[Baltimore Sun] The Orioles are searching for answers after another playoff failure. Will they find them? | ANALYSIS
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Jordan Westburg sat at his locker in the Orioles’ clubhouse Wednesday evening, a blank stare across his face. Ryan Mountcastle settled on the floor next to him. They didn’t talk much, instead just contemplating how another season came crashing down.
Jacob Webb, Matt Bowman and John Means all sat in their chairs with a Coors Light in hand after another gut-wrenching loss. Only Webb was on the playoff roster; Bowman was left off and Means is injured. But they’re all members of a team that sees itself more as a family.
Adley Rutschman, whose recent struggles mirrored the club’s, made sure to give a bear hug to every pitcher on his staff. Mike Elias and Brandon Hyde made their rounds with more hugs as they thanked the players that got the team to October in the first place.
Among the dozen players who took questions postgame, one phrase stood out among the rest.
“I don’t know.”
It was uttered more than 15 times. In response to the Orioles’ offensive struggles. When asked about the club’s mediocre second half. About how they move forward after being swept out of the postseason again.
“I don’t know,” said Ryan O’Hearn, Gunnar Henderson, Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle, Colton Cowser and others.
They aren’t the only ones. Baltimore fans are doing the same after watching their 10th straight playoff loss — MLB’s longest active streak and tied for fourth all-time. And, undoubtedly, Hyde, Elias, the rest of the Orioles’ front office and even David Rubenstein are doing the same.
“Disappointed, broken, maybe regretful,” Westburg said of his emotions after the Orioles’ season-ending 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the American League wild-card series on Wednesday. “It’s just, as baseball players, you play the what ifs through your head for the next couple days. Just what you could have done better. What could have gone our way and didn’t. It’s going to sting a little bit. It hurts the heart.”
Last October, the Orioles were swept out of the AL Division Series by a Texas Rangers team that bulldozed every club in its path to a World Series title. That playoff failure wasn’t alarming. It was largely chalked up to bad luck and inexperience — both fair explanations. Those don’t apply here, and even if they did, they’d feel like excuses.
The vast majority of players on the Orioles’ roster this postseason had playoff experience. Were their stolen home runs by the left field wall unlucky? Sure. Did the Royals’ two winning hits come on a soft grounder and an infield single? Yes. But the Orioles — specifically their offense — don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt anymore.
Orioles vs. Royals in Game 2 of AL wild-card series | PHOTOS
“I don’t know that there’s one specific thing,” O’Hearn said. “You just got to — things bounce the other way, maybe a couple lucky bounces you got to have some breaks. It just seems like any time something positive was going to happen, it just — it didn’t. And I don’t really have a good answer for you right now.”
The 2023 sweep was forgivable. In a way it was predictable. This one? To a Kansas City Royals team whose lineup is filled with sub-.700 OPS hitters? A Royals club that limped into the postseason without any momentum? A team that would’ve gone below .500 in the regular season had they not been granted the fortune of facing the historically bad Chicago White Sox 13 times?
It stings more, they said, and it raises unanswered questions about where the franchise goes from here.
“This hurt just because we had opportunities to win both games,” Hyde said. “Last year, Game 1 opportunity, didn’t win, but then the next two kind of got out of hand and this year you felt like these were two winnable games.”
The reactionary portion of the fan base wants sweeping moves. Such disproportionate actions would only make what happened this week at Camden Yards worse. But that doesn’t mean Elias and Rubenstein are off the hook.
What problems will they seek to fix? What answers will they find? What solutions will they implement?
Royals catcher Salvador Perez, left, celebrates after the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson, right, strikes out to end Wednesday’s game. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)
For the second straight year, Baltimore was bounced from the postseason by a team that put a higher emphasis on spending than the Orioles did. As a result, Rubenstein could commit to truly investing in the roster this offseason or, at the very least, spending more money than his predecessor. Re-signing Santander — or bringing in a different impact bat — might be a necessity after the way the offense fizzled down the stretch. The Orioles likely need another starting pitcher with Corbin Burnes entering free agency. And long-term contracts for Henderson and other young stars are still on the docket.
In mid-September, Elias took ownership of the state of the club, putting the disappointing second half squarely on his shoulders. He will likely do the same during his upcoming end-of-season news conference. His two big offseason moves — signing Craig Kimbrel and trading for Burnes — ended as complete opposites, the former unceremoniously, the latter to thunderous applause after a postseason gem. The Orioles’ bullpen, mostly filled with pitchers cast off by their previous teams, wasn’t good enough as a result.
The contrast between his two big trade deadline moves was also stark. Acquiring Zach Eflin was one of the best trades of the period, while getting Trevor Rogers was one of the worst (so far). The Orioles’ offense struggled down the stretch and could have used Connor Norby (and Kyle Stowers), but they didn’t have them because Elias packaged them to Miami for Rogers, a pitcher who ended the season in Triple-A. Instead Elias acquired Eloy Jiménez and Austin Slater, two role players that teams worse than Baltimore didn’t want, and they mostly struggled when thrust into larger roles when the Orioles dealt with crippling injuries.
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It’s easy to wake up Thursday morning and look back on the 2024 season with contempt and confusion about how a team that was on pace for another 100-win season in June had its season ended in October by an inferior team. It should be a wake-up call — a reason to take inventory this offseason.
The atmosphere in the Orioles’ clubhouse after their final loss last October was also emotional. But there was more hope. Those Orioles were confident what happened then was an aberration, a result of youth and bad timing. There were teary eyes and hugs, but also talk of how bright the future is.
This year, there was the same emotion, but less optimism and more bewilderment. At times, players were at a loss for words, unable to describe exactly what went wrong.
“I believe in this group,” O’Hearn said. “I think there’s so much talent in here, and so many just good baseball players that I’m just shocked and it sucks. A little bit embarrassing, honestly. Feel like we let the fans down.”
As they enter this offseason, the Orioles are searching for answers. The ones they find will determine this franchise’s trajectory.
Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 667-942-3337 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.
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