For most of my adult life, I have been able to count on receiving an Orioles calendar for Christmas from a well-meaning relative. When my grandmother was alive, she gave calendars to everyone, and since she passed, my mom has picked up the mantle. Christmas is a great time to get a calendar because I’d never bother to buy one for myself and when you receive it, it’s almost time to start using it. Pretty good.
The annual receipt of the calendar is a chance to reflect on the recent fortunes of the team
as well as its long-term outlook. In times of chaos and misfortune, the calendar is littered with players who aren’t even on the team any more, or if they are, you expect nothing good from them. When things are going well and there is continuity, it’s a banger every month.
Two years ago, the calendar-makers did about as well as they could do. As 2024 began, all twelve players chosen for a month were still on the Orioles. Eleven of the twelve were still on the Orioles as their month arrived. Last year, they missed by one, including Austin Hays for some reason. I feel that it is not too much to ask for the annual calendar to at least be able to reflect updates based on who has been traded (or acquired) in July. I know from experience that the calendar does not meet this ask regularly.
I want to emphasize that, like the 2025 Orioles, this is not a quality product. This year’s edition might be the lowest quality yet in terms of its potential to function as an actual calendar. Unlike the platonic ideal of a calendar where you get some kind of picture above the fold and a grid of the days of the month below the fold, the 2026 edition of the Orioles calendar has expanded the photo of the month’s chosen player to take up about 40% of the real estate on the bottom page, shrinking the available space to read the calendar and get some kind of practical use out of it.
On the back of the calendar is the standard disclaimer:
The publisher has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the data presented in this calendar edition. We cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions, or inconsistencies. Please note: All players were under contract at time of printing.
It may be the case that, similar to the singer of The Verve Pipe’s “The Freshmen”, they can’t be held responsible. Yet they can’t stop me from making fun of the weak effort they’ve put into this year’s calendar. Let’s get to it.
January – Cedric Mullins
Right out of the gate, a swing and a miss. Even the 2025 Orioles managed to win on Opening Day. Alas, there was not even some basic level of oversight on this calendar that would have clued someone in to the fact that Mullins was always going to be a free agent following the 2025 season and was never likely to be under contract in 2026. Nor was there a final accounting on August 1 of the fact of who was traded away.
This is not the most egregious misfire I’ve ever seen in the history of the calendar. The go-to example for that is the inclusion of Rodrigo López on the 2008 Orioles calendar. López was traded in January of 2007.
Will he still be on the team for his month? We already know that the answer is no.
February – Yennier Cano
This is the second consecutive year of Cano appearing on the calendar. This made sense when he appeared last year, since he had been great in 2023 and not bad in 2024, but things fell apart in 2025 and he finished with an ERA over 5. The Orioles haven’t signed enough guys to definitively push him out of the picture for 2026, and he does figure to at least open spring training with the team. If this year is going to go better than last, they are going to need to do better than this.
Will he still be on the team for this month? Highly likely. You don’t have to be happy about it.
March – Grayson Rodriguez
In last year’s edition of the calendar, Rodriguez appeared in December. I confidently asserted that of course Rodriguez would still be on the team for that month. Mike Elias got me pretty good, trading Rodriguez to the Angels in November for Taylor Ward. This was after a season where Rodriguez ultimately did not pitch at all, bouncing between elbow and lat soreness that he hopes will be resolved now that he’s had bone chips removed from his throwing elbow. I continue to think that Elias must not believe Rodriguez will bounce back after the surgery, or else he wouldn’t have traded him for one year of a two-win player.
Will he still be on the team for this month? Nope. I don’t blame the calendar-makers for not being able to get this one right, though.
April – Adley Rutschman
Oh, Adley. What has been going on with you? We’re all so interested in knowing what is at the root of the poor hitting that’s now plagued him for about a season and a half worth of baseball. Dating back to July 1, 2024, Rutschman is batting .209/.294/.332. That sucks! His inability to rebound from the second half of the 2024 season was one of the problems that afflicted the 2025 team. Even with Samuel Basallo – not on the calendar – having gotten the contract extension last August, Rutschman remains important to the 2026 team.
Will he still be on the team for this month? Though some fans have spent the offseason imagining a Rutschman trade is inevitable, he remains important to the 2026 Orioles and I think as long as he’s healthy he’ll start the season with the team.
May – Gunnar Henderson
Probably the safest bet of any of these players to have still been on the team. Henderson was yet another Oriole whose 2025 performance lagged his previous career best. Even this down year for Gunnar was good for 5+ bWAR, which is certainly impressive, but the Orioles are going to need more than 17 home runs from him in the 2026 campaign. If he can avoid missing a big chunk of spring training due to an oblique injury or any other injury, that would be great.
Will he still be on the team for this month? I don’t even want to think about what would have to happen for the answer to be no.
June – Kyle Bradish
Bradish returning from his Tommy John surgery with six starts last year that made it look a lot like he was picking up where he left off pre-surgery was one of the things about the season’s final month where you could maybe kinda-sorta feel like better things would be coming in 2026 for the team. Bradish should be the Opening Day starter as things stand now and might even still be the guy even if the Orioles sign or trade for another starting pitcher.
Will he still be on the team for this month? Same as the answer for Henderson with May.
July – Zach Eflin
The calendar-makers catch a lucky break here, with Eflin being brought back by the team as a free agent just within the last week. Eflin was one more Oriole who was either hurt or bad for the whole season of 2025. When he pitched, he wasn’t good, and when he was hurt, worse pitchers got those starts. Elias is betting on a rebound in 2026, which may not be an awful bet to make after Eflin has – he says – addressed career-long back pain with the surgery he got in August.
Will he still be on the team for this month? I feel safe saying yes.
August – Ryan Mountcastle
For several years now on this website, I have been writing of Mountcastle that he’s either going to need to get better or the Orioles will have to decide they want better from their 1B/DH. They have kept on rolling with Mountcastle, with Mountcastle not getting better, until earlier this offseason when they signed Pete Alonso. This signing feels like it is going to displace either Mountcastle or Coby Mayo from the roster entirely, but for now, the status quo remains.
Drafted in 2015, Mountcastle is the longest-tenured player in the organization right now and one of just three players (along with Dean Kremer and Keegan Akin) who can trace their MLB time with the team as far back as 2020.
Will he still be on the team for this month? With apologies to Mounty, I sure hope not.
September – Jackson Holliday
We all got kind of spoiled by Manny Machado being a difference-maker when he debuted in his age 19 season in 2012 and followed that up with a Gold Glove win and a perfectly capable bat in his first full season. Holliday’s start of his career was rockier, and while he showed marked improvement in 2025, he’s still got a way to go to achieve the kind of stardom you might have hoped for when he rocketed to the top of prospect lists while racing his way up towards MLB less than two years after being drafted.
Worth noting: Of the three other players who were drafted out of high school ranks along with Holliday in the top 5 of the 2022 draft, only one has gotten as high as Double-A at this point. The other two remain in A-ball.
Will he still be on the team for this month? Yes, unless something absolutely crazy happens.
October – Jorge Mateo
Mateo was hitting .180/.231/.279 when he was hurt in early June and he missed three months. Somebody somewhere should take note of that and adjust the tentative calendar plans. My wife, who has been on the #TeamMateo bandwagon for some time, will be glad he’s gotten a featured month, though she’s sad he’s off the roster.
Will he still be on the team for this month? Mateo remains a free agent, so it is technically possible he could still end up with the Orioles on a minor league deal and find his way back into the major league roster mix.
November – Jordan Westburg
It’s been easy to view Westburg as the ultimate glue guy over the last two seasons, with the team doing well when he plays and doing poorly when he doesn’t. That was stark in 2024, as the Orioles went 63-44 in Westburg starts and only 28-27 without him. The narrative wasn’t quite as clean in 2025, as the team wasn’t good solely from adding Westburg, though the “with Westburg” split is still better: 40-44 with him compared to 35-43 without. For him it’s about staying healthy rather than playing better.
Will he still be on the team for this month? It is tough to come up with a scenario where he’s not.
December – Colton Cowser
The past year was dismal for Cowser between his self-inflicted early-season injury and his playing like crap from July onward. A classic “hope that a now-healed injury was the explanation” scenario, as we did learn very late in the season that Cowser had been playing through fractured ribs following a June 12 collision with an outfield wall. As things stand right now, he seems to be the team’s everyday center fielder, a fact that I’m honestly trying not to think about too much as I look for reasons to be more excited about 2026.
Will he still be on the team for this month? One could sketch out a scenario that makes Cowser redundant to the roster: Dylan Beavers wins the Rookie of the Year, Tyler O’Neill is healthy and good, Enrique Bradfield Jr. arrives, Nate George keeps racing up the minors. Is it very likely that all of these occur? No. So I think Cowser will still be around.
**
We begin the year with 9/12 months having a player who is actually still on the Orioles. They got really lucky with Eflin re-signing to bump them up from 8/12. I don’t think all nine of them will still be with the O’s by season’s end, but as it stands right now, the only players on track for post-2026 free agency out of this group are Eflin and Mountcastle. We’ll see through 2026 how many more roster surprises Elias has in store that impact our assumptions about who will be on the team for the medium-term future.
