BALTIMORE—These days, I’m often asked about the Orioles’ clubhouse mood. How is it? Do players seem down?
After a loss, it’s easy. There’s no music playing, and players are quiet. Before games, it’s harder to tell because there are so few players in the clubhouse.
Apparently, that’s not just the case in the Orioles’ clubhouse. It’s also true in many clubhouses around baseball. There are a number of places players go. They can go to the bullpen to throw or on the field for extra batting practice. Many go to watch video or to the workout room for pregame exercises.
So, it is hard to tell, and pregame discussions are rarer than they were a decade ago. It’s more difficult to get to know players, though there are those who are often around and available to talk.
Ryan O’Hearn is one, and that’s appreciated. In the previous two years, it was James McCann, whom I’ve often written about, and was the subject of Thursday’s mailbag.
I’ve made it clear that I favored his return, and the signing of Gary Sánchez as Adley Rutschman’s backup instead was a mistake.
Sánchez is currently on the injured list, and his first month performance wasn’t promising. He’s just 3-for-30 (.100). McCann inexplicably wasn’t signed by any other major league team until the final days of spring training when he hooked on with Atlanta, and he’s currently at the Braves’ Triple-A Gwinnett team.
Signing Sánchez instead of McCann seemed strange. He’s playing for his sixth team in five years, and Sánchez was signed for $8.5 million, far above McCann’s reported salary of $1 million with Atlanta.
When Joe Torre was managing the New York Yankees from 1996-2007, analytics were creeping into Major League Baseball. Torre would always caution against their overreliance. “Don’t forget the heartbeat,” he’d say.
McCann exemplified quiet toughness. Who can forget when his nose was broken by a pitch early in the first game of a July 29th doubleheader. He not only remained in the game but appeared for a postgame interview session. He never went on the injured list.
It seems that the heartbeat is what’s missing in the Orioles’ clubhouse. Most of the players are nice and easy to interview. Still, there are few veterans willing to help the younger players learn how to play through difficult times.
Kyle Gibson is one who can. He just returned to the Orioles, and after his nightmarish first outing on Tuesday night when he allowed four home runs to the first five batters, he might be reluctant to be forceful right now.
Even though the Orioles lost the game Gibson started, 15-3, there were impressive wins in the first and last games of the three-game series against the New York Yankees.
A few more series wins would be helpful and quiet some of the critical talk that’s going around.
When the Orioles got off to a difficult start, I cautioned fans to wait until they had played 30 games. Now that they have, and they’re 12-18, there are many worrisome signs despite the series win against the Yankees.
Thirteen players are on the injured list, including seven potential starting pitchers. Everyone knew that Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells wouldn’t be available for at least the first half of the season. Grayson Rodriguez, who was on the injured list twice last season, hasn’t thrown a regular-season pitch, and we don’t have a timetable on when he might.
Zach Eflin pitched well in his first three starts, and he’s now been out nearly a month with a right lat strain. He could be back sometime this month.
Chayce McDermott and Trevor Rogers are still on the injured list. Both have begun their minor league rehab assignments. Unfortunately, Albert Suárez is nowhere near a return.
It’s not only starting pitchers that are on the IL. Outfielders Colton Cowser and Tyler O’Neill are on it. Cowser won’t be eligible to return because of his fractured right thumb until May 30th. O’Neill’s neck injury should be healed well before that.
This week, Sánchez and infielder Jordan Westburg, who has a hamstring strain, went on the injured list, too. Last year, Westburg’s broken right hand caused him to miss nearly two months and contributed to the offense’s second-half sputter. The Orioles hope Westburg’s absence won’t be too long, and they seem better fortified this year.
Jackson Holliday is a more mature and accomplished player, and Ramón Urías continues to play well.
A few more of those big wins could quiet fans who are calling for big changes.
Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias has done far more good than bad. Not only has he drafted well, with Cowser, Holliday, Westburg, Gunnar Henderson, Heston Kjerstad and Adley Rutschman, he’s also made smart acquisitions in O’Hearn and Urías and some good trades. He has been reluctant to use high draft picks on pitching.
Getting reliever Yennier Cano and starter Cade Povich in a trade for an All-Star closer, Jorge López in 2022 was huge. López has been with six teams—including a brief return to the Orioles in 2023—since he was dealt to Minnesota.
Recent moves haven’t worked out nearly as well, and the younger, homegrown hitters aren’t producing when it counts. The Orioles are hitting just .190 with runners in scoring position, 28th in baseball, ahead of only the two teams with the worst records in the game, the Rockies and White Sox.
The Orioles played well in owner David Rubenstein’s first year and qualified for the postseason for the second straight season, though they were swept again in the first round It’s not known how Rubenstein will react to a prolonged downturn.
The season has 132 games left, and plenty of time for the Orioles to show they have what Rubenstein told them after the win in the home opener, “the best talent in baseball.”
Perhaps the Orioles will add a veteran to that talent who may not have the best statistics but will remind them not to forget that heartbeat.
Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.