Orioles Window of Opportunity Might Have Quickly Closed After Poor Offseason

Did the Baltimore Orioles blow their window of opportunity?

Apr 7, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles are off to a lackluster start to the season with injuries and poor play resulting in the team being under .500.

It wasn’t too long ago that the Orioles looked like they could be a staple atop the American League East for years to come.

In 2023, they won the division and totaled over 100 victories. With an exciting young core, it appeared like Baltimore was built to stay.

However, despite a strong start to the year in 2024, the Orioles were mediocre at best in the second half of the campaign and limped into the playoffs.

Furthermore, this winter was far from ideal for the franchise.

Despite finally spending some money in free agency, they let their leading home run hitter and the ace of their staff leave in free agency.

There was reason to be concerned heading into the year, and those concerns have been validated early on this season.

Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the Orioles potentially letting their window of opportunity close after making poor decisions this winter.

“It is particularly egregious that the Orioles let Corbin Burnes leave and basically neglected to replace him in their rotation. That set a timer for perhaps the most obvious ticking time bomb on any contender.”

While losing Corbin Burnes wasn’t ideal in free agency, the lack of action to replace him was alarming for Baltimore. So far, that lack of action has crippled the franchise.

The team replaced him in the rotation with two veterans; Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton.

With Morton being over 40 years old and Sugano coming over from Japan, neither pitcher performing well is something the franchise should have counted on.

So far in 2025, Morton has been poor with an ERA over 8.00. Furthermore, his struggles coupled with the fact that both Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez are on the injured list has resulted in the starting rotation being one of the worst in the league.

For the Orioles, while the core of the team is still young, they also haven’t extended any of their young stars long-term, which is puzzling.

With All-Stars getting new deals around the league, it has been shockingly quiet on that front for Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman.

While there is plenty of time to turn it around, it’s hard to imagine Baltimore can compete in the AL East with what the starting rotation has shown so far.

Unless a lot of things go right with Eflin and Rodriguez coming back soon to pitch great, the window of opportunity might be closing quickly on this franchise.