By Blake Andrys: Staff Writer
The Orioles have been eliminated from the post season for the second season in a row on September 24th 2026.
With a win of the White Sox the Orioles have been officially eliminated from the post season. After starting off the season off strong with a 9-7 record and one of the best records in the American league, they have been eliminated from the playoffs.
The Orioles had a chance to make the playoffs at 69-69 but they had a tough final game stretch which was one of the reasons that caused them to lose their chance to make the playoffs. After performing badly this season with only 79 wins and 82 losses. Pete Alsonso, the Orioles first base man said “we failed to perform and do what we were supposed to do” and “that’s unacceptable for us.”
The Orioles have also dealt with a lot of injuries, especially with star player Gunner Henderson who had a wrist injury for half the year. Jackson Holiday, the Orioles second baseman, was also injured which would’ve probably been very important to the Orioles final matches.
The Orioles schedule difficulty compared to other teams this season was ranked 11th hardest out of all the 30 teams ranked by ESPN, using Strength of Schedule metrics. This was another factor that contributed to the Orioles missing the post season.
Mike Elias, the Orioles General Manager, stated “results need to be better” and declared, “this is the second year in a row that they haven’t been there to this degree and we’re tired of it.”
Some offseason mistakes had also contributed to the Orioles missing the playoffs, such as trading Adley Rutschman to a division rival the Boston Red Sox. They were only 5 wins away from making the playoffs and keeping Rutschman could’ve been enough to get those 5 wins.
The Orioles had also made bad management decisions such as not signing some players that were available when they had the chance, which includes pitcher Framber Valdez. They also had one of the smallest front offices in the league ranked 29th out of all of the 30 teams.
The team also struggled with how they swung as although prioritizing hard swings caused them to lead the league in ball speed, it caused them to have a very high strike out rate because it would cause the accuracy to go down a lot.
The Orioles also struggled a lot with pitching as almost their entire starting line up of pitchers was injured which negatively impacted their pitching a lot.
This shows how small some championship windows are as they went from the best team in the league in 2023 to the window effectively being closed.
The Orioles might not even play next season due to the lockout which they already prepared for.