the answer.
Instead, he became part of the problem. Colton Cowser flashed with the glove but had long stretches of struggle at the plate.
Taylor Ward’s power disappeared. Tyler O’Neill didn’t produce at the level his contract would suggest.
Heston Kjerstad never made the leap, and Leody Taveras showed up more than anyone expected.
Beavers’ year was interrupted early, too. He was ordinary in April, then suffered a strained oblique in mid May.
The injury knocked him out for six weeks and kept him from locking down an everyday role in a lineup that was already disappointing. His defense may have taken a hit from the injury, but the overall results in the field were rough regardless.
Over 660 innings in 2026, he finished at -9 Outs Above Average and -8 Defensive Runs Saved.
Still, there was one part of Beavers’ game that never wavered: the knack for delivering when the moment got loud. He had two walk-off hits in 2025 and added two more last season.
Yahoo Sports noted that his four walk-off RBIs tied for the most by any player in his first 110 games since the stat became official in 1920. And Christian Encarnacion-Strand is one of five other players to match the four walk-off hits Beavers has in his first 110 games.
The Orioles have already moved on from Kjerstad, but they still appear to believe in Beavers. The outfield can and probably should be upgraded externally, yet Baltimore needs Beavers and Cowser to move forward. O’Neill, Christian Franklin and Rece Hinds are still in the organization, Blaze Alexander can handle some center field, and Enrique Bradfield Jr. should get a shot at some point next season.
As for Beavers himself, he looks like a candidate to open 2027 in one of the corner spots on Opening Day. The Orioles should probably stop trying him in center field, though he still has a chance to become an average defender in a corner. There’s some power in there - he hit nine homers in 2026 - and if he gets back to the patient approach that helped him rise in the first place, he could earn more chances near the top of the lineup.
He doesn’t need to be Plan A for a team trying to make the postseason, but he could grow into that by the end of the year. The Orioles are expected to look outside the organization for help in the outfield while still keeping Beavers in the mix for 2027 and beyond.
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Baltimore already made its first move by extending a qualifying offer, which puts the ball in Rogers court until November 17. If he accepts, the Orioles keep him on a short-term arrangement and avoid losing him for nothing. If he declines, the club is left weighing whether it can afford to let a pitcher it helped revive walk away, or whether the price tag to keep him has climbed beyond the comfort zone. [Read more 🡒]