Good morning, Camden Chatters.
The Orioles’ travel day on Monday gave us some extra time to bask in their first series sweep and only their second three-game winning streak of the season. Maybe it was just the fact that they were playing the worst team in the American League, but the O’s have finally looked somewhat competitive of late. All three of their starting pitchers delivered quality starts during the White Sox series, as Zach Eflin, Dean Kremer, and Charlie Morton combined to allow just one earned run in 19.2 innings.
Again, it was against the White Sox, so you’ve got to take things with a grain of salt. Maybe a full handful of salt. But if Eflin is returning to his pre-injury form and Kremer and Morton are shaking off their early-season struggles, then that group along with the consistently solid Tomoyuki Sugano can form a competent rotation. Now it’s just a matter of getting the Orioles’ continually struggling offense to snap out of its season-long doldrums.
One way that can happen is if the Orioles get healthy, and that’s what they’re starting to do. Yesterday the O’s welcomed back Colton Cowser from the injured list, where he’d been stuck since the fourth game of the season after foolishly diving into first base and fracturing his thumb. The return of the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up should provide a power boost to a lineup that has lacked thump. Only one currently healthy Oriole, Ryan O’Hearn, has a better slugging percentage right now than the .447 mark Cowser posted last year. Cowser will also provide a huge defensive upgrade to a threadbare O’s outfield that has recently featured the likes of O’Hearn and Jorge Mateo starting at unfamiliar positions.
Soon enough, Cowser will be joined by his BFF Jordan Westburg, who is finishing up a rehab assignment at Triple-A and will likely join the O’s at some point on this west coast trip. Westburg, too, will inject some life into the lineup, assuming he hits more like the 2024 version of himself than the April 2025 edition. And Ramón Laureano, who’s been an early-season surprise, could also be back from injury not too long from now, perhaps allowing the Orioles to send the struggling Heston Kjerstad back to the minors to rework his swing.
The team is still far from full strength. Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle recently landed on the IL, and nearly an entire rotation’s worth of pitchers remains on the shelf. The Orioles’ injury problems are never going to disappear entirely. But if they can gradually bring back some of their key players while shipping out some of the flotsam and jetsam, they should be able to continue their recent ascent into competence.
Links
There’s no sigh of relief for Orioles after Corbin Burnes injury – The Baltimore Banner
Kyle Goon rightly rejects the idea that the Orioles should derive any schadenfreude from Corbin Burnes’s elbow injury. It’s not as if the Orioles’ Burnes-less offseason moves worked out in any respect.
Orioles’ Jackson Holliday has found a niche batting leadoff – The Baltimore Sun
Somewhat overlooked by the overall crappiness of the 2025 Orioles is that Jackson Holliday is finally looking like the player that O’s fans thought he’d be last year.
Scouting Aidan Miller, Max Anderson, Jett Williams, Enrique Bradfield Jr. and more – The Athletic
Keith Law has thoughts on a couple of Orioles prospects he scouted at a recent Baysox game. I must say I had no idea that Levi Wells can hit 102 mph, though Law still doesn’t seem overly impressed. Tough crowd!
Mabry happy for chance to coach his hometown Orioles (Cowser reinstated) – School of Roch
New Orioles coach John Mabry drops a Wild Bill Hagy reference in his first interview. I like this guy already.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! And happy 31st birthday to Ramón Urías, who’s now in his sixth year with the Orioles and has quietly turned into a mainstay in the lineup. Urías has a solid 108 OPS+ in his career and won a Gold Glove at third base in 2022. Sharing Urías’s exact birthday — June 3, 1994 — is left-hander Brandon Waddell, who pitched one game for the Orioles in 2021.
Other ex-Orioles with birthdays today are catchers Robert Machado (52) and Izzy Molina (54), infielder Aaron Ledesma (54), and first baseman and Orioles Hall of Famer Jim Gentile, who turns 91 years young.
On this date in 2019, with the first pick of the amateur draft, the Orioles selected catcher Adley Rutschman from Oregon State. It was a slam-dunk move at the time, as Rutschman was the consensus #1 draft prospect, and the decision seemed to pay immediate dividends when Adley rocketed through the minors and led the Orioles’ renaissance in 2022. Currently, though, Rutschman’s bat has been AWOL for nearly a year now, and his defense has slipped too, while Bobby Witt Jr. — who went at #2 overall to the Royals — has emerged as a superstar. Welp.
Random Orioles game of the day
On June 3, 1980, the Orioles were shut out by the Brewers, 3-0, at Memorial Stadium. Each starting pitcher went the distance, as the Orioles’ Sammy Stewart gave up just three runs but was the hard-luck loser. Right-hander and Baltimore native Moose Haas tossed the shutout for the Brewers, allowing just five hits, all singles.
