The unpredictable nature of baseball didn’t skip over the Orioles.

I guess we could have anticipated injuries and surgeries because they attach to the Orioles like barnacles. But here are a few of the many “didn’t see that one coming” moments from 2026 while we wait to find out the World Series matchup.

*The dynamic catching duo was separated after less than one full season.

Samuel Basallo made his major league debut on Aug. 17, 2025 in Houston, serving as the designated hitter. Adley Rutschman caught that day and went on the injured list with a right oblique strain that kept him out until Sept. 23.

Rutschman made two more stops on the IL this year and was traded to the Red Sox, who reinstated him on Aug. 11. Basallo was injured a day after Rutschman, leaving a July 19 game with right shoulder discomfort.

So much for the idea of alternating them between catching and DH duties, with Basallo also able to play first base. So much for wondering how they’d co-exist and whether they’d become the best catching tandem in baseball.

The position was supposed to be set, and especially with Basallo signing an eight-year, $67 million extension shortly after his arrival. Now, the Orioles are likely to be in the market for another catcher with more offensive upside than Carlos Narváez and Yohel Pozo.

No. 16 prospect Ethan Anderson and No. 28 Creed Willems probably aren’t immediate considerations but can build their respective cases in camp.

*Shane Baz finished with a career high in innings and losses.

The latter is easy to explain. It also isn’t as important. But still, it’s a number he’d rather not have attached to his name.

Would anyone?

Well, maybe Brian Kingman, who was 8-20 with the Athletics in 1980.

Baz went 6-15 with a 4.11 ERA in 31 starts, the most on the team and tying his career high, covering 179 2/3 innings. He was a popular teammate too often abandoned during his appearances.

Baz’s 3.46 run support average ranked as the third lowest among qualified major league pitchers after Michael Wacha (3.36) and Cam Schlittler (3.39). Schlittler went 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA in 33 starts.

The run support average for Baz was the lowest by a qualified Orioles pitcher since Kevin Millwood received 3.26 in 2010.

Meanwhile, Chris Bassitt’s 6.53 run support average was the eighth highest in the majors in a minimum 15 starts and third highest in the American League behind Tatsuya Imai (7.75) and Will Warren (6.58). Bassitt received at least six runs of support in four of his final six starts dating to Aug. 25, when he registered a 9.35 run support average that ranked as the best in the majors.

Bassitt’s 6.53 run support average was his highest mark since 2019 (6.69).

There’s no reason for any of it.

*Zach Eflin’s return was fleeting.

Eflin made three trips to the injured list in 2025, the last two because of back pain, and underwent a lumbar microdiscectomy in August. The Orioles re-signed him to a $10 million contract in December that included a $25 million mutual option and $2 million buyout.

Not only was Eflin ready to compete in spring training, he surprised many by winning the fifth starter’s job over Dean Kremer. However, he lasted only 3 2/3 innings in a March 31 game against the Rangers before exiting with elbow pain.

Not the back. The elbow.

Eflin had Tommy John surgery on April 8 in Dallas, which isn’t an ideal way to celebrate your 32nd birthday.

His lone outing marked the first time in Eflin’s 189 career starts that he went 3 2/3 innings or fewer while striking out at least seven batters. He became the fourth Orioles starter to do it after Dylan Bundy (twice), Yovani Gallardo and Daniel Cabrera.

On a more positive note, Eflin reached 10 years of major league service time in August. Bassitt accomplished the feat in May.

*Brandon Young took more than one step forward in 2026.

Young had a breakthrough season and kept the rotation from crumbling, posting a 3.56 ERA in 28 starts and earning votes for Most Valuable Oriole. I put him second behind Pete Alonso.

We can go on and on about a pitcher’s record being inconsequential, but it’s interesting to me that Young was 9-6 (.600) in his second major league season after going 1-7 (.125) in 2025.

According to STATS, Young’s plus-.475 increase in winning percentage was the seventh largest in major league history from a pitcher’s first season to his second in a minimum 10 starts each year behind Buffalo/Detroit’s Stump Weidman (.615, 1880-81), St. Louis/Chicago’s Tommy Johnson (.568, 1937-38), Dayton/St. Louis’ John Williams (.545, 1926-27), Philadelphia/New York’s Joe Fillmore (.509, 1941-42), Colorado’s Yohan Flande (.500, 2014-15), and Atlanta’s  Steve Avery (.478, 1990-91).

How many of us had a Stump Weidman poster on our bedroom wall as a kid?

Young went 7-2 in 13 road starts, and his .778 winning percentage was tied for third highest in the American League in a minimum 10 games behind Schlittler and Dylan Cease, who both went 8-2.

Also, the Orioles were 19-9 (.679) in Young’s 28 starts, including an 18-5 (.783) record through his first 23 – the sixth time in team history that the Orioles have won at least 18 of a pitcher’s initial  23 starts of a season. The others were Dave McNally (1966, 1969), Cy Young Award winner Steve Stone (1980) and Chris Tillman (2013, 2016).

*The Orioles began the season by facing 17 right-handed starters in a row.

The previous record was 14 in 1975, before their matchup with the Tigers’ Mickey Lolich.

What are the odds that the probables line up like that again?

Former Orioles minor leaguer Eduardo Rodríguez broke the 2026 streak on April 15 when the Orioles faced the Diamondbacks. The Orioles lost the first nine games against lefties, the second-longest season-opening skid behind 1988, when they dropped the first 11.

Overall, the Orioles finished 24-27 this season in games started by an opposing left-hander.