BALTIMORE (AP) — If the second half of 2024 was a reality check for the Baltimore Orioles — their first real stretch of mediocrity since they became contenders again — the start of this season is a near-crisis.
This young Baltimore team experienced very little failure while winning 101 games in 2023, but now the Orioles are well aware of what baseball's more humbling side feels like.
“I think we’re getting a little more familiar (with adversity) than we wanted to be," general manager Mike Elias said before Friday night's 3-0 win over Kansas City.
Elias met with reporters to address his team's 12-18 record in April. The Orioles aren't just in last place in the AL East, they also had the worst run differential in the American League before Friday's game.
The young core of hitters that was so fearsome early last year has struggled mightily in 2025. Elias has reason to view that as a temporary blip, but the other main culprit this year — the collapse of the starting rotation — might be harder to fix.
Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez and Albert Suarez are on the injured list and Dean Kremer took a 7.04 ERA into Friday's start before breaking through with seven scoreless innings. Tomoyuki Sugano has been fine, but Charlie Morton is 0-6 with a 9.45 ERA and will work out of the bullpen for now. Kyle Gibson allowed homers to four of the first five batters Tuesday in his first big league start of the season.
“It is difficult to contend with that level of injuries, but even that aside, they’ve had a poor start, and that’s my responsibility. I’m in charge of baseball operations," Elias said. "When we have a bad record to start the year, that’s my responsibility.”
Elias opened himself up to second-guessing in the offseason when the Orioles lost Corbin Burnes to free agency and he gave one-year contracts to Sugano, Morton and Gibson. One-year deals are usually considered pretty safe — even if they work out badly, they expire quickly. But Baltimore committed over $33 million to that trio, so if they keep performing this poorly as a group it would constitute a real misuse of resources.
In fairness, a rotation of Rodriguez, Eflin, Sugano, Kremer and Cade Povich could have been serviceable — with Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells expected back at some point from elbow surgery — but the injuries to Eflin and Rodriguez have forced Morton and Gibson to produce, and thus far they haven't.
Baltimore's 5.47 ERA entering Friday ranked 29th among the 30 teams, lower than only Miami’s 5.89.
The Orioles did manage to take two of three from the first-place New York Yankees earlier this week, but even that required a pair of one-run wins sandwiched around a 15-3 loss. There have simply been too many games in which Baltimore finds itself way behind because of poor pitching.
“Nobody’s happy with how we’ve performed so far. We have higher expectations for ourselves," manager Brandon Hyde said. "I talk with Mike multiple times a day. We’re not satisfied in the least bit. We know our team can play better than we have.”
Elias said he remains confident in Hyde.
"When things are going great — and they have at times here, we’ve had that — and then when we’re experiencing failure, it’s really important in that job and in my job too to be consistent with your approach," Elias said. "He’s doing that.”
Eflin (lat strain) and reliever Andrew Kittredge (knee) are expected to make minor league rehab appearances Sunday, and Elias said Rodriguez (elbow inflammation) might be able to throw by the end of this month.
“We are all working very hard and we have a lot of faith in this very talented group," Elias said. "Piece by piece, step by step, we're going to get guys healthier, we're going to get guys performing more to their norms. If there's something we can fix with a player, we're working on that.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb
Noah Trister, The Associated Press