Three Things Orioles Fans Can Watch for Over the Rest of the Season

The 2025 Baltimore Orioles have had an extremely frustrating season. Falling into an early hole ruined the team’s chances of contending for the postseason, while injuries kept several stars from playing for the majority of the year.

When players reported to the O’s spring training facility in Sarasota, FL, the hope was that back-to-back winless postseason appearances would light a fire in the players to change things in 2025.

After a poor season, we will not know if they fixed those issues until at least 2026.

While the Orioles will not be headed to the playoffs, the team has been playing some decent baseball in the second half, including four straight wins in walk-off fashion.

With just over two weeks left in the season, here are three things Orioles fans can watch for.

Will Anyone Get to 20 Homers?

In 2024, the Orioles ranked second in the league in home runs with 235. Anthony Santander and Gunnar Henderson combined for 81.

In 2025, the Orioles are on pace for just 192 home runs, 43 fewer than their 2024 total.

The dip can mostly be attributed to injuries and trades. Prominent hitters like Jordan Westburg, Ryan Mountcastle, Colton Cowser and Adley Rutschman all have spent extended time on the IL, while Ryan O’Hearn, Cedric Mullins and Ramon Laureano, who are all still top six on the team in home runs, were dealt at the trade deadline.

With 16 games left in the season, the team is without a 20-home run hitter. The last time the O’s did not have a 20 home run hitter was in 2001 when outfielder Chris Richard and designated hitter Jay Gibbons led the team with 15 home runs each.

The current home run leader on the team is Jackson Holliday with 17, while Henderson is in second with 16. 

If you would have told Orioles fans in March that Holliday would be the team’s home run leader this late in the season, they would have thought we were in store for an MVP-caliber season, or that things had really gone off the rails. Unfortunately, it has been the latter.

Both Holliday and Henderson have the ability to get to 20 homers. However, the fact that no one has gotten 20 homers yet is a strong indicator of the number of injuries the team has dealt with on offense.

How High Can Rogers Fly?

After Corbin Burnes’ departure in the offseason, the Orioles had a hole to fill at the top of the rotation. Who could they acquire to help fill that spot as the team’s ace?

It turns out that they might have answered that question at the 2024 trade deadline by acquiring Trevor Rogers.

Since the southpaw made his 2025 debut on May 24, his 1.51 ERA and .217 wOBA are the lowest among starting pitchers (min. 90 IP).

What was once thought of as a hot start has turned into a dominant season. Had Rogers started the year healthy, the 27-year-old might be leading the Cy Young race.

Rogers’ sustained success has put him on track to finish with one of the best pitching seasons in O’s franchise history.

The lefty currently has a bWAR of 5.2, which is tied for 40th all-time for an O’s hurler. If he can keep the dominant outings up, he is projected to finish with a 6.2 bWAR, tied for 20th all-time.

The two O’s pitchers who have managed exactly 6.2 bWAR in a season were Sam Grey in 1929, who threw 305 innings, and Allen Sothoron in 1919, who threw 270 innings. Rogers is only at 95.2 innings.

Rogers’ bounce-back from 2024 has widely surprised Orioles fans. It will be entertaining to see if he can cement his season as a top-20 campaign in Orioles pitching history over his last three starts.

Bullpen Battle

At the trade deadline, the O’s traded away four relievers. The team also lost closer Félix Bautista to a torn rotator cuff and labrum, potentially losing him for the 2026 season as well.

In the chasm left in the bullpen, several arms have had substantial opportunities to prove themselves to the O’s brass. Lefty Dietrich Enns and righties Rico Garcia and Kade Strowd have been doing their best to put their hats in the ring for the 2026 bullpen.

First up, we have Enns, a 34-year-old southpaw the Orioles acquired from the Detroit Tigers on deadline day. In 20.1 innings, Enns has an ERA+ of 132 and 10.6 K/9. Opponents have managed just a .694 OPS against Enns.

Garcia is another acquisition the Orioles made during the season, as the veteran righty was claimed by the O’s off waivers from the New York Mets. In 12.1 innings, the 31-year-old has a 2.92 ERA and 2.2 BB/9. In high-leverage situations, Garcia has held hitters to a .176 batting average.

Finally, we have Strowd, a 27-year-old righty who has been in the organization since he was drafted by the O’s in 2019. 

In his rookie season, across 19 appearances, the righty has a 1.27 ERA and 93.8% left-on-base percentage. Across 21.1 innings, the West Virginia University product has only surrendered one home run.

The Orioles will have some shopping to do on the reliever market, but Enns, Garcia and Strowd have helped relieve some of the pressure on the front office. 

Sprinting to the Finish

Since mid-August, when Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo were called up, baseball has been fun again in Baltimore. The O’s have won eight of their past nine games, including sweeps over the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates and four straight walk-off wins, becoming the first team to do that since 2014.

As pitchers like Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells have returned from injuries, the pitching staff has also looked much better in recent weeks.

The Orioles are primed to play spoiler over the last three weeks of the season. After taking five of six from the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, the O’s have three games left against the Toronto Blue Jays and seven against the New York Yankees.

After such a frustrating season, I am sure O’s fans would find it enjoyable to watch the O’s make life tougher for division rivals fighting for their postseason seeding.