The Bat Around

The 2026 Orioles season is officially over, and somehow a team that featured four starting pitchers with 150 innings, a top-10 bullpen and the American League leader in home runs and RBIs still finished 79-82. Paul and Zach look back at a bizarre and disappointing season, from injuries and offensive regression to sloppy defense and missed opportunities. More importantly, Orioles players are speaking candidly about what went wrong behind the scenes, with Chris Bassitt calling for higher standards, greater accountability and changes that reach all the way through the minor-league system. Are the Orioles missing the organizational identity that once defined “The Oriole Way,” and what has to change before 2027?

Sweep the Mets. Get swept by the Brewers. Now on the verge of sweeping the Blue Jays. One step forward, two steps back. That’s been the 2026 Orioles in a nutshell.

Now, they’re one Orioles loss or White Sox win away from elimination, with little left to play for besides staying out of last place. Meanwhile, Craig Albernaz is making headlines after publicly calling out his players following two ugly losses. Was he justified, or is the manager avoiding accountability for a team that has played sloppy, fundamentally poor baseball all season?

Plus, Pete Alonso leads the American League in home runs and RBI, the Orioles try to salvage some pride down the stretch, and we look ahead to what needs to change in 2027.

All that and more tonight on The Bat Around!

What does the future hold for Coby Mayo after another memorable home run? Pete Alonso blasted career homer No. 300 in his return to Citi Field. Can the Polar Bear eventually make a run at 500? Plus, with another MLB labor battle looming, Paul and Zach dive into the collective bargaining agreement and the growing divide between the players and owners. Plus, the Orioles are on the verge of sweeping the Mets and keeping their faint Wild Card hopes alive, but is it too little, too late? That and much more tonight on The Bat Around!

Last Sunday, the Orioles finished off a sweep of the Athletics and headed to Colorado with a chance to finally get back to .500. On Monday, Colton Cowser made one of the most spectacular game-saving catches you’ll ever see, and the Orioles did just that. Since then, everything has fallen apart. The O’s have scored just 13 runs while losing six straight, dropping them four games out of the final Wild Card spot with only 18 games remaining. For all intents and purposes, the season is over. Paul and Zach break down what went wrong, how a season that briefly had life slipped away, and what the Orioles need to do to right the ship in 2027. That and more on The Bat Around!

The Orioles did exactly what they needed to do, sweeping Oakland while nearly everything else in the Wild Card race broke their way. Baltimore is now just one game behind Cleveland for the final AL Wild Card spot with 25 games to play and three more against the Rockies before the schedule gets tougher. Paul and Zach break down the race and what the Orioles need to do the rest of the way. Plus, can Enrique Bradfield Jr. help the Orioles down the stretch? Why his speed, base running, and elite defense could help Baltimore more than his Triple-A OPS suggests. That and more on The Bat Around!

The Orioles entered a daunting 10-game stretch against the Yankees and Rays simply looking to tread water, and while they took a rather unconventional path to get there, they did exactly that, going 5-5 against the top two teams in the division. With 41 games remaining, Baltimore sits in last place in the AL East, a half-game behind Toronto, and after briefly holding the final Wild Card spot just over a week ago, they’ve lost some ground but remain just two games out. Could this be the first full season in which a sub-.500 team reaches the postseason? Plus, Felix Bautista returned to the mound for Chesapeake today for the first time in 13 months. The results weren’t pretty, and there’s clearly plenty of rust to knock off, but the big right-hander did touch 97 mph. Paul and Zach discuss that and more on The Bat Around.

After dropping the first two series of their 10-game road trip, the Orioles have responded by taking three straight in Tampa Bay, extending their winning streak over the Rays to six games and moving one win away from a second straight sweep of the American League's top seed. Baltimore now stands alone in the third American League Wild Card spot, and reinforcements could be on the way. Samuel Basallo began a rehab assignment this weekend and ripped a 111-mph, two-run double today, Blaze Alexander has quickly progressed from playing catch to fielding drills and hitting in the cage, and Félix Bautista is throwing live bullpens. With Ryan Helsley potentially returning in September as well, can the Orioles keep navigating the toughest stretch of their schedule and strengthen a roster that already finds itself holding a playoff spot? Zach Moore returns as he and Paul discuss that and more on The Bat Around!

The Orioles entered the final day of the trade deadline just 2.5 games out of a Wild Card spot and, instead of making a run, sold off Adley Rutschman, Taylor Ward, Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells for a solid haul of prospects. The trades themselves weren’t necessarily the problem. The problem was waving the white flag with what largely amounts to AAAA replacements on a team still within striking distance of October . The offense responded by going ice cold, scoring just 11 runs in six games before suddenly exploding for 10 today in a 10-5 win over Texas to pull within two games of a playoff spot. Naturally, that means they probably won’t score again until Wednesday. That’s Orioles baseball. Dillon Atkinson fills in for a vacationing Zach as we try to make sense of a deadline that ended the season while the standings say it’s still very much alive. That and more on The Bat Around.

The Orioles gave us one of the most exhilarating weeks of the season, and one of the most confusing. They took two of three from Detroit behind an epic comeback that may go down as the greatest in franchise history considering the stakes, followed it up with another dramatic comeback win over the Phillies, and then immediately crashed back to reality with consecutive shutout losses. Add in the surprising trade of Dean Kremer for an A-ball outfielder, mounting rumors involving Adley Rutschman, Taylor Ward, and Trevor Rogers, and a front office that has remained quiet while the rest of the American League arms race intensifies, and Baltimore enters the trade deadline just two-and-a-half games out of a playoff spot with more questions than answers. Tonight, we'll try to make sense of where this team stands with less than 24 hours until the deadline. That and more on The Bat Around.

Another week, another round of woulda, coulda, shoulda for the Orioles. Baltimore went just 2-4 against Boston and Atlanta in a week that easily could—and probably should—have been 5-1. Four-error games, disastrous early innings, blown late leads, sloppy defense, wasted opportunities and a bases-loaded, nobody-out chance in extra innings that somehow produced nothing. It was six games that perfectly encapsulated the frustration of this season. And yet, somehow, the Orioles remain just 2.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot. Tonight on The Bat Around, Paul & Zach break down a team wasting one of baseball’s best starting rotations with an offense that simply isn’t producing and a bullpen that hasn’t been good enough, and ask how much longer the Orioles can keep letting winnable games slip away while the postseason remains within reach.