Orioles Utterly Out-Classed By Rays, With Rogers Place In Rotation In Question

The Orioles do a tremendous job of embarrassing themselves on a near nightly basis, playing to their weaknesses as a swing-and-miss happy, defensively repugnant outfit woefully bereft of quality starting pitching that succumb to low-IQ baseball tendencies.

And, on the sporadic occasions when they have been opposed by an in-form, well constituted opponent, they get spanked so thoroughly that they truly do not look worthy of being on the same diamond. The A’s and Yankees did it to them, and it seemed incredibly obvious to anyone paying attention to the AL East that the Rays were about to do the same. It took about an inning into this three-game series for that to begin playing out.

Monday’s 16-6 thrashing by Tampa would shame Orioles baseball czar Mike Elias if he was capable of it, and it begs major questions about how much longer his opening day starter will be in the Major Leagues. Trevor Rogers was an absolute disaster after being Elias's big acquisition at the 2024 trade deadline to the point he spent most of that summer in Norfolk (AAA). That's probably where he belongs now.

"Every loss is the same," are words that actually came out of rookie skipper Craig Albernaz's mouth when being pushed by the media about yet another blowout loss. Not even Memorial Day yet. Feels like a year ago this time when Brandon Hyde was hired so that Elias could assume even more power and control.

The Orioles are 21-27 and 3-8 in the AL East. They are making a habit of having position players pitch. They are 7-14 vs winning teams. They have the second-worst run differential in MLB.

Another New Low For Rogers

If Rogers was tipping his pitches and calling out what he was throwing before he released the baseball, the Rays could not have been any more prepared for his offerings. The Rays are not a heavy slugging team, but they whacked Rogers around to all parts of the ballpark; he required 88 pitches to secure 11 outs, surrendering eight hits and seven earned runs in the process (eight total).

His confidence looks as shattered as it was after the deadline two years back; his changeup has lost its shape and bite, his fastball is batting-practice worthy and he is getting thrashed with two outs. His 18-game stretch a year ago always felt like a mirage – the manager was already fired when he rejoined the rotation for good; there was no semblance of pressure or expectations. Rogers has been ridiculously hit-able all season as we’ve chronicled and he now sports a 6.87 ERA, a WHIP of 1.66, and he’s allowed 48 hits in 38 IP.

"I wish I had an answer for you," Rogers said, sounding beaten and bewildered meeting the media after the game. Rogers took a pronounced and pregnant pause when asked if he thinks he is close as his manager suggested. Extremely prounced. Yikes.

Even with very few decent alternatives in their system, and with a front office incapable to developing a young starting pitcher, I’d still bet quite a bit of bird seed that Rogers is gone by the All Star break. Trey Gibson can take his spot and/or Dean Kremer whenever he comes back from the IL. Nothing about Rogers is playing - he's falling apart with two strikes - and nothing looks MLB worthy.

"All the confidence in the world," Albernaz said of Rogers taking the ball every five days " … I know it sounds weird to say, but he's close."

On a real contending team with a real front office, he'd be close to another demotion. But as usual there was more ugliness in this baseball product than just the overwhelmed starter.

Below Professional Grade

Gunnar Henderson remains in a funk, booting a ball in the first inning leading to a run and then inexplicably not putting a tag on for an easy double play that was the precursor to another Rays explosion. Outfield throws went way up the line. They keep pretending Blaze Alexander is a centerfielder (played a double into a triple).

Rays starter Shane McClanahan, a Baltimore native, has owned the O’s in his career but was not sharp Monday. And it did not matter. It was 6-0 after two innings and when the O’s cut it 8-3 in the fifth, Cameron Foster (who is not an MLB arm) took over for Rogers and gave up a four-spot himself, quickly loading the bases.

Tampa has an actual hitting-development program and approach that works, and they put the ball in play and understand how to steal bases and manufacture runs. They had 16 runs on 16 hits, while Elias and his minions have infected an entire organization with a hideous pursuit of launch angle uber ales. It will quite likely lead to several more lopsided results with these teams set to meet again in Baltimore soon after this series ends.

Bird Seed

The Orioles activated Jackson Holliday for the first time all season after he broke a bone in his hand preparing for spring training. He was not in the lineup but likely will be on Tuesday. Elias seems intent on making him play third base, which he did just a few times in the minors. Expect predictable results with that … Maverick Handley was sent to AAA in the corresponding move ... Longtime Oriole Cedric Mullins was not in the starting lineup against a lefty starter but expect to see him vs Kyle Bradish on Tuesday.

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