Wings, Clipped
What happened to the Baltimore Orioles?
Since I went to my first ballgame in August of 1983, I figure I’ve been to about 500 games, give or take, all over the US. That’s probably not many compared to some of my friends, but then I live in a whole other country for much of the year. I’ve been to 19 of the current 30 ballparks, as well as to a few that no longer exist (that first game was at the Astrodome) and some great minor league and college venues.
Thanks to a couple of stints living in New York City, the place I’ve seen the most games is still the double-act of Shea and Citi Field. But coming up fast on that running total is Camden Yards. I’ve been to more games at Oriole Park than anywhere else over the past seven or eight years – and certainly over the past three seasons since I’ve been doing this project.
The reason I mention it is because, mostly, that’s made me happy. Baltimore is a beautiful, welcoming city and the park that changed baseball is just a perfect place to soak in the national pastime. Great facilities and views, filled with knowledgeable, engaged and always optimistic fans.
But right now, they deserve better.
Having crawled out of the wreckage of the pre- and post-Covid seasons armed with potential superstar draft picks and a farm system pretty much the envy of the rest of baseball, just two seasons ago the O’s went from next to last to winning 101 games and romping to their first divisional title since 2014. Riding a wave of confidence they played some brilliant baseball that was a joy to watch.
Even after the abrupt disappointment of falling at the first post-season hurdle, it almost felt like O’s fans came to accept that being swept – for the first time that season – by the eventual champion Texas Rangers was part of the learning curve and that the team would come back even stronger; while the roster pieces were in place to be a serious contender for the next few seasons.
After the much-ballyhooed change in ownership at the start of the 2024 season, the optimism among the faithful sometimes felt like it was off the charts. But then finishing the year three games behind the Yankees before again being swept, this time by the Royals in the Wild Card took any shine off the first back-to-back post-seasons for years. Even worse, that campaign ended at home.
At the start of the current season, the O’s farm system had dropped to #14 – falling behind two of their AL East rivals – before a near-disastrous start that saw manager Brandon Hyde fired last weekend. But as is always the case in early-season firings, there was plenty of blame to go around.
Chelsea Janes at the Washington Post wondered that in the “confounding case of the flightless Orioles” if just changing the manager would be enough. Chris Thompson wrote at Defector that The Orioles are Nowhere and nails the core problem – both sides of the team stalled at the same time.
“The Orioles of 2025 stink real bad. They're 10th-worst in the majors by team OPS, and are second-worst in the majors by team ERA. Hunt around in the cool math if you must—Orioles hitters are generally underperforming their perfectly respectable expected numbers, per Statcast—but the very basic formula there is pretty straightforward: Baltimore's pitching staff allows too many runs, and their vaunted lineup is not doing anywhere near enough slugging to make up the difference. This team was talked up as a World Series contender. With their eerily homogenized core of ultra-hyped position players, 2025 should be safely inside the early part of a long championship-or-bust era. Instead they are a last-place team, 11.5 games back of the Yankees and with a run differential that is second-worst in the majors, ahead of only the Colorado Rockies, who are a blight on the sport.”
As of today, the O’s are 16-32, having just snapped an eight-game losing streak. As Mark Brown says at Camden Chat, it’s been a long, strange week.
Can they turn things around? Maybe not reasonably to a point where they can contend, but just to where they maybe get used to the expectation of winning again and figure out what they need to do for next season? A couple of weeks back, David Schoenfield at ESPN compared the O’s poor start with other recent teams who have been in similar situations.
His conclusion was:
“It would be pretty unprecedented for the Orioles to suddenly fall apart given their youth, their level of success in 2023 and 2024 and the evaluation of those prospects just reaching the majors or still in the pipeline. Of course, sometimes those evaluations are wrong. They have a lot of pitching injuries to overcome, and that's tough for any team, unless you're named the Dodgers. The unwillingness to spend bigger this past offseason certainly looms as a dark cloud over this bad start.”
He also warns, though, as if any warning was necessary, that this undoubtedly talented team is in danger of blowing its contention window.
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Big Hitters
Bryce Harper recorded his 1,000th (and 1,001st) career RBI, joining some elite company. As Todd Zolecki writes:
“Harper, 32, is the 14th player in MLB history to reach 1,000 RBIs, 1,000 runs and 1,000 walks before turning 33. Eleven of the previous 13 are in the Hall of Fame: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews, Ron Santo, Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell and Jim Thome.
“The other two are Hall of Fame talents Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols.”
Fellow-Phillie Kyle Schwarber notched his 300th Home Run this week, and ended up doing a mutually-respectful deal with the fan at Coors Field to get the ball back.
Meanwhile, rumors persist about one of the War Bear’s former teammates Anthony Rizzo and whether he might be about to retire. This time, the hint was dropped by NHL Hall of Famer Chris Chelios, who was singing the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley this week. If this is the end of a great career, thanks for everything.
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Finally, late night comedian John Oliver shook things up in minor league baseball a few weeks back when he offered to rebrand a team, after imploring them to embrace "the glorious eccentricity of the magnificent league they belong to."
Mets fan Oliver announced this week that, after responses from 47 teams wanting to be featured, he had chosen the Detroit Tigers affiliate the Erie Seawolves of the Double-A Eastern League to be the subject of his makeover.
Can’t wait…
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As I mentioned previously, there’s no Game Notes at the moment as I’m in Ireland for a few weeks. All being well, I’ll be at PNC Park for the Pirates-Marlins game on June 11.
As always, thanks for reading. Some other recent midweek baseball-related posts are here:
Hustle – May 15.
Going Bananas – May 2.
The Impact On Other Lives – April 16.
And, of course, you can find the full States of Play archive here.
I’ll be back with the usual politics wrap this Memorial Day weekend.
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