The Orioles Must Totally Reinvent Their Outfield In 2027, No Matter Who Is In Charge

No matter what becomes of this season - whether the Orioles slither into the playoffs as the final Wild Card in a terrible American League, or they end up 10 games below .500 - the franchise is facing an existential roster question.

Whether baseball fraud Mike Elias and his overmatched puppet skipper stay in town, or they are rightfully fired, whomever is in charge of The Warehouse on the baseball side of things in 2027 has a significant challenge ahead of them in constructing an MLB-caliber outfield.

Even if the Orioles trade collapsing shortstop Gunnar Henderson, and they will as everyone we speak to on “The Daily Flock Show” is making clear, they still have better options and more hope on the infield dirt than the outfield grass. Pete Alonso is good for 30 homers and 100 RBIS at first base until he’s not, Jordan Westburg is a run producer when healthy (big caveat), I’m buying Blaze Alexander can be a very useful player, Jackson Holliday has high upside and is making smart adjustments and Coby Mayo mashes left-handed pitching as well as anyone in baseball.

Are any of them an everyday shortstop? Probably not, Alexander would get the best shot, and you can always sign a or acquire a glove-first guy if need be (hell Henderson is batting below .200 the last 40 games and his OPS is below .700 since the 2025 All-Star break and he is an error machine). Maybe they get a shortstop back as part of the package for him.

But the more we study the MLB roster and entire organizational depth chart, the more convinced we become that Holliday does need to get a real shot at centerfield, the other options are slim, and the front office has to get real about the type of outfield defense and outfield production at the plate is required to boast a legit lineup. Not the fugazi ones Elias keeps concocting, bottom five in MLB from 1-5 in the order, toi actually push to contend for something real.

How Bad Is It?

Entering play Wednesday, here are the Orioles outfield ranks in MLB:

AVG: .233 (27th) OBP: .330 (6th) SLG: .368 (29th)

HR: 39 (24th) RBI: 150 (26th) K Rate: 25.1% (24th)

The on-base percentage is jacked up because all Taylor Ward wanted to do was walk until they dumped his salary at the trade deadline. As for underlying numbers, they are bottom 10, collectively, in MLB in line-drive rate, and top 10 in infield pop-ups. It ain’t good no matter how you slice, it, except for the OBP. You also want the speed/power combo out of the modern OF and Elias’s roster provides neither, with Baltimore’s OF 24th in MLB in stolen bases (27), with a 66% success rate, which is pathetic.

We have major issues here. And this is no fluke.

Since the start of the 2025 season, Orioles outfielders have a collective slash of: .231/.316/.394 - .711. That’s 20th in baseball.

The defense is ghastly and I'm not going to get into the weeds - though I could - but only seven teams in MLB have a worse Outfield Fielding Run Value than Baltimore's -8, and they rank 24th in range and this staff has no clue had to teach proper paths to the ball or how to read the ball off the bat. Just watch. Literally any day or night they play.

Colton Cowser can’t hit, and is at best a fourth outfielder, as we’ve chronicled at length. Leody Taveras is a fourth OF as well who can cover CF in small doses, but struggled mightily defending much of the season despite that being his calling card. Christian Franklin is probably a AAAA guy (like DJ Stewart and Dwight Smith Jr who got longer runs than they should have under Elias), and at best, if you squint, you guessed it: a fourth outfielder.

It's just The Elias Way; he is utterly inept at roster construction and it's fair to wonder if he even cares or tries at this point. He certainly has longtime GM Dan O'Dowd and others scratching their head.

They are stuck with Tyler O’Neill at $19M next year because the private equity billionaires who own the team are too cheap to eat his salary to get him out of here. He is a massive injury risk who will get hurt the more he plays and he strikes out a ton and is a bench guy on a contending team. We believe in Dylan Beavers as a potential everyday corner OF, with proper assistance with his fielding and with a chance to hit regularly, but that’s not how this regime develops players.

How Bout In The Minors?

This is a wasteland in the outfield.

Former first-round pick Vancy Honeycutt was actually squaring the ball up in AA over the weekend when we watched him but he was overwhelmed by High-A pitching and has no future in MLB baseball. Enrique Bradfield Jr., a first-round pick they selected to replace Cedric Mullins, has been solid in the second half of the season for Norfolk, but projects by any industry standard as a fourth-OF at best in MLB and there are massive questions about the hit tool.

Nate George was their top position prospect heading into the season and I love the way this kid plays … he is also just a few years removed from high school ball, and low-level HS ball at that, and he has missed virtually the entire season with an undisclosed injury/situation. That’s a massive blow no matter the reason. Ike Irish maybe can play right field, but I doubt it if Elias and his minor-league staff remain in charge. I believe in Thomas Sosa’s ability to reach MLB at some capacity (flashing power in AA at 21), maybe, but even a truther like me in the body type and traits knows the hopes are fringy at best.

Heston Kjerstad was drafted second overall, is coming up on 240 games played at AAA(!) and won’t even be a September call-up. He also will be 28 at the start of spring training.

Where Do They Go From Here?

This is part of why Holliday in center is so intriguing to me.

They don’t have other answers and they may need three starting outfielders if Beavers can’t max out his potential (and, again, who does this under Elias?). I started calling for Samuel Basallo in right field when he got to AA, because you could already tell he had the good for first base, but they never did that. I also called for Mayo, who like Basallo has a plus-plus arm, to move to right field after they traded Kyle Stowers, but the Ivy League clown in charge knew better I guess.

The 2027 free-agent class stinks, and Elias’s ability to execute quality trades for everyday players is terrible (Ward the latest example). Maybe if Henderson sticks around til the 2027 trade deadline, they play Alexander in left more in the first half next season, but that feels like a temporary fix and I’d rather see Alexander at third, Westburg at second, Holliday in CF if he can handle it and a glove-first veteran shortstop anchoring the infield.

They need to thoroughly rethink the way they construct teams in the infield, and someone close to what Jose Iglesias was in the Covid year needs to be their archetype at short once they trade Gunnar.

It’s going to be a major offseason riddle to solve, because what is beyond debate is that Elias is fraudulent at developing outfielders, whether he takes then second-overall or fifth overall or makes them the highest-paid position player in his GM history at the time (O’Neill) or whether he gives them away as what he thinks is a throw-in via trade (Stowers).

And of course none of that stopped him from loading up on them again at the top of the draft. Which we can only pray was his last in Birdland.

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