Spring training is finally here, and O’s baseball is back. After a 2025 season where seemingly everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, we enter the 2026 season with a lot more hope than we ended with in 2025.
First, there is a new manager and new coaching staff. Craig Albernaz has already made an impression on O’s fans with his solid hires, his expectations of how to play the game and hopefully the return to sound fundamentals and fewer on-field mistakes.
Orioles President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias was tasked with a big undertaking this offseason. Not only did the team need a new manager but also vast improvements across the board. He got started quickly by re-acquiring reliever Andrew Kittredge. He then moved to a trade where he acquired Taylor Ward, a right-handed bat who has shown a lot of power and the ability to take a walk (more on this trade later). He continued to add to the pen by bringing in Ryan Helsley, who had been one of the most dominant relievers in baseball the last few years, until he was dealt to the Mets last year. He had an abysmal first month with the Mets but he righted the ship and closed the season well.
Elias identified the need for a middle-of-the-order bat and reportedly pushed hard for Kyle Schwarber, apparently offering him the same deal he ultimately signed with the Phillies. When that didn’t work out, he went right to Pete Alonso and offered him a million more per year over what Schwarber got, and Alonso took it. For the first time in a long time, the Orioles have a true veteran presence in the middle of the order. I don’t think it was a great contract value-wise, but he represents a true need and what he has done and said off the field to start his time in Baltimore has been perfect. We will see if he can continue to be a force with the bat and if his glove can be any better than it has been. If so, he will be worth the contract he got, even if his WAR says otherwise.
To improve the rotation, the Orioles took a big swing at Shane Baz. They traded some good – but not great – prospects to obtain him. They dealt guys that were in areas in which the O’s had good depth. Any of the guys they traded could come back to bite them but most are 2-3 years away, if ever, and the upside of Baz was too much to pass on. A former top pitching prospect in all of baseball, Baz has some of the game’s best stuff and has ace upside. If he ends the year in Cy Young contention, I will not be surprised at all.
The O’s also brought back Zach Eflin on a cheap, low risk/high reward contract. Eflin, coming off back surgery, wanted to come back to Baltimore and the Orioles were willing to take that chance. Back injuries can be very tricky and the surgery he had often has to get repeated. We will see if the back can hold up over the course of a full season. If he can stay healthy and give the Orioles 20-25 starts, Eflin will be a good signing. When he has been healthy, he has pitched very well and will eat innings.
Yesterday, they signed Chris Bassitt to shore up the middle/back end of the rotation. Bassitt has been a stable vet pitcher for several years. He has generally taken the ball every 5th day and had sub 4 ERAs. He has had a lot of postseason success and has shown a willingness to pitch out of the pen.
Right now, the Orioles have six viable starters in Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Dean Kremer, Eflin, Baz and Bassitt. We will see if all of them can stay healthy as spring training goes on and if all are ready to go on Opening Day. There is a good chance that won’t be the case. My guess is that Eflin will start the year on the IL and they will continue to strengthen his back and let him ease his way back onto the team. If all six are healthy when he comes back, we will see what direction they go in. For now, it’s a “cross that bridge when you come to it” situation.
The Orioles also made some moves on the margins. They added Leodys Tavares, a true centerfielder with a good glove who has shown some upside with the bat in the past. That upside showed in winter ball this year where he was one of the better hitters amongst potential MLB players. They also recently traded for Blaze Alexander. This was a scrutinized move by many, but I think those people were missing the importance of what Alexander brings to the table. Yes, like everyone else, I hated to lose Kade Strowd in this deal, but Strowd also showed very little prior to 2025, so the sample size is small. Still, I wish we kept him because I did think he was a sleeper candidate to be a very valuable member of the pen.
That being said, I would rather have Alexander. The Orioles were lacking a backup third baseman. They were lacking infield defense in general. Alexander is a good athlete who can play above average defense at many positions, and he can help spell some guys against lefties. Right now, players like Jackson Holliday and Colton Cowser have shown a propensity to struggle facing lefties and while I do not anticipate those guys to sit a lot in those situations, having a player like Alexander to give them that occasional day off is a good thing. I think he sees more time on the field than a normal utility player does (and I felt that before the injuries we heard about yesterday).
All in all, the Orioles addressed many of the needs they had entering the offseason. They go into this season as a far better and deeper team than 2025. The 2025 team was ravaged by injuries. So far, the Orioles have lost Holliday for probably 3-6 weeks of the start of the season. He broke his hamate bone last week and is having surgery today. Breaking your hamate bone will hurt your power for a little while. Hopefully this will get Holliday dialed in and focusing on getting on base and having good contact rates. We need him to be a .360+ OBP machine, like he was in the minors. The power will come back but it will take time.
The Orioles also have Jordan Westburg dealing with a sore oblique. The good news is that he was working out yesterday, so it’s not likely a major problem. The bad news is that the oblique can very easily get re-injured, so they need to be very cautious. Plus, Westburg has shown an inability to stay healthy early in his career, so news like this is never good for him.
All in all, the early injury news could be worse. It’s not great but could be worse.
With all the moves made in 2026, did Elias put the best team on the field possible? Many O’s fans will say no and I agree; however, I completely disagree with the “how” regarding it being better. Most fans wanted that clear “Ace” type starter. I did too. I wouldn’t go as far as saying we NEEDED one. They can win without one. I think that has been proven over the last several years but obviously, the more top arms you have, the better.
This offseason, the top of rotation starters that were available were Ranger Suarez, Framber Valdez, and Dylan Cease. Cease signed with the Blue Jays quickly, and received a ridiculous contract. And I say this as someone who wanted Cease badly. He was one of my top targets amongst free agent starters but I never thought he would get the deal he got because his history is so up and down.
I never had interest in Ranger Suarez. He has shown an ability to pitch well with decreased velocity but as he gets on the wrong side of 30, does that keep up? Reportedly, the Orioles really wanted him. They had offered him a 5/125 deal and that offer sat for a few weeks. Some fans will say Elias should have kept going and outbid himself. That’s fine to have that thought but my issue is saying that because Elias didn’t do that, he failed. Suarez clearly didn’t want to come here. To get him to come here, you would have had to drastically overpay. I am not sure why fanswanted Elias to drastically overpay for someone who didn’t want to come here, who also has some major red flags.
The Valdez situation was an odd one. He never sniffed the deal he wanted, reportedly because of the issue he had with his catcher last year, along with other off-field concerns that popped up over his career. I was always skeptical of how much the Orioles wanted Valdez. I find it interesting that we immediately heard about the offer the O’s put on the table for Suarez, but we still haven’t heard anything about Valdez.
I don’t think the Orioles valued him the way people believed. Valdez had off- and on-field red flags. While I would have taken him for a three or four-year deal, I also wasn’t in the room with him interviewing him, discussing him with scouts, etc. If the Orioles walked away from those meetings not liking what they heard, I am good with it. He never was a slam dunk guy for me. I realize some disagree, but there are legit concerns surrounding him, so I don’t understand the vitriol behind the way people attacked Elias and the O’s in this case.
Also, some of the trade options seemed to fizzle out. The Reds never seemed willing to part with any of their starters. The Twins have a false belief that they can contend, so they didn’t want to trade Joe Ryan or Pablo Lopez. The starters who were traded were younger arms that have upside but are uncertain. In other words, Elias only had so many options.
I did want them to go after Tatsuya Imai but he clearly had a lot of people who didn’t like him. We will see if those teams were right and the Orioles likely didn’t want to give him an opt out after year one, which makes sense to me. I liked Michael King as well, but he had major health concerns and wanted the quick opt out. Going back to San Diego – where he preferred to be – was the smarter move for him.
The impression that O’s fans, especially the loud ones on social media, give is that the Orioles are cheap and don’t want to spend on pitching. There is some truth to that. Elias clearly values the greater certainty of hitting over the unpredictability of pitching. He clearly wants to put more resources into that. The volatility of pitchers clearly bothers him. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing him for that, by the way. But he has legit reasons behind it and it’s backed by mountains of data. That said, he must show more of a willingness to go after pitching in all ways. If you ask me, since July of last year, he has adjusted and done just that. This is evidenced by what he did in the draft, the deadline and how he has been offering big money deals to some pitchers this offseason.
So, while I am good with not signing contracts that historically always blow up in your face, I still don’t love certain aspects of the roster or some moves he made this year. The Ward trade still bothers me and will for a long time. See more here:
Grayson Rodriguez for Taylor Ward: Mike Elias’ Worst Trade to Date?
I do not have any issue trading Grayson Rodriguez if you doubted his ability to stay healthy or if he was causing some off field issues. And while I do not think he’s great roster fit, I don’t have a problem targeting Ward. My issue is trading four years of a high-upside arm for a single year of an outfielder who has shown some defensive decline (on a team whose defense isn’t great), is coming off a big offensive season that he really hasn’t duplicated and is on the wrong side of 30. Rodriguez has huge upside and this team can’t afford to just give up on that, at least not in this trade. Had they used him to obtain a starting pitcher with multiple years of service time, so be it, but not this deal.
I would have rather kept Grayson, signed Harrison Bader (who I don’t love, but he can still play CF well) and put more money into the bullpen. Yes, Elias could still sign an arm like Michael Kopech, but I would rather have players like Luke Weaver or Robert Suarez.
I think that would have given us a better overall team, one with more versatility, higher rotation upside and a much better bullpen. Right now, I am concerned about team defense and the bullpen. Bader in CF, Cowser in LF and another top arm in the pen would alleviate many of those concerns.
I liked many of the moves Elias made. I also like many of the moves he turned down. That said, I think he could have built a roster that made more sense, one that made the team strong in areas needed in the playoffs and one that provided more upside.
Many of the moves were made to raise the team’s floor. This team was always only going to go as far as the existing players allowed it to go. This team can win the World Series or it can miss the playoffs. How players like Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Holliday, Westburg, Samuel Basallo, Gunnar Henderson, Cowser and Adley Rutschman perform will go a long way to determining how good this team is.
Personally, I believe this is a playoff team capable of doing great things, but I also think it’s a flawed roster that could have been put together better than it was. I am hoping for some more moves to alleviate some of the concerns I outlined above and I expect them to be active during the season as well.
Looking forward to baseball starting and getting the boys back out there!