Just a few weeks ago, Colton Cowser was one of the worst hitters in baseball. His weaknesses were well known, his playing time had become sporadic, and the Orioles were treating the former Rookie of the Year runner-up like a fourth outfielder, at best. Since then, he has caught fire and become a primary driver of the Orioles turnaround as a team.
It’s been a rough 20 months for Cowser. He broke his hand on October 2, 2024, swinging and missing at a pitch that hit him, in a game that would bring the
Orioles’ season to an end. It was a brutal way to conclude what had been an exciting rookie campaign for the outfielder. The 2025 season began with high expectations and almost immediately went off the rails for both the player and the team. Cowser broke his thumb in the first series of the season, not returning until early June. Shortly after being activated, Cowser broke two ribs, an ailment that plagued him for the rest of the season. His numbers for the year were ugly (.196/.296/.385), though he still played good defense and felt like a bounce back candidate coming into 2026.
Throughout the winter, the Orioles treated Cowser as the everyday solution in center field. The only competition they brought into the club was Leody Taveras, a serviceable veteran that was several years removed from his one standout season. It was Cowser’s job to lose. And boy, did he do that.
Through May 15 of this year, Cowser owned a .169/.270/.195 batting line with zero home runs, a 32.2% strikeout rate, and a 40 wRC+. He wasn’t the absolute worst hitter in baseball, but he was in the conversation. For an Orioles team that needed to squeeze every ounce of offense they could from their lineup, he became somewhat unplayable. Perhaps the only saving grace for Cowser was that his fellow outfielder, Tyler O’Neill, had been nearly as bad in that same stretch (69 wRC+). The everyday center field job had long been passed to Taveras, who was putting up solid numbers at the plate (112 wRC+), running the bases well, and playing good enough defense to earn the job, while Cowser fought for time in right field and regularly came in as a defensive replacement late in games.
The book on Cowser was out. As had long been the case, he was a patient hitter that was willing to take his walks. But when he did swing, especially at breaking balls and off-speed pitches, he would miss a lot. So, as a result, Cowser has been served up fewer and fewer fastballs as his career has progressed. That was a problem that only he could fix. While the evidence is limited, it does seem like he has made big strides in that department.
In April, Cowser was 0-for-17 with 11 strikeouts against breaking balls. In May, he improved to 6-for-19 with two home runs and six strikeouts against those pitches. So far in June, he is 1-for-4 with a home run.
As for off-speed pitches, he went 4-for-20 with eight strikeouts against them in April. That got even worse in May, when he got one hit in 12 at-bats. Only in June is he finally finding success against the offering, going 4-for-6 so far.
Fastballs have been an opposite experience. Through May, Cowser went 14-for-42 against fastballs. But he has just one hit in seven at-bats against the pitch so far this month.
The turnaround for Cowser started on May 17 against the Nationals. That was the day that saw him hit his first home run of the season. It came on an 87 mph slider from Miles Mikolas. Cowser deposited it into the right field bullpen in D.C., gave first base coach Jason Bourgeois a big high-five as he rounded the bag, and it looked like a massive weight came off of his shoulders. The outfielder has been on a roll ever since.
From that day on, Cowser is 18-for-50. That’s good for a .360/.411/.740 batting line with six home runs, a double, 15 RBI, five walks, and 13 strikeouts. That also includes a pair of walk-off home runs and several other clutch hits that have given the Orioles an opportunity to win games. His 214 wRC+ in that time frame is the best on the team and fifth best in all of baseball.
That hot streak has elevated Cowser’s season totals from dreadful to helpful. He now owns a 107 wRC+ on the year. The guy that was among the game’s worst is now seven percent better than league average just three weeks later. His .242/.324/.409 batting line for the season is only a touch worse than the numbers he put up back in 2024, when he seemed destined for stardom.
At the same time, Cowser has continued to be a contributor in the field. The Orioles have been using him more in right field, where he has shone well. His range and arm strength put him in the top 15 percent in the sport. While center field is still part of his repertoire, his skillset would seem to fit better in the corners on a day to day basis. If the Orioles do stay in the playoff picture into late July, that (along with Taveras’ form at the time) will likely impact their trade deadline moves.
Cowser’s return to form, alongside improved play from Coby Mayo at third base and the activation of Jackson Holliday at second base has, for the time being anyway, filled in what had been three black holes in the Orioles lineup. The next logical question will be how long they can any one of them keep it up.
Cowser can be a streaky player. He posted a 181 wRC+ in April of 2024 that papered over an otherwise bleak first half of that season (69 wRC+ in May, 91 wRC+ in June). Last year, he had a really good June (137 wRC+), which was probably the healthiest he was all season, and then struggled outside of that. While he is not going to be able to maintain this current level of production over multiple months, the hope is that whatever decline is coming won’t be as severe as some of his previous troughs have been.
There’s no way to ensure that Cowser will continue to adapt and improve. But this latest resurgence is encouraging, and the latest in a career-long trend of ups and downs for the former top prospect. Remember that his first cup of coffee in the big leagues back in 2023 was rocky to say the least. He went just 7-for-61 with 22 strikeouts and no home runs in that stretch. And yet he bounced back in 2024 to be one of the team’s most productive players.
Cowser’s importance to the Orioles can’t be overstated. The team was built with the intent being he would play center field every day. In that role he would provide above-average defense, display supreme discipline at the plate, and contribute to the team’s power resurgence. That hadn’t been the case until just recently. As Cowser has bounced back, so has the team overall. That’s not a coincidence. Both the player and the team deserve plaudits for grinding through the struggles and coming out on the other side. Now, they have to keep it going.
