Orioles Hitting Failures Pre-Date Recent Injuries And Are Reaching New Lows

You can rest assured that whenever Mike Elias, Orioles feckless baseball czar, decides to meet the media again he will keep crying about injuries.

It’s a lame excuse and it’s far closer to a lie than a truth – the Orioles haven’t been an anomaly of any sort in the sheer number of Injured List stints or in the significance of the player succumbing to them. But with their lineup cratering and the skipper totally out of depth to combat any of it and Elias mandating his favorite players bat at the top of the order no matter how deep their funks go – Adley Rutschman’s lasted over two years and Gunnar Henderson’s is over a year now – there is no reason to believe that the Orioles won’t keep wasting pitching gems and remaining below .500.

If they had anything close to league average production at the plate they would have command of a Wild Card spot in the lowly American League. Instead they just keep chasing. Because despite having of one baseball’s truly elite starting staffs since Chris Bassitt went down in early June (to the shock of everyone, Elias included) – they are so pathetic swinging the bat that the Birds remain incapable of winning more than three games in a row (once all season), so they can’t get hot.

It’s miserable and particularly damning since Elias boasted about the depth and prowess of his assembled hitters this winter in proclaiming this a team that would push the Yankees and anyone else to win the AL East. And, just like in 2024, the offensive slide began in June – which is well before Blaze Alexander or Samuel Basallo was injured. The mere fact a 21-year old catcher and a utility guy carried that much import to the alleged hitting monster Elias built points to why he and his latest puppet skipper should be let go as soon as possible.

How Bad Is It?

Entering play Sunday, since June 1, the Orioles are 24th in MLB in runs scored.

It’s the stat no one talks about, but it’s the impost important thing if you want to win. Unless you have pristine fielding – the Orioles have allowed the most unearned runs in baseball – and a swing-and-miss staff (nope), maybe you can try to win 3-2 or 2-1 every night, but Elias doesn’t build teams that way and this one undermines its starter with repugnant fielding and base running and almost np clutch hitting, and it’s sucking any scant joy out of watching them play baseball.

Since June 1, the Orioles are 27th in batting average (.228) and 25th in slugging percentage (.385), with just a .702 OPS (24th). When a team is homer-or-bust and is just 22nd in home runs in that span, it's going to be a problem. They are striking out over 25% of the time since June 1 (27th), and while they are walking a ton that’s not turning into runs.

But leave it to the wannabe skipper to gush about the quality of their at bats the other night when they walked eight times and none of those players came around to score. They insist on hitting Henderson leadoff or in the middle of the lineup, when they should drop him or rest him from shortstop (where he is really struggling). But at this care it’s a feeble attempt to make him seem like something he’s not, with a trade inevitable and probably much sooner than you think.

Elias also wants to squeeze whatever he can out of the horrible Tyler O’Neill contract, but having him and fellow right-handed bats in Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Jeremiah Jackson all on this roster offering too much chase in the pursuit of power and no fielding value, is a silly redundancy that’s also blocking prospects from getting a look. None of those guys I mentioned has any real upside besides as fringy bench guys.

The people putting the team together remain the same and, despite occasional lip service about introspection or change, nothing ever does. They espouse the same flawed concepts, there are no check-and-balances in the front office or in the dugout, and they continue to get the same outcomes.

It’s not injuries. It’s just what they are.

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