The Orioles will need to show improvement in many areas next season, the only way to pull themselves out of the division cellar. It isn’t just pitching and it isn’t just hitting. It isn’t just the constant injuries that forced almost daily roster moves.
The 70 different players used were one short of the major league record set this year by the Braves, who started former Oriole Charlie Morton in their final regular season game. The 41 pitchers came within one of the American League record shared by the 2021 Orioles and 2019 Mariners. The 34 position players tied the franchise record set in 1955.
Even the seven catchers were unprecedented.
Everywhere you looked, the Orioles were doing something unusual. And it isn’t bragging rights when it happens for the wrong reasons.
Here’s another one:
The Orioles didn’t have a player reach 20 home runs in a full season for the first time since Jay Gibbons and Chris Richard led them with 15 in 2001. It’s occurred only five times. But the 2025 season was especially unique because three players tied for the team lead.
That was a first, according to STATS.
Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg finished with 17 home runs, one more than Colton Cowser. The 1911 St. Louis Browns also had three players, long before the franchise moved to Baltimore, when Joe Kutina, Paul Meloan and Jim Murray each hit three.
Art Griggs, Roy Hartzell, Patrick Newnam and Al Schweitzer hit two for the Browns in 1910, and Jesse Burkett, Charlie Hemphill, Tom Jones and Bobby Wallace hit two in 1904.
Major League Baseball suffered a power outage in those early years.
The Orioles tied for 11th in the majors this season with 191, compared to 235 in 2024 to rank second. But they were 17th with 183 in 2023 and managed to win 101 games and the American League East. You can't always bash your way past opponents.
The .235 average and .305 on-base percentage this season ranked 24th, and their .699 OPS was 21st. Their 24.2 percent strikeout rate was third worst. Their .234 average with runners in scoring position was tied for third lowest.
The home runs will increase if the Orioles get full, or fuller, seasons out of Tyler O'Neill and their core, and with Coby Mayo, Samuel Basallo, Dylan Beavers breaking camp with the team, but they also need to manufacture more runs. They must be able to play small ball when the situation calls for it.
“I’ll be honest with you on this one. I think our young players, I think we need to get better at that in a lot of ways. And to me, that’s a spring training thing,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said at the season-ending press conference.
“I think these guys have to be pushed in spring training to turn back the clock a little bit and have the ability to play more of an early ‘90s style of the game. It’s a really hard thing to do during the season to put that type of stuff in place when you’ve got some players who go through a minor league system or a college career and they don’t bunt a lot. It’s hard to ask them to do that off a guy who’s throwing 100 in the ninth inning for the first time. That version of the game, that is an area where I think the staff here in place next year can make it better, and the time to do that is spring training.”
Whoever is managing in 2026 will be on the same page with president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias and his staff.
“Look, this is a highly competitive league and game and division,” Elias said. “The team that finished last in our division last year just won and it just shows how small margins are, and you’ve got to stay on top of everything and be as good as you can be in all these different facets, and there’s just a lot that goes into it. And there’s constantly areas where you feel a little bit behind and you get a little bit better, and then over here something else develops, and there’s just so many fine points to the game that you’ve really got to stay on top of.
“It’s not up to me to get down there and dictate our fundamentals. That’s not my expertise. But we’ve got to put together stats and communication systems and people that have the right philosophies in all those areas and stay on top of it. So that’s something that the person in the managers chair, people in the front office, people in our ownership group, just everyone available who are experts in that area, we’re going to put a lot of time into getting organized and getting a little bit better next year.”