If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. But actually it’s been lots of them, and actually, the Orioles have been an offensively-challenged team all year.
Many fans seem to agree: Orioles pitching this season was flawed in concept: lots of okay pitchers; no ace; not much starter depth; lots of bullpen unknowns. But Orioles hitting, supposed to be a strength of the team, has turned out to be dismayingly flawed in execution: lots of good young hitters assembled together, surprisingly little output. This
month, only two teams are hitting worse than the Orioles, who just got swept by the Red Sox in four games.
A lot of it was bad luck: Gunnar Holliday started the season on the injured list. Jordan Westburg and Ryan Mountcastle have both missed time with lower body injuries. Colton Cowser was out for 35 days with a broken finger (!). Adley Rutschman has hit the IL twice with an oblique injury (different sides!).
Of course, once the team shipped off veteran position players Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramón Laureano and Ramón Urías at the July 31 Trade Deadline, the options got even worse: Ryan Noda, Greg Allen, Jordyn Adams.
But then they got better, with the call-ups of Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers.
What to make of all this? There are some patterns that emerge.
April
This was the month that set the Orioles on the path to nowhere. They hit .223 as a team, the worst of any team but LAA, the White Sox and Colorado. (That’s bad!)
The loss of several hitters was critical. One was Colton Cowser, who gamely but stupidly slid into the first base bag, hand-first, and broke his thumb. Gunnar Henderson missed a little over a week, and started slowly, hitting .228 in April. Jordan Westburg had a hamstring sprain. Tyler O’Neill took the first of three trips to the IL.
Other hitters really struggled. Gary Sánchez hit .100 in 35 at-bats. Laureano averaged .188, and Ryan Mountcastle .194.
May
Now, the offense was starting to get good, and then there was an epidemic of hamstring pulls (Ramón Urías, Cedric Mullins and Mountcastle). O’Neill went down with shoulder impingement, and Dylan Carlson was called up instead, this time for a long audition. Ramón Laureano also missed a little time with an ankle sprain.
Despite all the walking wounded, the team’s average went up to .250, 14th of 30 teams. They were slightly less good at taking walks and hitting for power, but the O’s were a middle-of-the-pack team on offense this month.
Ryan O’Hearn went nuts this month, hitting .365 with a .542 slugging. Laureano wasn’t far behind, at .348. The team’s least effective hitters were Kjerstad, Mullins and Adley, each averaging less than 200.
June
The hitting got better and better as the summer went on. This month, the O’s hit .253 and OPS’d .753. Both numbers were Top 10 among MLB teams. This was the month that made you think the O’s could actually push their way back into playoff contention.
Part of this was a bunch of outfielders coming back: Mullins, Cowser, and Laureano. Laureano hit .312 this month. Westburg was reactivated, too, and he was good immediately. Gary Sánchez was reactivated on June 14, and he was insane, averaging .354 with a .646 slugging and four home runs in 13 games. Gunnar Henderson was also “back,” hitting .326 in June.
On the negative side (because this season there always is one), Jorge Mateo was announced out for 60 days with elbow trouble. Heston Kjerstad was sent down, too. Adley Rutschman was put on the 10-day IL with an oblique, leading to a parade of catcher tryouts: Chadwick Tromp, Maverick Handley, Jacob Stallings, David Bañuelos and Alex Jackson, who’s ended up outlasting them.
July
July was this team’s best-hitting month all year, with a .257 average and .766 OPS that actually ranked sixth or seventh-best in all of baseball. The team made you think they had a chance at making the playoffs, but a four-game losing streak before the break put an end to that. Then they traded everybody. Alas. More what could have been’s.
In the meantime, Tyler O’Neill was activated on July 4, and flashed the power. Adley came back on July 28, cracking the .300 mark for a few weeks while he was healthy. Jacob Stallings was DFA’d, and we met Alex Jackson, instead.
August
August has been a pretty sad month. On July 31, the Orioles packed it in for the season, trading Mullins, O’Hearn, Laureano and Urías for prospects. It turns out that selling off four of your better hitters does not help your offense.
From a Top-10 offense over May-June-July, the Orioles plummeted back down to 27th, outranking only LAA and Cleveland when all is said and done. They’re hitting .217 and their power is nonexistent right now, with a lowly .352 slugging and .639 OPS.
This month has seen a lot of interesting names penciled into the lineup. It was the beginning of the Jeremiah Jackson experiment, which has been cool: he’s still hitting .324 in 76 PA’s. Good for Jackson!
We also saw every utility outfielder on the planet, it seemed like, including Daniel Johnson, Jordyn Adams, Greg Allen and Ryan Noda. None of them hit.
We also saw a little bit of Vidal Bruján and also some Vimael Machín. Neither helped the Orioles hit. Machín was DFA’d soon after.
On back-to-back nights, Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers got their call-up. That was actually exciting. Then we lost Adley again, along with Gary Sánchez, who’s out a lot longer with a knee. Jordan Westburg also went down with a sprained ankle.
So far this month, Dylan Beavers remains a bright spot, with a .344 average in his first ten games. Jordan Westburg, now back on the injury list, was hitting a solid .288. Ryan Mountcastle has been OK, albeit the power is missing, and so, too, is true for Gunnar, Colton and Adley: they all have average contact numbers but little power.
Some people have been really bad. Among the regulars, Carlson, Jackson Holliday, and Coby Mayo are all sub-Mendoza line.
Injuries/trades? Coaching?
***
One thing the offensive numbers show is that, despite the idea of persistent team-wide failure at the plate, this was actually an average-hitting team (I mean that as a compliment!) over the three months of May, June and July. Those numbers would have allowed the team to compete for the playoffs, but unfortunately April set them in a deep hole. The Trade Deadline buried them even deeper.
We’re only just starting to figure out what went wrong for the team this year, but it certainly includes a combination of injuries, poor play, and trades. Depending on which, we’ll get a better sense of whether heads will roll this offseason, or whether the team will opt for continuity in its coaching staff. I wouldn’t be surprised at either result.
