Three ways for the Orioles to regain their upward mobility

The Orioles will try next season to make the playoffs in three consecutive years for only the second time in franchise history and the first since 1969-71.

The Wild Card lessens the challenge but it remains a daunting task.

They won only one World Series in that span, beating the Reds in five games in 1970, and aren’t labeled as a dynasty because of the other October failures. The 2025 team, meanwhile, would be viewed in a positive light by advancing past its first playoff round.

The Orioles are tangled in a 10-game postseason losing streak that dates back to the 2014 ALCS. How can they wiggle free?

Let’s discuss three of the ways.

Stay healthy.

This isn't as easy to do as it is to type.

Don’t blow out your elbow. Don’t let bone chips collect in it. Don’t get drilled by a pitch on the hands or head. Don’t strain a lat or get inflammation in your shoulder. Don’t roll your ankle on a base.

Every team dealt with adversities attached to bad health. The Orioles fought through them to earn the top Wild Card, but the achievement didn’t satisfy. They went .500 in the second half. This wasn't a division title. Fans didn’t want to hear excuses.

The reality is that the Orioles would have been a much better club with full seasons out of Kyle Bradish, John Means, Tyler Wells, Grayson Rodriguez, Danny Coulombe, Jordan Westburg, Ramón Urias and Ryan Mountcastle. There’s no way to dispute that fact except to vent. And I didn’t include Jorge Mateo, who stopped hitting again but had the ability to influence games with his speed.  

The injured list will be used again, but the Orioles hope to put fewer players on it. Their depth was tested and often praised in 2024 but they’d be wise to sign some veteran starters for Triple-A Norfolk’s roster rather than turn to rookies again or hope to catch another Albert Suárez in a bottle.

Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott can compete for spots in the rotation. They were gambles this year as replacements on a contender.

The return of Félix Bautista.

Bautista will be full-go at the start of camp, giving the Orioles a dominant All-Star closer if he’s back to 2023 form.

That might be a big ask initially.

Bautista raised the bar to ridiculous heights, even for a man his size. He was 8-2 with a 1.48 ERA, 0.918 WHIP and 110 strikeouts in 61 innings for a 16.2 average per nine frames, and his fastball lived in triple digits. He finished 11^th in Cy Young voting in the American League and would have garnered more votes if his last pitch wasn’t thrown on Aug. 25.

Bullpen sessions and live batting practices aren’t the same as facing major league hitters in the regular season. He’ll appear in Grapefruit League games. Still not the same. But at least he can prove that he’s healthy and ready to handle the usual load instead of the Orioles having to use extreme early caution.

Bautista may not duplicate his All-Star season but coming close to it would be a tremendous boost.

Stop coming up small in big situations.

I’m talking about runners in scoring position.

The Orioles kept stalling in the clutch during their second-half plummet. They’d get men on base and fail to move them up or get them in. To say “do better” takes us back to how it’s not as easy to do.

Their .251 average with RISP ranked 17^th in the majors, their .314 on-base percentage was 23^rd and their .741 OPS was 16^th. Their 514 runs scored ranked 15^th.

A year earlier, the Orioles ranked first with a .287 average, second with a .356 on-base percentage, first with a .481 slugging percentage and first with an .837 OPS. Their 622 runs scored were second behind the Dodgers’ 635.

The Orioles went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position in the Wild Card series and left 16 on base. They were outscored 3-1.

The fifth inning of Game 2 was a prime and painful example. Bases loaded, no outs in a tie game and Anthony Santander pops up, Colton Cowser strikes out on a pitch that fractures his left hand, and Adley Rutschman grounds out.

It could flip back to 2023 next season. Better luck and a better approach than trying to do too much and abandoning everything that’s preached. The Orioles will have different voices among their hitting coaches. They can’t repeat what happened this year.