A 90-Run Improvement and Still 82 Losses: Baltimore's Offseason Starts With the Rotation

The Baltimore Orioles finished 2026 at 79-82, and the strange part is that this constituted real progress. After a 75-87 season in 2025 in which they were outscored by 111 runs, the Orioles cut that deficit to minus-21 — a 90-run swing — and still missed the playoffs for the second straight year. That gap between "better" and "good enough" is the entire story of the offseason now underway in Baltimore.

The week's headline move was the front office. The Orioles hired Jared Banner away from the Cubs to serve as general manager under president of baseball operations Mike Elias, ending a search that had dragged publicly. The division of labor matters: the club announced Banner will oversee player development, coaching and performance, while working with Elias on staffing and acquisitions. That is a mandate pointed directly at the pipeline — the area where a team that once boasted a loaded farm system now needs results.

The rotation is the real item on the agenda

Baltimore's bats were never the mystery. The lineup hit .230 with a .304 on-base percentage and a .699 OPS, slugging 196 homers while striking out 1,488 times. That is a middling offense with power and a contact problem. The pitching staff ranked 11th in the majors in ERA, which sounds respectable until you notice the shape of it: a 3.84 bullpen ERA and a 1.18 bullpen WHIP propping up a starting group that couldn't get deep into games.

The home/road split tells the story more sharply than any season total. Baltimore posted a 3.92 ERA at home and a 5.21 ERA on the road. Whatever the rotation's true talent level, it did not travel.

Kyle Bradish shouldered the load and absorbed the damage: 155 innings, a 4.12 ERA, and a 7-14 record with a 1.46 WHIP and 70 walks. That is an innings-eater's workload with a command problem attached. Behind him, the depth thinned out badly. The deadline deals that sent Adley Rutschman to Boston and Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels removed two former cornerstones from the roster; Rodriguez's 6.02 ERA in 20 starts with his new club suggests the Orioles were not simply giving away value.

What 2027 has to answer

The internal pressure points are obvious. Gunnar Henderson played 158 games and hit .225 with a .712 OPS and 156 strikeouts — a steep fall from the .281/.364/.529 line he posted in 2024. Colton Cowser's OPS sat at .687. Jackson Holliday's was .640 across 98 games. If even two of those three return to form, the offense changes without a single external addition.

The injury list complicates the pitching plan further: Keegan Akin, Colin Selby, Ryan Mountcastle and Zach Eflin all finished the year on the 60-day IL.

There is a foundation here. Pete Alonso delivered 43 home runs, 113 RBI and an .885 OPS across 161 games, and his contract runs through 2030. The bullpen is a genuine asset. The power ranking placed Baltimore 16th at plus-0.123, a modest but real edge over an average team — and a marked climb from where the club sat earlier in the year.

What the Orioles have not done is convert a 90-run improvement into a playoff berth. Banner's arrival signals the organization believes the fix is developmental and systematic rather than a single splash. Whether that is enough depends on a rotation that needs arms, and on a young core that needs to stop sliding backward.