The 2025 season hasn’t gone according to plan for the Baltimore Orioles.

At 19-36, the O’s have dug themselves quite a hole to kick off the campaign. Time is not their friend. 

As the calendar rapidly approaches June, expectations from the offseason feel distant. A great comeback is still possible, but Baltimore is heading toward the middle innings down a handful of runs. 

This week on “The Bird’s Nest,” Annie Klaff and I zoomed in. Expectations, hopes and goals must be modified as circumstances change. The standings are what they are, and now, pose a new question: what does a “successful” rest of the year look like? 

That’s the question we attempted to tackle. With a quick rundown of our thoughts here, you can find more in-depth analysis in our latest episode: https://masn.me/c9bhmg4f 

SEATTLE – As lost as they looked at the plate Tuesday night against Logan Evans, the Nationals could not have looked more comfortable when they dug in this evening against George Kirby.

As labored as his recent starts against a number of opponents had felt, Trevor Williams could not have looked more in control tonight when he faced the same Seattle lineup that exploded for nine runs the previous night.

Baseball’s a funny game sometimes, and perhaps it has caused even more head-scratching for the 2025 Nationals than ever before. Because it’s hard to know which version of this team is going to show up on any given night. But when the good version does report for duty as it did tonight in a 9-0 pasting of the Mariners, it sure is fun to watch.

Behind four solo homers from Luis García Jr., Josh Bell, James Wood and Robert Hassell III (the first of his career) and six scoreless innings from Williams, the Nats cruised to an easy victory only 24 hours after they were dominated in the series opener.

"There's always going to be a tomorrow," García said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. "So you have to erase what happened the last day, come in here, work hard and get the win."

Left-hander Cade Povich doesn’t know whether he’s pitching for his spot in the Orioles rotation. Trevor Rogers can be recalled from Triple-A Norfolk at any time after serving as the 27^th man in Saturday’s doubleheader in Boston and tossing 6 1/3 scoreless innings with two hits in Game 2. Zach Eflin, Dean Kremer and Charlie Morton are confirmed for the weekend series against the White Sox.

Having off-days Thursday and Monday gives interim manager Tony Mansolino and his staff the freedom to bump, skip or just stay in turn.

Povich can look like he won’t budge, as he did tonight in the first three innings, but the immovable object got knocked around after that in the Orioles’ 6-4 loss to the Cardinals before an announced crowd of 14,491 at Camden Yards.

A two-run fourth and three-run fifth spun the game in the Cardinals’ favor. The Orioles left 10 runners on base and lost their 12^th series. Their record is 19-36.

Povich allowed five runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings, walking three batters and tying his season high with nine strikeouts. He struck out the side in the third inning to give him six - on three fastballs, a sinker, curveball and sweeper. Lars Nootbaar led off the game with a single and the Cardinals didn’t have another hit until Masyn Winn’s leadoff single in the fourth.

SEATTLE – Cade Cavalli is nothing more than a minor league pitcher these days, no longer injured, no longer rehabbing, just trying to earn his way back to the major leagues. The way he’s pitching, he’s starting to make a compelling case for a promotion to D.C.

Cavalli dominated over five innings today for Triple-A Rochester, shutting out Columbus on three hits and a walk while striking out 10. It was the latest, and best, outing for the Nationals’ 2020 first-round pick in his prolonged quest to return from Tommy John surgery more than two years ago.

“I saw the reports,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I heard he threw really well. Ten strikeouts in five innings, which is awesome. That’s great for us, as well.”

Cavalli, who made his one and only major league start in August 2022, had elbow ligament reconstruction surgery in March 2023 and has been trying to make it back ever since. He spent all of 2023 and 2024 on the big league injured list, plus the first 45 days of this season before the club deemed him healthy and optioned him to Triple-A (where he was already pitching on a rehab assignment).

Now that he’s on a regular throwing regimen, Cavalli seems to be finding a groove. Over his last three starts, he’s allowed two total runs across 14 innings, striking out 23 while issuing only three walks.

SEATTLE – Tuesday night’s series opener went about as badly as it could have gone from the Nationals’ perspective. Mitchell Parker put them in an early hole, the lineup never seriously threatened to come back and the bullpen expanded the deficit to the point it became a 9-1 rout by the Mariners.

So they’ll try all over again tonight and see if they can’t get back on track. As always, the pressure to score first is significant, and the stats confirm it. When they score first the season, the Nats are 18-7. When the opponent scores first, they’re 6-23. That’s an awfully extreme difference.

Can a lineup that managed one run (a James Wood solo homer) Tuesday night against Logan Evans do more tonight against George Kirby? Davey Martinez is trotting out the same lineup in hopes of better results.

Meanwhile, Trevor Williams desperately needs to put together a solid start himself, even if that means only five innings. The veteran right-hander enters with a 6.39 ERA and has surrendered at least four runs in each of his last five starts.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SEATTLE MARINERS
Where: T-Mobile Park
Gametime: 9:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 75 degrees, wind 10 mph out to center field

Orioles pitcher Kyle Bradish is halfway through his bullpen progression and fully expecting to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list by August.

Bradish threw a 35-pitch side session on Monday, used everything in his arsenal and reported that he’s “feeling really good.”

The Orioles want Bradish to begin throwing live batting practice at the beginning of July, followed by an injury rehab assignment in the minors. He hasn’t pitched for them since undergoing ligament-reconstructive surgery on his right elbow in June 2024.

Bradish made eight starts last season after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow in January, posting a 2.75 ERA and 1.068 WHIP in 39 1/3 innings. He shut out the Rays on one hit over six innings in his penultimate start and allowed two runs in five innings against the Phillies before the Orioles shut him down.

Standing at his locker this afternoon, Bradish explained why he’s confident in his chances of getting back into the rotation after the break.

SEATTLE – The only change the Nationals have made to their rotation through the season’s first two months was related to injury. When Michael Soroka strained his right biceps muscle in his first start of the year, they turned to rookie Brad Lord to make six spot starts until Soroka was ready to return from the IL.

There have been zero moves made as a result of performance so far. But could the club be headed in that direction?

Mitchell Parker’s outing Tuesday night during a 9-1 loss to the Mariners brings that question back to the forefront. The left-hander was roughed up for three home runs in 4 2/3 innings, including back-to-back blasts by Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh in the bottom of the first. And this was merely the latest in a string of rough outings.

It feels like an eternity ago, but Parker opened the season 3-1 with a 1.39 ERA over his first five starts. He put fewer than one batter on base per inning during that stretch while surrendering only one home run.

Since then, it’s been a completely different story. Over his last six starts, Parker is 1-3 with an 8.46 ERA. He has put nearly two batters on base per inning during this stretch while surrendering five total home runs.

Ryan O’Hearn will celebrate home runs and drink from the hydration station like anyone else. He loves barreling the baseball, rattling seats, slapping hands with teammates at home plate and in front of the dugout.

But if you want to see him really get excited about an at-bat, wait until a pitch runs in on his fists.

“Probably my favorite kind of hits are jam-shot singles to left field,” he said yesterday, “especially with two strikes.”

O’Hearn is delivering every possible variety this season. He lined three singles to the opposite field Monday afternoon against the Cardinals at 104.4 mph, 85.1 mph and 85.2 mph. All of them on sinkers. He went 3-for-3 with a home run and walk Sunday in Boston, pulling a slider to right field for a single, launching a four-seam fastball 396 feet at 103. 2 mph for his eighth homer, and driving a changeup to the fence in right-center for a double that became a Little League home run after two Red Sox’s throwing errors.

He circled the bases again last night but in legit fashion, belting a three-run homer that gave the Orioles a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning. A first-pitch 94 mph fastball from Andre Pallante cleared the center field fence at 405 feet with an exit velocity of 106.1 mph. Only Cedric Mullins (10) has hit more home runs than O’Hearn, who collected his ninth last night.

SEATTLE – It’s one thing to be aggressive at the plate. It’s quite another thing to have so little success being aggressive at the plate and making no obvious adjustment to reverse that trend.

The Nationals have often shown that unfortunate propensity in recent seasons, and tonight they took it to new (and increasingly agonizing) lengths. During a 9-1 trouncing at the hands of the Mariners, they made quick outs early against Logan Evans, then continued to make quick outs against Seattle’s rookie starter and never did anything to fix it.

By the time Eduard Bazardo completed what Evans started, the Nats ensured tonight would rank among the most futile offensive efforts in club history: They saw 98 total pitches, tied for the 11th fewest they've seen in a nine-inning game over the last 20-plus seasons.

"We're trying to work and see pitches. But when he's like that and you know he's attacking like that, you've got to go up there and be ready to hit," manager Davey Martinez said of Evans, who threw 65 of his 88 pitches for strikes. "You might get just one pitch like that down the middle, and then all of a sudden you're fighting. Tip my cap to him. He kept going out there and kept throwing strikes."

The Nationals nearly failed to draw a walk for the third consecutive game, a distinction they had achieved only once before in club history (September 2016). Josh Bell’s free pass in the top of the eighth finally snapped their streak of impatience at 26 innings.

The managerial wheels were spinning inside Tony Mansolino’s head tonight in the first inning. The migraine didn’t set in until much later.

Tomoyuki Sugano escaped with only one run allowed against the Cardinals despite singles from four of the first five batters, but his opponent squeezed 32 pitches out of him. The count grew to 51 after the second, with Lars Nootbaar creeping halfway to the cycle with his two-run homer. Mansolino had to consider how the rest of the game would be covered if Sugano blew a chance to get deep into it.

Sugano gave up another single in the third as rain continued to fall, but he needed only six pitches to get back to the bench, and he retired the side in order on 11 in the fourth. Those early concerns were put to bed. The bigger worry was whether the Orioles could overcome the deficit.

They did after Ryan O’Hearn swatted a three-run homer in the fifth, but the Cardinals tied the game against Keegan Akin in the seventh and Nolan Arenado homered off Bryan Baker an inning later in a 7-4 victory over the Orioles before an announced crowd of 13,779 at Camden Yards.

Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker had back-to-back triples off Baker in the eighth on fly balls that the Orioles couldn’t track cleanly in wet conditions and with Cedric Mullins on the bench for the third time in four games. Heston Kjerstad failed to make a sliding grab on the track in right-center as Jorge Mateo approached the ball -  Statcast gave it a 95 percent catch probability - and Mateo stopped short of the center field fence and jumped too soon on Walker’s drive.

SEATTLE – The Nationals hope to have Kyle Finnegan available to them for tonight’s series opener against the Mariners, but the closer’s availability was still up in the air as the team took the field this evening for pregame workouts.

Finnegan hasn’t pitched in five days due to shoulder fatigue, a seemingly minor ailment that kept him from taking the mound in the ninth inning of Saturday’s 3-0 victory over the Giants. The Nats lost Sunday’s series finale, so there was no save situation, but it appears their closer would not have been available if they held a lead in the ninth.

Finnegan, who has never spent a day on the injured list in five-plus seasons in the big leagues, expressed confidence the ailment wasn’t serious and believed by mentioning it quickly he avoided any kind of long-term problems. But he still needs to pitch in a game until anyone can say for certainty.

“I’m not going to assume anything until he goes out there and actually throws,” manager Davey Martinez said. “Right now, I have high expectations that he will be able to pitch for us today. But if he doesn’t, we’ll see where he’s at. If he’s better than he was a few days ago, that’s a good sign. If he’s not, then we’ll have to sit down and talk to him and maybe do something else.”

Finnegan was set to throw pregame during batting practice and see how his arm felt. In addition to the physical sensation in his shoulder, the Nationals planned to pay attention to his mechanics for any sign of trouble.

SEATTLE – Hello from the Great Pacific Northwest, where the Nationals are making their bi-annual trip to face the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. It’s the first West Coast trip of the season, with a stop in Arizona coming up this weekend before they head back home.

The Nats come here playing better baseball of late but still quite a bit inconsistent at the plate. After scoring 37 runs during their five-game winning streak against the Orioles and Braves, they scored only five runs while losing two of three last weekend to the Giants. Most notably, they drew zero walks Saturday or Sunday.

This is important, because the Nationals now face a Mariners club that boasts a solid 3.69 ERA as a team. Their bullpen is even better, with a 3.43 ERA. And get this: Seattle is a perfect 21-0 when leading after seven innings this year, 24-0 when leading after eighth. The Nats have shown a propensity for coming from behind late, but this might be the wrong opponent to try to pull off that kind of magic against.

It's Mitchell Parker on the mound tonight, looking to build off a solid start last time out against the Braves. He’ll be opposed by right-hander Logan Evans, who makes the sixth start of his career, having gone 2-1 with a 3.33 ERA through his first five.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SEATTLE MARINERS
Where: T-Mobile Park
Gametime: 9:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 69 degrees, wind 9 mph in from left field

Cedric Mullins and Adley Rutschman remain out of the Orioles’ lineup tonight against the Cardinals.

Mullins hasn’t started in three of the last four games. Jorge Mateo is in center field.

Chadwick Tromp makes his first start behind the plate.

Dylan Carlson is in left field after homering yesterday for the second time in two games. His 107.6 mph exit velocity was the hardest-hit home run of his career.

Carlson is 5-for-12 over his last three games after going 1-for-22.

As part of their 20th anniversary celebration, the Nationals invited a number of former players to attend spring training for a few days a piece and serve as guest instructors. The list included familiar faces who have come back frequently over the years (Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond) and some who hadn’t been back at all since retiring (Drew Storen, Danny Espinosa).

Perhaps the ex-National who drew the most attention in West Palm Beach, though, was Jayson Werth. Because while everyone who showed up this spring made a point to say something to the current team, Werth made a point to really say something. Something that appears to have resonated with everyone who was there to hear it.

Two months later, Werth was back at Nationals Park over the weekend, joining Howie Kendrick for the team’s “Mystery Bobblehead” giveaway. He was asked if he could share anything about his spring training speech, and the 46-year-old former outfielder smiled wide and proceeded to tell the story. It’s a bit convoluted, but it makes sense when you get to the end.

Werth began by telling everyone about a critical moment during his playing career: the summer of 2007, when he was an injury-prone 28-year-old trying to make it with the Phillies after previously playing for the Orioles, Blue Jays and Dodgers. Right around the trade deadline that season, starting outfielders Shane Victorino and Michael Bourn both suffered injuries. That opened a spot in the lineup for Werth, who was just coming off the IL himself.

Philadelphia general manager Pat Gillick pulled Werth aside and told him in no uncertain terms this was going to be his last chance to play full-time in the big leagues.

The Orioles have won three games in a row for the first time in 2025, which is cause for celebration.

You can break open the bubbly or watch me bust into the mailbag. One can lead to questionable behavior, the other is filled with questions that I attempt to answer in the latest sequel to the beloved 2008 original.

I don’t edit unless your grammar is as bad as the Cardinals’ infield defense yesterday. Also, my mailbag turns double plays and your mailbag turns left in a right-turn-only lane.

Here we go.

Was firing Brandon Hyde the right decision?
Well, that didn’t take long. How can we truly know? We aren’t armed with the exact reasoning beyond how the team has played below expectations since June 2024. We don’t really know who initiated it. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be David Rubenstein or Mike Elias. But does the front office and ownership think the 2025 season is salvageable and that’s why the firing came so quickly, or is it more about deciding that Hyde wasn’t going to be retained next season and there was no reason to wait? I’ll say that it’s unfair, but that’s typical. Life is unfair. Good people get let go on the reg. You can’t fire 26 players. Hyde didn’t lose the clubhouse. Not even close. He followed orders from above, consuming analytical data by the spoonful. He didn’t become a liability with his in-game decisions. His biggest sin, which ultimately cost him, was the failure to win. Period. That wasn’t an issue during the rebuild, but it became a job killer.

Cedric Mullins is out of the Orioles’ lineup today, with Dylan Carlson getting the start in center field.

Interim manager Tony Mansolino kept Mullins and Jackson Holliday on the bench Saturday in Game 2 and said, “Just over the course of the season, there’s little nick-nack things that kind of happen. We were doing the best we could to stay away from them.”

Mullins started Sunday.

Holliday is leading off today, followed by Ramón Urías as the designated hitter. Gunnar Henderson is third.

Ryan Mountcastle is batting cleanup, Ryan O’Hearn is in right field and batting fifth, and Heston Kjerstad is in left field and batting seventh.

Yaramil Hiraldo was a non-roster invitee to Orioles spring training who didn’t pitch in an exhibition game. He was included in an early round of cuts on March 2, his name buried behind outfield prospects Enrique Bradfield Jr., Dylan Beavers and Jud Fabian and major league reliever Colin Selby.

One of them is with the club this week – the reliever who was out of affiliated ball since 2021, pitching in Mexico and the independent Atlantic League until the Orioles signed him on Oct. 31.

Hiraldo had his contract selected on Saturday when the Orioles designated veteran left-hander Cionel Pérez for assignment in a bold bullpen move. He posted a combined 2.45 ERA in 11 games between Triple-A Norfolk (six), High-A Aberdeen (three) and Double-A Chesapeake (two).

“I found out during a practice day and they told me I was gonna come up to Boston and be on the taxi squad,” Hiraldo said via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “They told me to just be ready. There’s a chance I could be on the roster, a chance I might not be on the roster. And sure enough, it happened. So I’m here now, I’m ready to go and ready to help the team.”

There are plenty of interesting success stories floating around baseball. Albert Suárez provided a doozy with the Orioles. Hiraldo received a paltry $2,500 bonus from the Diamondbacks during the international signing period in 2017-18, the 11^th lowest among 1,176 players, according to baseball journalist Francys Romero. His adjusted salary with the Orioles is $523,008, per Spotrac.

Injuries happen over the course of a 162-game season. There’s no avoiding it. Teams need to be prepared.

Organizational depth plays a key role in a team’s success over the course of the six-month season. You need quality players as backups, ideally ones that play in a similar fashion as the players you hope you don’t, but inevitably do, lose to injury.

So when the Nationals had to place Dylan Crews (left oblique strain) and Jacob Young (left shoulder AC sprain) on the injured list last week, they were happy to have two prospects ready to fill the roster spots.

Robert Hassell III and Daylen Lile, ranked as the Nats’ Nos. 11 and 9 prospects, respectively, per MLB Pipeline, have had their moments in their short stint in the majors so far. The tools that have made them some of the highest-rated prospects in the farm system have been on display in their quick swings, speed on the basepaths and glovework in the outfield.

Sure, they may need more seasoning at the plate. After becoming the first National to record a multi-hit game and a stolen base in his major league debut, Hassell is hitless in his last three games. Lile is 2-for-8 in his first three major league games after only 18 games at Triple-A Rochester.

So far in this series between the Nationals and Giants, one team scores and the other does not. That was the case in each of the first two games that the squads split via shutouts.

Surely, that meant they were destined for more offensive output in Sunday’s finale in front of an announced crowd of 31,581 at Nationals Park, right?

Early on, it seemed that way. But the Nats were unable to overcome an early deficit in an eventual 3-2 loss to the Giants, giving Washington its first series loss in the last three matchups.

After MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin pitched quality starts in the first two games of this three-game set, it was Michael Soroka’s turn to attempt to get deep in the game and give his team a chance at a win.

Soroka cruised through his first inning, throwing seven of eight pitches for strikes. But he labored over the next two frames to bring his pitch count to 60 after just three innings.

BOSTON – Cooper Hummel exercised the opt-out clause in his contract with the Yankees shortly after midnight Wednesday, didn’t see a path back to the majors and was minutes away from agreeing to a minor league contract – one person described it as “pen to paper “ - when the Orioles called his agent.

Baseball can tug at a player’s emotions and pull him in many unexpected directions.

The Orioles signed Hummel to a one-year deal and brought him to Fenway Park for today’s game. They sought a corner outfielder with Colton Cowser, Tyler O’Neill and Ramón Laureano on the injured list.

“The last few days were kind of a whirlwind for me. I’m excited for this,” he said this morning.

Hummel, 30, has appeared in 66 games with the Diamondbacks, 10 with the Mariners and six with the Astros over the past three seasons. He’s played left and right field in the majors and also caught in 18, and he brings corner infield experience from the minors.