Despite an expensive offense, a veteran pitcher's healthy return and a revamped rotation could propel the Orioles to October contention.
We are only three nights away from Baltimore Orioles opening day, and this team has sky high expectations.
After setting a franchise record for payroll in an off-season, Baltimore has World Series aspirations, but comes at the expense of having a "subpar" pitching rotation.
Baltimore invested $155 million dollars on Pete Alonso this off-season, but only spent $42.5 million dollars on pitching, posing the question of whether or not Baltimore did enough to upgrade their weakest position group.
You could argue that they didn't do enough, but I'm here to tell you why they did more than enough, and have a veteran starting pitcher who's ready to carry this rotation back to the playoffs.
Baltimore Orioles Starting Pitcher Zach Eflin (24) | © Stephen Brashear-Imagn ImagesAround one year ago today, Eflin was Baltimore's opening day starter against the Toronto Blue Jays, in which he threw six innings of two run ball and recorded the win.
Every Baltimore fan saw that opening start and believed that Eflin would be good enough to carry to bulk of Baltimore's lackluster rotation into the playoffs. Unfortunately for both parties, that was not the case.
Eflin would deal with significant injuries throughout the 2025 season, and saw himself only male 14 starts for Baltimore in 2025.
In only 71.1 innings of work, Eflin would post a disastrous 5.93 ERA, 1.42 WHIP with a -0.3 WAR.
His 2025 season would eventually be cut short in August, giving him time to rehab and make a full recovery by 2026 spring training.
Eflin would return to spring action a week delayed, but looked like a completely improved version of himself.
In 7.1 innings, Eflin didn't allow a single earned run, while striking out ten batters and surrendering only three base runners. While he only appeared in two games, it was evident that Eflin has made a healthy recovery back from his injury riddled 2025 year.
If Baltimore can get high level production out of the five hole with Eflin, there's no reason as to why their rotation couldn't be one of the better units in the American League.
Led by opening day starter Trevor Rogers, Baltimore has a dominant lefty on the mound. Rogers is followed up by former Cy Young runner up in Kyle Bradish, who is arguably a top ten pitcher in baseball when fully healthy.
Then you have a high upside arm in Shane Baz who was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in December. Then Chris Bassitt provides the leadership and experience out the rotation, giving Eflin lower expectations which could result in better play.
Contrary to believe, Baltimore's starting pitching rotation is in an excellent spot heading into the 2026 season.