Did The Orioles Make a Critical Mistake? Baltimore Overlooked Key Area After Significant Offseason Moves

With Spring Training starting up, the Baltimore Orioles will be looking to make it three straight years of appearing in the postseason.

For the last two seasons in the American League, no team has been able to win as many regular season games as the Orioles. However, in 2024, injuries got the best of the upstart team from Baltimore, resulting in a wild card round elimination from the postseason.

Coming into the winter, the hope was that the Orioles would start to spend some money after years of not doing so. With new ownership taking over, Baltimore did finally start to open their wallets.

They signed some notable names for the lineup in Gary Sanchez, Tyler O’Neill, and recently Ramon Laureano.

In the starting rotation, they added two veteran arms Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano, who will be coming over from Japan.

Seeing the payroll increase substantially is a great sign for the future of Baltimore. However, while the Orioles did spend a good amount this offseason, they might have missed the most glaring need on the team.

The Athletic recently gave the Orioles an offseason grade of a ‘B’. However, they highlighted the one key area that they missed.

“The Orioles checked almost every offseason box, but the one miss is a big one. They doubled down on mid-rotation starters,” the site wrote.

Losing Corbin Burnes this winter was a significant blow to the top of the rotation. The ace went 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA with Baltimore last year.

The Cy Young winner was everything that the Orioles hoped he would be at the top of the rotation, but ultimately it didn’t result in them getting to where they wanted to go.

Now, while Baltimore has depth in the rotation, the Orioles are currently lacking an ace. This is something that likely won’t be addressed at this stage of the offseason. But they do have an internal option who is appealing.

Before getting hurt, Grayson Rodriguez was having an excellent campaign. His injury in the second half of the year certainly contributed to some of the struggles after the All-Star break.

If the right-hander can take a step forward and become the ace of the staff, that would go a long way toward helping replace Burnes. However, despite success, he still has a lot to prove.

Since Baltimore has a strong bullpen, depth in the rotation, and one of the best lineups in baseball, they should still win a lot of games.

However, when they will be missing their ace and potentially regret not getting one this winter will be in the postseason.