Baltimore is becoming a fun sports city. Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens claimed their second straight AFC North division crown and the Baltimore Orioles made the playoffs for the second consecutive season on the backs of a young squad that looks poised for a bright future.

Unfortunately, the trend has been good regular season success mixed with a lack of postseason success for both of those franchises despite the talent that they put into their respective fields.

Let’s examine how the Orioles performed last season, and how they attacked the free-agent market this winter.

The Orioles finished with a record of 91-71, marking the first time they posted back-to-back 90+ win seasons since 1982-83. They spent the majority of the season battling with the Yankees for the American League East lead, but a middling second half of the season didn’t do them any favours. After getting to 57-33 on July 7th and three games up in the division, Baltimore finished the campaign 34-38. Despite the tough finish, Baltimore went 32-20 against AL East opponents and also finished second in the league in home runs.

Their record was good enough to host a Wild Card series, however, the Royals silenced Baltimore’s bats and swept the Orioles at Camden Yards by a combined score of 3-1.

A hot start with a colder finish was a recurring theme for both SS Gunnar Henderson and C Adley Rutschman, two of Baltimore’s premier young stars. Henderson still posted a career season, hitting .281/.364/.529 with a .893 OPS, 37 home runs, 92 RBIs, and 31 doubles. Given that it was only his third MLB campaign, all of those numbers wound up being career highs for the infielder, and he accumulated a team-best 9.1 bWAR because of them. He was on pace for much higher numbers at the All-Star break, but he posted OPSs under .800 for July and August which tempered his overall stats.

It probably wasn’t fair to include Henderson’s 2024 in the same conversation as Rutschman’s. The third-year catcher out of Oregon State owned a .276/.339/.441 slash line with 16 home runs and 59 RBIs in the first half of last season, but he posted an abysmal .585 OPS, three home runs, and 20 RBIs in the second half of the season. He fell just one home run short of his 2023 total, but Baltimore’s lineup felt the effects of his dip in batting average and on-base percentage.

Despite this, other members of the batting order helped pick up the slack. RF/DH Anthony Santander, for instance, had a career season (which came in handy right before entering free agency), slugging a career-high 44 home runs and 102 RBIs, with the homers ranking third amongst all MLB hitters. Elsewhere, CF Colton Cowser had a solid rookie season, hitting .242/.321/.447 with 24 home runs, and 69 RBIs, culminating in a 2nd place finish in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

2024 also marked the debut of infielder Jackson Holliday, Baltimore’s top prospect and one of baseball’s top prospects heading into last season. He struggled mightily during his first big league stint, accumulating just two hits and an RBI in 10 April games. He was sent down to the minor leagues shortly after but was recalled in late July, hitting a grand slam against the Blue Jays in his first game back. All in all, he hit .189/.255/.311 with five home runs and 23 RBIs through 60 total games. It was going to be tough to live up to the amount of hype that surrounded Holliday as a prospect, but now that the first season is out of the way, he may be ready to take the next step.

The offense had their respective bumps in the road, but the pitching definitely did as well. The Orioles got only a handful of games out of starters Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, and John Means before all three of them were shut down for the season due to varying elbow procedures. On top of that, Grayson Rodriguez (shoulder) and Dean Kremer (triceps) also missed time this year due to injury, but the team still got 44 starts between the two of them.

The number of injuries that the team dealt with put even more pressure on Corbin Burnes to spearhead the rotation, and he answered the bell in a big way. Burnes, who was also pitching in a contract year, went 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, and an 8.4 K/9 across 32 starts this season. He made his fourth consecutive All-Star game and finished fifth in American League Cy Young voting. He also gave them eight innings of one-run ball in his lone postseason start, but he was pegged with the loss as the one run was all the Royals needed to win said game.

The Orioles made a flurry of moves at the trade deadline with the majority of them targeted to aid the starting rotation. They acquired Zach Eflin from the Tampa Bay Rays as well as Trevor Rogers from the Miami Marlins, with a pair of notable Orioles prospects being dealt away in the latter deal. Eflin was just what the doctor ordered in his nine starts with Baltimore, holding a 2.60 ERA and 1.12 WHIP across 52.1 innings. On a more underrated note, Eflin is still under contract for the 2025 season, so the Orioles were able to kill two birds with one stone by making that trade.

Rogers was unable to find much success after the trade, pitching to a 7.11 ERA through only four starts. He is under team control for two more years, so the Orioles have some time to work with Rogers and make that trade worth their while.

Baltimore was also without closer Félix Bautista for the entire season due to Tommy John surgery, so they turned their attention to veteran Craig Kimbrel to bridge the gap. Kimbrel saved 23 games on the season, but a second-half ERA of 10.59 ultimately led to his release in September. Like the rotation, Baltimore beefed up the backend of the ‘pen at the trade deadline, acquiring Gregory Soto and Seranthony Domínguez from the Phillies. Domínguez assumed closing duties upon his acquisition and picked up 10 saves in 11 opportunities.

The Orioles lost Santander to free agency, so they pivoted to right-handed power bat Tyler O’Neill, signing him to a three-year, $49.5 million deal with a player option after this season. After spending six years with the St. Louis Cardinals, O’Neill was dealt to the Boston Red Sox before the start of last year. With the Red Sox, the Burnaby, B.C. native slashed .241/.336/.511 with a .847 OPS, 31 home runs, 61 RBIs, and 18 doubles. It was a season that most closely resembled his career-best 2021 campaign, which landed him eighth in NL MVP voting that cylce. O’Neill was a specialist when it came to facing lefties last season, crushing 16 homers and possessing a 1.180 OPS against them.

O’Neill wasn’t the only former Cardinal that Baltimore got their hands on, as the team inked OF Dylan Carlson and RP Andrew Kittredge to one-year deals worth $975,000 and $10 million, respectively. Carlson has far more of a challenge ahead of him as far as making the major league roster goes, as Baltimore has several options for outfield positions. He’s struggled to get back to the level of play he possessed in 2021 when he finished 3rd in NL Rookie of the Year voting, and the Cardinals wound up trading him to the Rays at last year’s deadline. Between St. Louis and Tampa Bay last year, Carlson slashed .209/.287/.277 with three homers, 25 RBIs, and seven doubles. He suffered a shoulder injury at the beginning of the 2024 season, so perhaps the offseason allowed him to get fully healthy.

Kittredge, on the other hand, has a spot in Baltimore’s bullpen barring something unforeseen. Last season marked his first full campaign after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023, and he owned a 2.80 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and an 8.5 K/9 over 74 appearances. He ranked at the 100th percentile last season in chase rate per Baseball Savant with his slider generating a 41.3% whiff rate.

Given their starting pitching troubles last season, addressing that area was near the forefront of Baltimore’s offseason checklist, especially after Corbin Burnes signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Orioles started by signing 41-year-old Charlie Morton on a one-year, $15 million deal, becoming the sixth team he will pitch for over his soon-to-be 18th MLB season.

Don’t let the age turn you off too much; excluding 2020, Morton has made at least 30 starts in each of his last six MLB campaigns. In his 30 starts a year ago with the Braves, Morton owned a 4.19 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, and a 9.1 K/9. He doesn’t replace the value of Burnes, but it’s no surprise to see the Orioles pivot to someone they can pencil in for 30 starts in a rotation that desperately needs it.

Baltimore went the international route and also signed Japanese starter Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year, $13 million deal. Sugano will be making his MLB debut after 12 successful seasons with the Yomiuri Giants in Nippon Professional Baseball. Sugano made 24 starts a season ago, pitching to a 1.67 ERA across 156.2 innings including three complete games and one shutout. He features a wide array of pitches and excels the most in his command, something demonstrated by his minuscule 16 walks versus 111 strikeouts.

Baltimore added a pair of veteran bats to round out their bench, signing C Gary Sánchez to a one-year, $8.5 million deal, and OF Ramon Laureano to a one-year, $4 million deal. Sánchez, who will primarily be the backup catcher to Rutschman, slugged 11 home runs and 37 RBIs in 89 games with the Brewers last season. Laureano took advantage of playing on an injury-riddled Braves squad last year, slashing .296/.327/.505 with a .832 OPS, 10 homers, and 29 RBIs in 67 games. It was good enough to play his way onto the postseason roster, although he was hitless in eight ABs in their two Wild Card games.

Ask yourselves, how many other organizations would like to be where the Orioles are right now? Their farm system is still in good shape, whether they want to utilize it via trade or use it to supplement their big league roster. The talent they have in the majors right now – Henderson, Rutschman, Cowser, Jordan Westburg, etc. – are still so young (and cheap, for now) with so much room to grow. They’re currently in a competitive window, and the AL East is theirs for the taking.

I won’t lie, though, the above coupled with new ownership gave me the impression that Baltimore would aim higher this winter. Not retaining Burnes is quite the hit to this rotation, and they’re putting a lot of eggs in the baskets of Eflin and Morton to lead that group with the hop that Rodriguez can find his form as well. Fortunately, they will get Bradish and Wells back at some point later in the season, but they will be challenged out of the gate with Toronto, Boston, Kansas City, and Arizona making up their first five series.

The front office is invested in what they have, and as I said, they’ve got the talent. They’ll be back at the top of the AL East if they don’t suffer a second-half slump like they did last year and/or Holliday and Heston Kjerstad are ready to play every day and be impactful. Maybe I’m being too critical of a group of young players who have only played a maximum of two and a half seasons, but the team can’t let many 90-win seasons go to waste.

Are they a playoff team? I can see it. But they didn’t raise their ceiling enough for me to think they’ll be any different in the playoffs than they have been the last two years.