The last time the Orioles had a start to a season like this, Dave Trembley was their manager, Kevin Millwood was their opening day starter and the club went on to lose 96 games.
Baltimore (6-9) has yet to win a series this season — the longest stretch they’ve gone to open a campaign since 2010. The mediocre play continued last week with a series loss to the Diamondbacks and a split versus the Blue Jays.
Here’s this week’s Orioles reset:
(Editor’s note: Each Monday, The Baltimore Sun will zoom out and assess the previous week’s games in the “Orioles reset.” In past seasons, these sections appeared at the bottom of a feature story, but this year, the Orioles reset will be its own story published every Monday morning.)
What was good?
Before this weekend against the Blue Jays, the Orioles were experiencing a power outage — a surprising development for a team that finished second in MLB with 235 home runs last season. After blasting six on opening day in Toronto, Baltimore had totaled only six across its next 12 games.
But the Orioles brought back the hydration station this weekend and let the H2O flow.
Heston Kjerstad and Adley Rutschman blasted homers in Saturday’s 5-4 comeback win that breathed life into a listless lineup. On Sunday, Ryan Mountcastle and Tyler O’Neill went deep — clearing the new left field wall with homers that would’ve been robbed by the previous one — to give the Orioles a lead that the bullpen couldn’t maintain in a 7-6 loss.
Manager Brandon Hyde said before Saturday’s game that he was “not concerned” about the lack of power and instead wanted to see “more competitive” at-bats.
“I think home runs will come when that happens,” Hyde said.
That they did, and the Orioles need more of them.
What wasn’t?
Entering spring training, the Orioles’ rotation was already expected to be a weakness after losing Corbin Burnes in free agency. Entering the season, it looked even worse with Grayson Rodriguez on the injured list.
But after Zach Eflin went down last week with a low-grade lat muscle injury, the outlook for Baltimore’s rotation is bleak. Eflin isn’t considered an ace, but he had been this rotation’s rock with three of its four quality starts to open the season. Without him, the Orioles are without a stopper.
Tomoyuki Sugano (3.86 ERA) and Cade Povich (3.60 ERA) have pitched well enough to keep the team in games, but they’ve struggled to make it deep into contests. Charlie Morton (8.78 ERA) and Dean Kremer (8.16 ERA) have been among MLB’s most ineffective starters through three starts. Entering Sunday, no pitcher in the American League had allowed more earned runs than the 13 Kremer and Morton had both surrendered.
Eflin’s timeline is undetermined, but he could be out only a short amount of time. Rodriguez is still ramping back up and could make his return in May, while Kyle Bradish is still on track to return sometime in the second half. Until those reinforcements return, Baltimore will need to find a way to win despite its starting pitchers.
Only one MLB team has a worse rotation ERA than the Orioles’ 5.30. The good news for Baltimore is that the team is the New York Yankees at 5.40.
What’s next?
A day off, a rotation decision and a chance to get back on track.
After getting a much-needed break Thursday and Friday, the Orioles get another break Monday before hosting the Cleveland Guardians and Cincinnati Reds this week at Camden Yards.
Morton, Kremer and Sugano are scheduled to start the three games against the Guardians, and Povich would be on enough rest to take the ball Friday. That leaves Saturday as the day Baltimore must decide who replaces Eflin in its rotation for however long he’s out. Prospect Brandon Young and soft-tosser Cody Poteet are the top options, while a bullpen game is also possible.
A couple of bad weeks to start a season is too small of a sample size to judge a team. But another one will only raise concerns about where this team is heading.
On the farm
When Coby Mayo was optioned during spring training, the top prospect described it as a “lose-lose” situation since he’s already dominated Triple-A, meaning it will only matter if he fails.
That feeling was an understandable one from Mayo, but all he can do in Norfolk is rake the way he always has. He began the season 3-for-24 at the plate, hitless in six of seven games, but he broke out of his mini-slump last week — extending his hitting streak to seven games and homering in both contests over the weekend. Suddenly, his OPS is up to .861.
With more weeks like that one, Mayo could become an option for a call-up later this season.
Extra innings
• Kjerstad’s home run on Saturday broke up Bowden Francis’ no-hit bid. It was the second time in Kjerstad’s young career that he’s broken up a no-no with a long ball. The first time he did so? In September 2023 against Eflin when he was pitching for the Rays.
• General manager Mike Elias said Sunday on MLB Network Radio that the Orioles are “doing our part on the club side” to sign players to contract extensions. “It’s case by case, and it’s not easy. Players have different representatives, they’ve got different goals,” Elias said. “We’ll just keep trying and keep running the team as smartly and as responsibly as possible with an eye on trying to push right now but keep the future of the organization as healthy as we can because that’s also necessary.”
• Outfielder Kyle Stowers is off to a hot start for the Marlins this season. Stowers is hitting .314 with an .881 OPS while batting in the heart of Miami’s lineup. The Orioles traded Stowers, a former prospect, and Connor Norby to the Marlins in a trade that returned pitcher Trevor Rogers to Baltimore. Rogers has yet to pitch this season after partially dislocating his right kneecap in the winter.
Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.