Baltimore Orioles Star Named Major Disappointment To Start This Season

The early struggles of a Baltimore Orioles All-Star has played a part in the team's slow start.

Apr 12, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman (35) hits a home run during the sixth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. | Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

Virtually nothing has gone right for the Baltimore Orioles at the start of the 2025 MLB regular season.

A team that had some very high expectations, considered World Series contenders by some, has fallen woefully short of expectations.

Entering play on April 28, the Orioles have a 10-17 record and are in last place in the American League East.

Only the Chicago White Sox, who are 7-21, have a worse record than them in the AL. The only other team with a worse record in baseball is the Colorado Rockies, who are 4-23.

Certainly not the kind of start anyone in Baltimore was hoping for, there have been a lot of reasons why the team has struggled to this extent.

Pitching, namely the starting rotation, is the first thing many people will point toward.

This has been a disastrous area, which many analysts predicted coming into the campaign. Losing ace Corbin Burnes was a huge blow and the team’s strategy to replace him was criticized right from the start.

While the starting pitching has been disappointing, it isn’t the only reason the team cannot get into a rhythm.

Just as the case was down the stretch in 2024, their offense has been inconsistent.

Among the most disappointing performers thus far is All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman, whose brutal second half last year has carried over into 2025.

To be fair, he hasn’t been a total bust.

There are signs that he can turn things around with his barrel rate on the rise, normally hinting that an increase in production is on the horizon.

But since hitting two home runs on Opening Day, he has hit only two more. He currently owns a pedestrian .209/.314/.363 slash line, numbers that won’t cut it when he has set such a high standard for himself already.

That has resulted in David Schoenfield of ESPN naming Rutschman as the most disappointing catcher through the first month of the season.

“His struggles go back to the final three months of the 2024 season. That was perhaps the result of an injury he played through, but the slow start to 2025 is certainly a concern. After posting a .369 OBP his first two seasons in the majors, it's down to .318 since 2024,” he wrote.

Rutschman isn’t the only player whose bat is ice-cold, but given the lack of production he had for an extended stretch last year, it is concerning to see him performing so underwhelmingly again.

Finding the form he had for the first two-and-a-half years of his MLB career would be a huge boost for a team in desperate of a major spark.