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Baltimore Orioles centerfielder Jordyn Adams (80) and shortstop Gunnar Henderson (2) celebrate after a game against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

Orioles are showing signs of turning season around, but is it too late?

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Jun 5, 2025 7:22 PM ET

The Baltimore Orioles have been one of Major League Baseball's biggest disappointments through the first two months of the season, but they might be finally starting to show some signs of getting things back on track. The only question is if this recent surge is a case of too little, too late.

With Thursday's 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners, the Orioles were able to win their sixth game in a row, the 10th victory in their past 14 games. It has been a much-needed surge after a 15-32 start that had them buried at the bottom of the Major League standings with other bottom-feeders like the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies.

After winning 192 games over the previous two seasons, making the playoffs each time, that is not the sort of start anybody expected for a roster that was booming with young hitters.

But a dismal offseason that saw their pitching staff get decimated, as well as some unexpectedly bad starts from a lot of those young hitters, rapidly took Baltimore from preseason World Series contender to bitter disappointment almost overnight.

There is some recent precedent for teams to overcome this sort of start, and you do not have to go back any further than the 2024 New York Mets.

Last year the Mets were 24-35 June 3 and went on to a 65-38 mark.
O’s on June 5th improve to 25-36, back-to-back sweeps, and 9 of last 11.
— Melanie Newman (@MelanieLynneN) June 5, 2025

From an offensive standpoint, there should be a lot of hope that the Orioles can improve just based on some regression to the mean. shortstop Gunnar Henderson, catcher Adley Rutschman and first baseman Ryan Mountcastle are all performing well below their expected levels. If they can get back on track, that can rapidly change the course of the season.

They also need some of their younger players like Hester Kjerstad and Jackson Holliday to start breaking out, but even if that happens the Orioles could still use an upgrade to their pitching staff.

Losing Corbin Burnes from the 2024 staff was a significant loss, and even with him the rotation needed additional depth. The departure of Burnes only magnified that weakness.

After Thursday's win the Orioles are still 7.5 games out of the American League wild-card race and 12.5 games back in the American League East. It's a lot, but not insurmountable. Especially with 101 games still remaining on the schedule.

Baltimore's only focus right now should be simply getting into the playoffs. It took 86 wins to quality for the American League playoffs a year ago, and assuming it took that many again this season the Orioles would need to go 61-40 the rest of the way. Again, it's asking a lot, but it's also not that far off from the pace they played at over the previous two seasons.

The talent is there, it just needs to start playing like it.

Getting a little outside help from management to address a big weakness in the starting rotation would also help. A lot.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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