Orioles Should Still Be Concerned About State of Rotation Ahead of Opening Day

Will the starting rotation hold the Baltimore Orioles back in 2025?

Nick Ziegler | Mar 26, 2025

Feb 27, 2025; Sarasota, Florida, USA; Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez (30) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Ed Smith Stadium. / Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

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Baltimore Orioles

With the start of the regular season nearly here for the Baltimore Orioles, the team will be expecting a great year once again.

The Orioles have done a really strong job of rebuilding and are now enjoying the fruits of their labor in recent campaigns.

Thanks to strong drafting and development of prospects, the team has one of the best young lineups in baseball.

Last season, the team made a big splash by acquiring former National League Cy Young, Corbin Burnes, from the Milwaukee Brewers. The thought was that the talented right-hander could be the missing piece for them and postseason success.

However, injuries derailed the campaign for Baltimore, and they weren’t able to have the postseason success that they desired.

This winter, Burnes left in free agency, which left a massive void in the rotation for the Orioles. Even though they added a couple of veterans in Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano, the team is lacking an ace.

The decision not to sign or trade for a top-end starter this winter has caused a lot of concern about how far Baltimore could go this year.

Jake Rill of MLB.com recently spoke about the biggest unknown for the Orioles heading into the year being whether the starting rotation will be good or not.

“The O’s have aspirations of a deep October run, but they’ll need their starting pitching to help get them there.”

If Baltimore is going to have a deep run in October, the current rotation will likely have to be improved in order to do so.

Currently, their projected ace, Grayson Rodriguez, is dealing with some arm issues, which is never ideal this early in the year. Furthermore, staying healthy has been a bit of an issue for the right-hander.

When he’s on the mound, he is trending in the right direction toward being a front-end starter, but there is still a lot to prove.

Furthermore, while Zack Eflin was very good for the team in the second half of the year, he pitched way better than his career numbers indicate.

The rotation should be just fine to start the season and the Orioles will likely win a lot of games. However, when it comes to playoff time, they would likely be behind the eight-ball in most pitching matchups against projected American League contenders.

As the season progresses, Baltimore will certainly be in the mix for some of the potential starting pitchers that will be available.

However, the franchise will certainly be hoping that they have enough pitching to get them to where they want to be this year.

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