ESNY’s MLB Preview 2025: Are Baltimore Orioles ready to blast off?

For the third year in a row, the Baltimore Orioles are a team to watch in the American League East.

In 2023, their youth movement arrived a year early and ever-so-slightly overachieved to a Wild Card. The 2024 season marked something of a sophomore slump all around. Star switch-hitting catcher Adley Rutschman, in particular, hit .207 with just three home runs after the All-Star Break compared to .273 with 16 beforehand.

Enter the brand spanking new 2025 season with an even newer-looking AL East, and Baltimore’s young core is back for another bite at the crab cake. Will their youthful energy be enough to overtake juggernauts in both New York and Boston?

Greatest Addition: Tyler O’Neill. Baltimore finished tied for third in MLB with a collective 115 wRC+, and second in home runs with 235 behind the Yankees’ 237. Thus, not long after the Bronx Bombers lost Juan Soto to the crosstown rival Mets, Baltimore pounced and beefed up their lineup with O’Neill. The heavy-swinging Canadian signed a three-year, $49.5 million deal with an opt-out after 2025.

O’Neill turned in an excellent season with the Red Sox in 2024, mashing 31 home runs with a 131 wRC+ in just 113 games. He’ll be the everyday right fielder, though his glove ranges anywhere from mediocre to average. Health is always a question mark with him, but Baltimore’s clear plan for the season is to out-hit the competition. That makes O’Neill a perfect fit in the middle of the Orioles’ order.

Greatest Loss: Corbin Burnes. This should have been a gimme for the Orioles, especially with new owner David Rubinstein in place. Burnes, a former Cy Young winner in Milwaukee, was acquired shortly before spring training last year and was as advertised in the Charm City. The big righty was 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA in 32 starts, though his strikeout totals and rates dropped for the third year in a row. Burnes also pitched eight innings of one-run ball in his sole playoff start, but Baltimore lost the game 2-1.

For some reason or another, Rubinstein and general manager Mike Elias played it conservative. Adding O’Neill and then aging veteran Charlie Morton on a one-year deal seemed better than giving Burnes ace money. That left the door open for the Arizona Diamondbacks, who inked Burnes to a six-year, $210 million deal entering his age-30 season.

Cut to Burnes being 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in five spring training starts, and the Orioles’ pitching staff suddenly seems a lot more bare bones. More on that later.

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Greatest Strength: Young lineup. This Orioles lineup is young, hungry, and talented from top to bottom. Designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn is the old man of the group at a healthy 31. Every other lineup staple is 30 or younger and swings a big bat when at their best.

Nine lineup slots, each occupied by a player capable of hitting at least 15-20 home runs a year, and that’s after losing Anthony Santander’s switch-hitting power. Is that enough to keep up with the mighty Yankees and the Boston-strong Red Sox? This lineup can definitely make a deep playoff run if it can carry the team far enough towards October.

Greatest Weakness: Who’s pitching? Burnes’ departure for Arizona didn’t leave a hole in Baltimore’s pitching staff, but a crater. And not just because signing a 41-year-old Charlie Morton was the team’s big arm addition. Righties Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells are both recovering from elbow surgeries and out indefinitely. Former top prospect Grayson Rodriguez has his own elbow troubles.

That leaves Opening Day starter Zach Eflin, who’s never thrown 180 innings in a season, as the ace. Dominant closer Felix Bautista is back from Tommy John surgery, but his overall velocity is down more in the mid-90s. He often touched 100 mph or better before his injury.

It suddenly makes sense why the Orioles finished with a Top 5 offense, but a middling-to-sub-average pitching staff.

Will the Baltimore Orioles’ bats carry them in 2025? They had better hope so, because that’s about all I like about these Orioles. Their lineup is strong enough to keep pace in the division and even steal some wins from division rivals New York and Boston. But therein lies the problem for Baltimore: their bats can only take them so far.

This means that the O’s only take the East if they overachieve big out of the starting gate. More realistically, they’re maybe a Wild Card team if a pitcher breaks out behind Eflin and Morton. How to bet them during the season is tough, but betting on multi-hit games or even home runs for anyone in the lineup could make some money on any NY sports betting apps.

Otherwise, picking the Orioles to finish anywhere beyond the Wild Card round is just too risky.

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