{"id":525860,"date":"2026-01-18T01:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T01:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/525860\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T01:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T01:21:16","slug":"orioles-offseason-praised-by-mlb-writer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/525860\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles Offseason Praised By MLB Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/teams\/mlb\/baltimore-orioles\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Baltimore Orioles;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Baltimore Orioles<\/a> have done as much as anyone in the American League East to improve their roster this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Baltimore\u2019s blockbuster addition was first baseman Pete Alonso, but they\u2019ve also brought back right-hander Zack Eflin and added right-hander Ryan Helsley, right-hander Shane Baz, and outfielder Taylor Ward, among other moves. Who knows, they might not be done, either.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This all got Bleacher Report\u2019s Zachary D. Rymer thinking this week as he rated the best offseasons in Major League Baseball. Rymer had the Orioles at the top of his list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlonso is the perfect guy to bring some life and leadership to an offense that didn\u2019t have much of either last year,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25355918-mlbs-5-best-and-worst-offseasons-so-far-ranked\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Rymer wrote;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Rymer wrote<\/a>. \u201cHe and Ward could add as many as 70 home runs to the mix, thus returning Baltimore\u2019s offense to the slugging splendor it enjoyed in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBaz is in the post-hype section of his career, but his stuff is still lively and he was healthy enough to make 31 starts last season,\u201d Rymer continued. \u201cIf he\u2019s a No. 3 behind Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish, that\u2019s how you know Baltimore\u2019s rotation could be good. In the bullpen, Helsley will need to be the guy that F\u00e9lix\u00a0Bautista used to be for the Orioles. It\u2019s perfectly permissible to be bullish, as Helsley was still throwing 100 mph with a nasty slider even in a down year in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Orioles missed the postseason in 2025 after making the playoffs in two consecutive seasons prior. They have a ton of young talent headlined by Gunnar Henderson, and the future is bright. Thanks to the past few months of deals, the present is also exciting for Baltimore.<\/p>\n<p>More MLB:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/01\/red-soxs-division-rival-named-likely-suitor-to-land-framber-valdez\/\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Red Sox\u2019s Division Rival Named \u2018Likely Suitor\u2019 To Land Framber Valdez;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">  Red Sox\u2019s Division Rival Named \u2018Likely Suitor\u2019 To Land Framber Valdez <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Baltimore Orioles have done as much as anyone in the American League East to improve their roster&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[1820,143,47,2538,5,916,1510,19,4,125,74,109,5144,5694,1362,9009,25140,69803],"class_list":["post-525860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-american-league-east","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-gunnar-henderson","tag-kyle-bradish","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-orioles","tag-pete-alonso","tag-ryan-helsley","tag-shane-baz","tag-taylor-ward","tag-the-orioles","tag-trevor-rogers","tag-zachary-d-rymer","tag-zack-eflin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115913482784260435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}