O's take stock of a 'very weird season' as postseason hopes end

CHICAGO -- Following back-to-back playoff appearances -- in 2023 as American League East champions and in ‘24 as the top AL Wild Card team -- the Orioles had high hopes heading into ‘25.

But Baltimore won’t have the chance to reach any of its lofty goals beyond the regular season. Despite beating the White Sox, 8-7, on Tuesday night at Rate Field, the Orioles were eliminated from postseason contention after the Mariners and Astros won their games.

The Orioles got off to too slow of a start this season. Baltimore began 3-2 but didn’t get above .500 again, as a rough first two months saw the squad fall to 18 games below .500 (16-34) on May 24. The O’s have played better since (55-46), even breaking off three five-plus-game winning streaks, but that hasn’t been enough.

If the 71-80 Orioles win the rest of their games this season, they would finish with a winning record for the fourth consecutive season. But that won’t keep them playing into October.

“Very weird season,” Gunnar Henderson said. “Just the start of the year got us behind the 8 ball. We had a good little winning streak there for a little bit and just couldn't get on another one to get us back in the hunt. Just kind of got ourselves in a deep hole that we couldn't get out of.”

A number of factors contributed to Baltimore’s tough year, including the injury bug.

On the season, 29 players have spent time on the injured list. The Orioles have used a franchise-record 68 players this season. Henderson and Jackson Holliday will be the only two position players to have appeared in at least 100 games.

There was also the team dealing away nine players ahead of the Trade Deadline. Subtracting that many players from the big league roster certainly hurt the team’s chances of making a run up the standings.

The Orioles have played .500 ball since the calendar flipped to August, though, and in September, they’re 10-4. That could provide some hope for better things to come.

“We got rid of half the team on the Trade Deadline, and we've played one of the toughest schedules in baseball since, and we've probably played close to .500 baseball with a lot of guys that were in [Triple-A] Norfolk for most of the year,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “I think that in and of itself speaks plenty of volumes for what we're doing.”

Also providing hope for 2026 is the core group of players already around.

On the position player side, Baltimore has contributors like Henderson, Holliday, Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg, who were all featured on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list in recent years. Samuel Basallo (No. 8 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100) and Dylan Beavers (No. 100) both debuted a month ago and are getting valuable big league experience. They’ve had some big moments, too, including both youngsters homering in Tuesday’s win.

On the pitching side, Trevor Rogers has been outstanding. Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells have returned from absences of more than a year and have performed well in their first few outings.

There are some good reasons to believe a better season awaits the Orioles in 2026. But that doesn’t take away from the disappointing feeling as their ‘25 draws closer to its end.

“We've talked about it with these guys. They're not happy,” Mansolino said. “You go through the core group in there, they are miserable right now. This has been a complete failure in a lot of ways that we're at this point, that we are being eliminated from the playoffs.”

Baltimore isn’t quite looking ahead to next season now that its playoff odds have hit zero. Henderson said the Orioles’ main focus over these last 11 games is to just win as many as they can. They can still have an impact on the AL playoff picture, after all.

But there is a bit of a bitter taste in their mouths with the way the season went. That could help fuel them going into next year.

“There is a lot of motivation going forward,” Mansolino said. “I promise you that.”