Young Core of Orioles Has Lost Allure After Disappointing Start to Season

Despite winning a series over the weekend against the Los Angeles Angels, the Baltimore Orioles still find themselves in last place in the American League East with a bleak outlook.

It has been a disappointing season for the Orioles. Considering that this team had made the playoffs the last two years and it looked like they were heading in the right direction as a franchise, things have gone south this year.

With one of the worst records in the AL, Baltimore is going to have an uphill climb if they are going to turn things around.

Despite some poor decisions in the offseason, this is still a roster with a lot of talent, most of which is on the younger side.

However, the lineup for the Orioles should receive a lot of the blame for the struggles of the team overall.

The once daunting young core of Baltimore, now all of a sudden, is being questioned, which isn't ideal.

Will the Orioles Turn It Around?

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the young core of the Orioles not quite living up to expectations, and the group also not being nearly as deep as a few years ago.

“Baltimore's stable of young horses is nowhere near as deep as it was a year or two ago," he wrote.

Miller mentions four players as part of the young core, led by Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Grayson Rodriguez, and Colton Cowser.

It has certainly been a disappointing campaign for Baltimore overall, and their young core has taken some of the blame as well.

For Henderson, he missed the start of the season due to injury and got off to a sluggish start to the campaign. Furthermore, Holliday also started off a bit slow, but has started to pick it up of late.

Also, losing Cowser right at the beginning of the year to injury also wasn’t ideal.

However, arguably the most notable player from the core being absent has been Rodriguez.

After letting Corbin Burnes walk in free agency, it was the young right-handed who the team had hoped would step up and become the new ace. Unfortunately, he has had a hard time staying healthy, and him being out has really cripped the staff to start the campaign.

Even though this is still one of the best young cores in baseball, the unit doesn’t quite have the same feel as it did a couple of years ago.

Perhaps if the franchise can turn things around and go on a run, things will appear better for the outlook of the team, but that isn’t the case right now.