Hello, friends.
Are you ready to start to think about the 2027 Orioles? This isn’t a statement about the team’s postseason chances. Rather, MLB released the regular season schedules for every team for next year, setting Orioles Opening Day for March 25 for a season that will run through September 26. That’s early!
The looming expiration of baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement at the beginning of December does mean there is a certain amount of optimism in thinking that the season will actually
begin on that date. The owners are going to lock out the players as soon as the deal expires, which will put a halt to player movement until there is a new deal reached.
There is a lot of doomerism that goes around regarding whether there will even be a 2027 season. I don’t go in for that. I think it will probably look a lot like it did the last time around, five years ago. It will take the soft deadline of spring training starting up and regular season games being imperiled to solve whatever brinksmanship is going on. The last round of negotiations actually saw the league cancel a week’s worth of games before later deciding, no, we’ll still play 162, just the scheduled first week will happen last instead.
That’s going to make for a boring December and January for people who like to follow the flow of a baseball offseason. There will be no player movement during the lockout period. No major league free agent signings, no trades. Orioles fans are used to this already from Mike Elias’s typical offseason behavior, though that joke is a bit more stale after Elias did do some major moves over the last offseason.
The situation will probably feel apocalyptic up until the calendar hits February and they start to get serious with the negotiation. If the owners feel like they have leverage as the situation winds to its conclusion, that will probably result in worse things happening to the game of baseball overall. If the players end up with the upper hand, they may be able to make things a little better for themselves. Once a deal comes together, there will be a frantic week or two before players report for spring training, then everything can go from there.
Or at least that’s my guess. Despite my inherent pessimism, things often go worse than I figure they will. This would hardly be the first time. The 2026 Orioles season so far is another such example. I didn’t have high hopes for these dudes, and they’re still disappointing me. It won’t be the last time either.
The non-mathematical second half starts in Houston at 8:10 tonight. We’ll start to find out if they can rally out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves early on. It’s not as deep of a hole as last year, but it’s still a hole and they’re going to have to keep playing well to get out of it. On Thursday evening, the Orioles announced the rotation coming out of the break. Dean Kremer starts tonight, with Trevor Rogers on Saturday and Kyle Bradish on Sunday.
The Orioles also made the roster move putting Blaze Alexander on the injured list yesterday. The team recalled infielder Christian Encarnacion-Strand from Triple-A Norfolk as the corresponding move. The 26-year-old righty batter has played in parts of three MLB seasons before this, compiling a .233/.275/.404 batting line with spotty defensive numbers, mostly at first base. He’ll fit right in. He’s posted a .273/.309/.555 line with the Tides, knocking 17 homers in 61 games. If he hits a lot of homers in a short span for the Orioles, we’ll probably like him. First impressions are worth a lot.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Pondering the future of Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias (Baltimore Baseball)
Headlines like this one appearing in outlets like this one do make me feel like there could be a change if things don’t stay on a better course by season’s end.
Orioles arms need to keep pitching in for second half run (School of Roch)
Kind of as a companion to the above, one thing that will keep Elias from getting fired is if the pitchers that he has assembled deliver better collective results than they did before the break.
Replacement-level killers: Center field, left field (FanGraphs)
The Orioles check in for having the second-worst center field situation of any contending team. If Colton Cowser was hitting overall, this would not be so bad. But, he’s not.
How Blaze Alexander adjusted his swing to become one of MLB’s top bats (The Baltimore Sun)
Let’s just be plain, Alexander isn’t one of MLB’s top bats under any range of “top” that I’d accept. He did very well from May 1 until his injury, though, and his absence is going to be felt. Hopefully the team can manage to get a couple of its still-struggling guys to find adjustments that will work for them too.
Favor to ask MLB: Please start doing better in marketing your young talent (Steve on Baseball)
Steve Melewski thinks that the timing of the draft and Futures Game were not very good. He’s correct. It’s a shame that MLB is burying these events.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1991, Sam Horn set a record by becoming the first position player to strike out six times in a row within the same game. This lamentable feat occurred over the course of a 15-inning Orioles loss to the Royals.
There is one lone former Oriole who was born on this day. Happy 32nd to Josh Lester, who appeared in 11 games for the 2023 Orioles.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Declaration of Independence signer, 5th vice president, and enduring congressional district-shaping namesake Elbridge Gerry (1744), actor James Cagney (1899), pianist Vince Guaraldi (1928), longtime German chancellor Angela Merkel (1954), and DJ Darude (1975).
On this day in history…
In 1203, soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, who had been organized to capture Jerusalem, assaulted Constantinople instead, sending the Byzantine emperor of the time, Alexios III Angelos, into exile.
In 1453, the final battle of the Hundred Years War was waged as the English and French clashed in Castillion. The French victory in this battle led to England losing all possessions on the continent except for Calais. It took until October for the war to officially end.
In 1821, Spain transferred control of Florida to the United States.
In 1918, deposed Russian tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family were executed while being held in captivity in Yekaterinburg.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on July 17. Have a safe Friday. Go O’s!
