Orioles Relief Pitcher Emerges as Rare Bright Spot on Struggling Roster

With the season quickly slipping away for the Baltimore Orioles, there haven’t been too many bright spots for the franchise in 2025.

Coming into the year, the Orioles were expected to be one of the best teams in the American League. Things haven’t quite worked out like that so far, as Baltimore has one of the worst records in the league.

For a team to go from winning the most games in the AL in the previous two campaigns to where they are now, a lot has to go wrong.

This offseason, the Orioles didn’t do an adequate job replacing the production of either Corbin Burnes or Anthony Santander. As their best pitcher and best power hitter, the loss of that production has been felt.

Injuries to some key players especially in the rotation to begin the year also didn’t help, but this is now a franchise that will likely be sellers at the trade deadline.

However, despite their struggles, there have been some bright spots.

Who Has Been the Orioles' Best-Kept Secret?

Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the best kept secret for the Orioles being the performance of Bryan Baker out of the bullpen.

“It was a nightmarish first two months of the season for the Orioles, but Bryan Baker was one of the few bright spots. Across his first 26 games of the season, he has a 2.88 ERA,” he wrote.

Despite there not being a ton of positives to speak about for Baltimore, their bullpen has had a couple of bright spots, one of which being Baker.

So far this year, he has totaled a 3-1 record, three holds, and one save. Due to the struggles of the team, there haven’t been many important situations to pitch in. However, he has been solid for the unit so far.

While the starting rotation has taken a lot of the blame for the struggles, overall, the bullpen hasn’t been great either.

During some of the success for the team in recent campaigns, it has been the bullpen that has been a strong unit closing out games.

As the Orioles look toward the future, Baker could end up being a player that they would consider moving at the deadline. With a strong resume of success as a relief pitcher, Baltimore might be able to get a nice haul for the 30-year-old.

With a lifetime ERA of 3.60, there would be plenty of potential contenders who would like to add the best-kept secret on the Orioles.