The Orioles didn’t draw up this season as a scramble just to stay alive in August. They made a major offseason swing for Pete Alonso, expected their young core to take another step, and instead wound up selling at the deadline.
And yet here Baltimore is anyway, still hanging around. As of Aug. 19, the Orioles sit at 61-65, four games below .500, but only 1.0 game out of the American League’s third Wild Card spot. In a wide-open seven-team fight for that last playoff berth, a strong finish could still change everything.
That kind of climb won’t happen on Alonso and Gunnar Henderson alone. Baltimore needs more than its stars to carry the load, and a few key players could end up deciding whether this push has any real traction.
Coby Mayo is one of them.
The former top prospect has given the Orioles a solid first full MLB season, even if the batting average has stayed modest at .214. The bigger takeaway has been the extra-base pop: 32 through his first 100 games, with a .445 slugging percentage to match.
If Baltimore is going to make noise, that power matters. A lineup with Alonso and Henderson already has the top-end thump; Mayo gives them another bat that can make pitchers pay.
Over his last 15 games, he’s hit .283 with a .609 slug. If that version sticks, the Orioles’ order gets a lot more dangerous.
Yennier Cano is another name that matters in a hurry.
Baltimore has spent another season without All-Star closer Felix Bautista, though he is nearing a rehab assignment. The Orioles also brought in Ryan Helsley to handle the ninth, but injuries have made his season uneven too.
The result has been a bullpen job shared across several arms, Cano included. He’s only worked the ninth inning eight times, but he’s been leaned on plenty in the higher-leverage spots: 19 appearances in the eighth and 13 in the seventh.
Cano has had the kind of stuff that can look overwhelming when it’s right, and Baltimore needs more of that version. He owns a 3.27 ERA this year, and in July it was 0.84.
For a bullpen that ranks 15th in reliever ERA at 4.13, even a steady stretch from Cano would help settle things down late.
Then there’s Trevor Rogers, who might be the biggest swing factor of the bunch.
Rogers broke out in 2025 with a dominant 1.81 ERA across 18 starts and 109.1 innings, but he has come back toward the pack this season. His 2026 line sits at a 4.15 ERA in 23 starts.
Still, the recent run is encouraging. Since June 1, he’s been much closer to the pitcher Baltimore hoped it was getting after last year’s breakout.
Over that span, he has an 8 quality starts total that ranks tied for third in the American League, a 2.45 ERA that ranks fifth, a 1.05 WHIP that ranks 10th, and 2.3 WAR that ranks third.
The Orioles’ rotation has been uneven overall, but there has been some recent stability. Kyle Bradish and Shane Baz have been solid without fully taking over games, and Brandon Young has been a useful surprise.
What Baltimore still needs is the Rogers version that looked like an ace in 2025, giving them a dependable anchor every fifth day. If he keeps trending that way, the Orioles have a real chance to make this thing interesting.
In Other News...
Orioles Bullpen Picture Just Got More Interesting Around Flix Bautista
Flix Bautista was back in the Orioles clubhouse for the first time this season, a notable step for a bullpen that has been waiting all year for its closer to re-enter the picture. Bautista is still on the 60-day injured list after surgery, but the fact that he is expected to begin a rehab assignment soon gives Baltimore a clearer sense of when one of its most important late-inning arms might start moving toward a return.
Luis De Lon is part of the conversation too, with the Orioles preparing the prospect for a possible major league bullpen role as they keep sorting through their pitching depth. Between that and a batch of minor league updates plus upcoming game starters, the organization is trying to balance the immediate need for innings with the longer view of how the bullpen could look once Bautista is back in the mix. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Get Pulled Into Another Fair-Foul Mess With MLB
A replay review in the Yankees-Orioles game put the fair-foul debate back in the spotlight, this time after Pete Alonso sent a ball down the line and the original foul-ball ruling survived the challenge. For Baltimore, it was another reminder of how much these borderline calls can shape a game, especially when the broadcast angles and the leagues own replay process leave room for argument.
Chris Bassitt took issue with MLBs technology afterward, saying it still cannot conclusively settle fair-or-foul calls when the stakes are high. Alonso also raised questions about the use of Hawk-Eye in these situations, and the whole sequence left the kind of lingering uncertainty that tends to follow the Orioles from one replay controversy to the next. [Read more 🡒]