What Do You Say To Orioles Fans?

Baltimore has suddenly become one of the sadder stories in Major League Baseball.

The Baltimore Orioles could still qualify for the 2026 MLB postseason. If the Orioles competed in the AL West rather than the AL East and had the same record they do now, they would be just 2.5 games back from leading the division. Postseason or not, the Baltimore Orioles are one of baseball’s biggest disappointments this season and beyond.

Let’s back up.

When your team first elects to tear the whole thing down, it can be a bit invigorating. This is particularly true if your team has been mired in mediocrity for a while. Going into this new NFL season, I’m searching for that same invigoration for my team, the Atlanta Falcons, who have gone 8-9 for what seems like nine years in a row. Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened in 2017, and the Falcons have hosted exactly zero playoff games in their new home. The 2027 quarterback class looks to be filled with potential franchise-changing quarterbacks, so here I am in Mid-August, hopeful the Falcons bottom out and the March For Arch is on for the next several months in Atlanta.

The Orioles have not won a playoff game since 2014. Baltimore fans have watched an AL East team advance to the World Series the last two falls with the New York Yankees in 2024 and the Toronto Blue Jays in 2025. This year in the AL East, it’s the Tampa Bay Rays who are having the kind of season Orioles fans hoped was possible coming into this season. Even the Boston Red Sox stunningly righted the ship over the summer. Playoffs or no playoffs, this season for Baltimore will be remembered as the year they traded star catcher Adley Rutschman.

There was not a more depressing trade this summer than the O’s electing not only to move a franchise centerpiece they took first overall a decade ago, but to move him to a division rival, the Red Sox. Rutschman, along with Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg, Sam Basallo, and Colton Cowser, were part of a seemingly never-ending cavalcade of future offensive talent. Is there anything more fun for a baseball fan of a team that isn’t traditionally one of the biggest spenders in the sport than building what looks to be the next great offensive core? On the flip side, is there anything more depressing for a baseball fan than it all not working out after all those years of waiting for the highly-touted prospects to arrive in the big leagues and prosper?

I do not wish for a long lockout in 2027, one where many games are lost. However, if there was ever a fanbase that could maybe use a year off, it’s the Baltimore Orioles fanbase.

Henderson has a 98 WRC+ this season. Holliday has a 105 WRC+. Cowser has a 95 WRC+. General manager Mike Elias traded two of the team’s top four hitters this season in terms of WAR ahead of this summer’s MLB trade deadline, Rutschman and Taylor Ward, but what is the plan for the team this winter and beyond? Baltimore no longer looks like the next great young team that features a lineup loaded with future multi-time All-Stars. Even more frustrating for O’s fans, Pete Alonso has proven to be worth every penny with his 141 WRC+ and 28 homers. Pair that production with what we thought Henderson and Rutschman and Holliday could all be, and, man, look out for the O’s.

I don’t know what you do if you’re a diehard O’s fan or what you do if you’re Elias. I imagine both the fans and the front office had dreams of a Houston Astros-like run of the last decade over the last couple of seasons. Instead, the Orioles are not a disaster, but they do not look to be a long-term sustainable juggernaut in the AL anymore, either. This is not a unique development for the Orioles.

This happens in the NBA all the time. The Orlando Magic are the closest recent example. They secured a No. 1 overall pick in Paolo Banchero. They have drafted well around him with guys like Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black and company. They added quality vets like Wendell Carter and Desmond Bane. It just hasn’t all come together as it has for the San Antonio Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder. Instead, the Magic are one of the most depressing situations in the sport.

The Orioles seemingly did everything right in their tear-down-and-rebuild strategy. How many baseball fans and analysts were not excited about this young core and this potentially potent everyday lineup across the last couple of seasons? Back then, time was on Baltimore’s side. Now, the clock is ticking once again on which direction the team should go and what they should do to try and be the next AL East team to win the pennant. Do they continue to ride with their young core, or was the Rutchman trade just the beginning of another hard reset in Baltimore? Either way, I feel for the O’s fans – their team is between a rock and a hard place, and I don’t know how they see their way out.