The Orioles were swept out of the playoffs by the Texas Rangers and I haven’t been able to make myself write about it in 2 weeks so I am going to do a quick write up before turning this into an NBA blog for a few months.
I went to the Orioles final game of the season and watched as they got swept out of the playoffs by the Texas Rangers. There was not much to cheer for as the Orioles went down 6-0 in the second inning. It was so deflating to watch that Adolis Garcia homerun go over the left field wall that I wanted to leave right then. I fought that urge and sat through the rest of the game and watched as Nathan Eovaldi absolutely dominated the Orioles. The Ranger stadium plays a sound when the pitcher gets to 2 strikes and it felt like it was playing on loop as Eovaldi absolutely pounded the strike zone. There was a moment when the O’s loaded the bases and a grand slam would have made the game close but the O’s came up empty and their season was over just a few short innings later.
I tried to write a recap of the series but it was such a joyless sweep I kept on closing the computer and putting it off for another day. Now the Basketball season is starting and I want to start writing about that so I decided to put a quick bow on the Oriole season. I won’t go too in depth here and I’ll write a big piece about what the off season should hold for each member of the 2023 Orioles after the world series.
Overall this Orioles season was great and brought me a lot of joy. When the season started I was optimistic the Orioles could fight off the regression monster and be in contention for a wild card spot and this team exceeded even my optimistic expectations.
What defined this Orioles team was their resilience. They had 48 come from behind wins, most of which were in the last 3 innings of the game with hitters up and down their lineup coming through in clutch situations and extra innings followed by electric bullpen arms shutting down the opposing teams in close games to seal it for the O’s. When the opposing team would jump out to an early lead it always felt like the O’s were going to fight back and get back in the game, they never gave up, they always believed and they came through over and over again.
This is part of why getting swept in the divisional round hurt so bad because in every game the Orioles went down and I kept waiting for them to make that comeback like they had all year and even though the Ranger’s weakness is their bullpen the O’s weren’t able to make their signature comebacks. Of course they made it difficult on themselves going down 9-2 and 6-0 early in games 2 and 3.
Everyone that said the Orioles starting pitching wasn’t good enough probably feels like they nailed that bit of analysis but I would argue that Bradish and Rodriguez are 2 of the best young starters in the league and I don’t know who the Orioles could have traded for that would have started over them after the seasons they had (I don’t think the Yankees were going to make Gerrit Cole available) I’ll admit that Kremer proved to be a weak link and could have been improved upon and probably should be improved upon next season but you should be able to compete in a 5 game series with 2 good starters. It was pointed out that if the Orioles had been more aggressive they could have signed Eovaldi this past off season and ponied up for Jordan Montgomery at the trade deadline and it does suck to know that the 2 pitchers that took the mound and dominated you could have been on your team if the front office was a bit more aggressive but again I like the guys we sent out there.
At the end of the day the Rangers outplayed the Orioles 3 games in a row. I hope that getting beat by a team that relentlessly invested in itself 2 offseasons ago, this last off season and this trade deadline sends a message to the Orioles that it is not enough to have 10 different infield prospects in the MLB top 100 pipeline you’ve got to push in some of those chips. I know that Mike Elias and the front office are somewhat hampered by an owner that is cheap and keeps telling the fans how he plans to continue to be cheap. (Seriously how do you keep telling the media you want to be Cleveland and Tampa when it’s teams like the Rangers, Astros and Phillies that are in the world series every year)
But for now I want to focus on the guys who made this a great season.
Break Out Seasons
Gunnar Henderson
If you’re an Orioles fan nothing was more exciting this year than Gunnar Henderson busting out of the slump he started the season in and becoming one of the best players in baseball. I love the way Gunnar plays baseball, he flies around the bases, he goes all out on defense and he swings for the fences. Gunnar all gas no brakes approach is great compliment to Adley Rutschman’s calm more soft spoken leadership and together they’ll be great star duo to lead the Orioles as more young prospects. Also he was awesome in the playoffs.
Kyle Bradish
I thought that I was high on Kyle Bradish but similar to the Orioles themselves he exceeded even my expectations this year. He finished with the second best ERA in the AL and will likely finish top 5 in Cy Young voting. Between Bradish and Rodriguez the Orioles have a great 1-2 punch in the rotation for years to come.
Grayson Rodriguez
Speaking of Grayson Rodriguez he gave me quite a scare when he first came up to the big leagues and struggled mightily but after being sent down to the minors to work on his stuff he came back and was a stud for the rest of the year. He had a rough start in his playoff debut but if I have no doubt he will be back and better than ever next time.
Yennier Cano
Yennier Cano was just a throw-in for the Jorge Lopez trade and he didn’t start the year in the big leagues but once he got called up he made the most of his opportunity. I remember watching him in his first action this year when he got his first strikeout and hit that K pose I burst out laughing. “This minor league reliever is insane” I exclaimed but he wasn’t a minor leaguer and he wasn’t insane he was a different guy than he had been for his entire career. I don’t know if he will be the closer for the O’s next year while Felix Bautista rehabs after surgery but I’m sure he will be an important piece out of the bullpen.
Ryan O’Hearn
The only person who’s breakout was even more surprising than Yennier Cano was Ryan O’Hearn. When he got called up early in the year I assumed he was another Tyler Nevin type back up first baseman and I was honestly a little frustrated we couldn’t find a way to use his roster spot on one of more interesting prospects. O’Hearn went on to be one of if not the best hitter on the team this year. Him and Mountcastle a great 1-2 punch at 1B DH but with Santander and Kjerstad also competing for DH at bats I wonder if the Orioles will sell high on one of the best feel good stories of the season.
These guys breaking out along with great seasons from Adley Rutschman, Anthony Santander, Felix Bautista, Austin Hays and Ryan Mountcastle made this Orioles season incredibly entertaining and made them a great team. This team was the best Orioles team of my entire life. The playoff sweep was incredibly disappointing and I might have compared to losing a close family member when my wife asked me how I was doing when I got home from game 3 but I’m proud of them for winning 101 games and the AL East and I hope that this a building block towards eventually winning the world series and not the peak of this core the way 2014 was the peak of the Manny Machado and Adam Jones era.
The Dishwasher 
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