Is Baltimore Orioles Rotation Sole Reason to Blame for Horrendous Start?

The Baltimore Orioles are off to a disastrous start to the season, and the promising franchise has major concerns now.

Coming into the year, expectations for the Orioles was to be a playoff team in the American League and compete for the top spot in the AL East once again.

However, with one month of the campaign completed, Baltimore is in last place in the division and the season is looking bleak early on.

Injuries have certainly played a part in the struggles for the team both in the lineup and on the pitching staff, but offseason decisions can also be blamed for the regression.

Now, despite the team once having a bright future, there are a ton of concerns about the outlook for the team.

David Schoenfield of ESPN (subscription required) recently wrote about the disastrous start in April for the Orioles.

“Having the worst ERA+ in the majors this season certainly isn't great, and it hasn't helped that Grayson Rodriguez hasn't pitched and Zach Eflin went down after three starts, but it's amazing how little they've gotten as a group this season from all those highly rated young hitters.”

So far this year, the rotation has taken a lot of the blame for the struggles of the team, and rightfully so. The unit has one of the worst ERAs in baseball at 6.04, and it is hard to win games like that.

Aside from Tomoyuki Sugano, most of the rotation has struggled. Free-agent addition Charlie Morton has been one of the worst starters in the league in the first month, and has been since sent to the bullpen.

In defense of the rotation, they have been without their top two starters Grayson Rodriguez and Zach Eflin. These two being out has been a significant blow, and the front office can be blamed for the lack of quality depth and offseason moves surrounding the rotation.

While the rotation has been bad, the lineup that is loaded with young talent has underperformed as well, creating a perfect storm of struggles for the team.

Currently, the Orioles rank in the bottom half of the league in both runs scored and OPS. For a team with multiple All-Stars on it like Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman, the unit being as poor as it has been is shocking.

While it was just one month of a long year, it’s easy to be pessimistic about the outlook for Baltimore.

Some of the struggles for the offense date back to last year now, and that is a major concern for not only the outlook in 2025 but the long term as well.

Even though there is still time to turn things around, it appears like 2025 might not be their season.