Good morning Birdland,
These Orioles sure do know how to wear out any goodwill they have built up with a quickness. Coming back from a successful road trip, which concluded with a streak-stopping win up in Boston, the O’s began their brief homestand with a brutal 7-6 loss to the visiting Braves. Yours truly was on recap duty for the humiliation.
There was good stuff buried within the loss. Trevor Rogers was great again, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand seems to have taken over the role of everyday
third baseman, for the moment anyway. Outside of that, it was tough. The bullpen wasn’t good enough. Jackson Holliday made a bad error. Craig Albernaz was misguided in pitching to Matt Olson. And the lineup, overall, failed to cash in on their many, many opportunities.
You never want to lose a game like that, but particularly this close to the trade deadline when you are already a few games outside of the final wild card spot. This team just doesn’t have that sort of wiggle room. The front office will have to choose a direction within the next couple of days. Falling too much further behind could be all they need to decide on selling.
For those amongst the fan base hoping that the silver lining of a losing season would mean that Mike Elias gets the boot, you may have to find something else to cling onto. Orioles control person David Rubenstein spoke to the media on Friday at Kyle Bradish’s contract extension press conference, and he was very complimentary of Elias. He described the team’s president of baseball operations as “terrific,” and said that he was “very, very happy” with the job Elias has done.
There are points in Elias’ favor, of course. He opened up the team’s operations in Latin America. He has gotten his owner to commit long term to several key players. And the team, at one point anyway, was playing really good baseball on the field. The last two seasons, however, have shaken that confidence. Injuries are a reasonable, but frustrating, excuse that every team deals with. At some point, they need to win more games, and the person in control of baseball decisions is who that falls to.
Links
Amid critical Trade Deadline stretch, Rogers hopes to stay and ‘help the boys win’ | Orioles.com
If the Orioles do decide to sell, Rogers might be the player they get the most for in return. He is back to pitching like an ace, which he also did for most of 2025. Will teams view him as such? Maybe not quite, but at least a playoff-caliber starter. That should be worth quite a bit on the trade market.
Jon Meoli: Why the Orioles’ trade deadline plans hinge on Trevor Rogers | The Baltimore Banner
As Meoli explains here, the Orioles need to play really good baseball from now through the end of September in order to even make the playoffs. Previous versions of Elias would have already started preparing to sell in the next week or so.
Orioles’ Bradish reflects on extension: ‘This is where I want to spend my future’ | Baltimore Baseball
I am personally very excited about the Bradish extension. The guy is so good, and while he is not technically homegrown (drafted by the Angels) he is as close as it gets. The Orioles have groomed him and helped him beat the projected ceiling of being a relief arm to become a Cy Young caliber starter. Between him and Shane Baz, they have two spots on the rotation sorted for the next half decade.
Orioles birthdays
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!
- Doug Drabek turns 64 today. He concluded his 13-season big league career with a tough 1998 campaign in Baltimore. That year he had a 7.29 ERA over 108.2 innings.
- The late Mickey Scott (b. 1947, d. 2011) was born on this day. The southpaw spent parts of two seasons in the Orioles bullpen, tossing 24.2 total innings for the team between 1972 and ‘73.
- The late Whitey Lockman (b. 1926, d. 2009) was born on this day. He played in 28 games for the 1959 Orioles, a relative blimp in his 15-season big league career.
This day in O’s history
The Baseball Reference tool that tracks events in baseball history was down when writing this, but maybe it’s back up by now. In any event, here are some happenings from beyond Birdland on this date:
1965 – Bob Dylan performs his first concert with an electric guitar. This takes place at the Newport Folk Festival.
1976 – Viking 1 takes the famous Face on Mars photo
1978 – Louise Joy Brown, the first human to be born after conception from in vitro fertilisation, arrives.
