It’s no secret that the Orioles have been undone by an inordinate number of impactful injuries this year and last, which has to have fans wondering whether there is something going on here that might stretch into 2026.
The answer is yes and no.
Of course, there will be an injury hangover next spring, at least in the case of closer Félix Bautista, who is expected to miss the season after shoulder and labrum surgery. There’s also room to wonder if promising young starter Grayson Rodriguez will be able to put a long string of physical setbacks behind him.
That’s already baked into the spring training outlook, which at the very least should keep ownership and the front office from fooling itself into building the rest of the pitching staff on a foundation of false hope.
I don’t have to tell Mike Elias that he has a herculean task ahead of him and it is one that won’t be accomplished with a collection of medium minor league holdovers.
The Orioles have a right to take comfort in the successful late-season return of potential rotation cornerstones Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells, who should look pretty good alongside newly crowned Most Valuable Oriole Trevor Rogers, solid right-hander Dean Kremer and (maybe) young Cade Povich. But the lesson of the past two seasons is that a decent projected rotation should be just the start.
The Orioles can’t depend on veteran swingman Albert Suárez or unproven Brandon Young to be the next starter up. There needs to be at least one more established rotation piece to insulate the club from another uncertain April.
And that might actually be the easier task for Elias, who offloaded three solid bullpen arms at the trade deadline and now has to rebuild the relief corps almost in its entirety.
The search has already begun and there have been some positive auditions by left-hander Dietrich Enns and right-hander Kade Strowd, but the heart of the bullpen almost certainly will have to come from outside the organization – starting with a legitimate veteran closer.
There are other roster questions after a season of underachievement by the talented young starting lineup. Interim manager Tony Mansolino said this week that the lack of consistent production from the likes of Colton Cowser, Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg can be chalked up to inexperience and bad fortune but acknowledged that the coaching staff will have to work hard to avoid a repeat underperformance from any of them.
“Yes, it is at the top of the list,” Mansolino said. “Just as important as finding pitching is, is figuring out with these offensive players … how we solve them, how we help them, how we get them back on track. But again, I’m not making excuses, look around the league. How many other young offensive players are struggling in this league right now?
“What about the kid in Milwaukee, [Jackson] Chourio? He was unbelievable last year. The kid [Jackson] Merrill in San Diego. There are examples all across the league. Kyle Tucker in Chicago. It’s not just our players, and I know that’s the popular story here. We are being accountable and we know in order to move this thing forward we’ve got to help those guys get back to the track they need to be on. But the reality is that not everyone is going to have a career year every year.”
Even so, the Elias shopping list should also include another veteran right-handed hitter because he also cannot – for obvious reasons – depend on the oft-injured Tyler O’Neill to answer the bell all season. Ramón Laureano filled that void handsomely (in more ways than one), but the Orioles needed to maximize the talent grab from the Padres at the deadline.
In short, no matter how much of the Orioles’ downfall this season can be attributed to bad injury luck, that’s just another reason why Elias cannot leave anything to chance this winter.