The Baltimore Orioles walked into 2025 as if 2024’s late-season wobble was a blip, not a warning. They treated frontline starting pitching like a luxury add-on rather than the spine of a contender, and everything that followed radiated from that single blind spot.
The result wasn’t just a step back; it was a hard correction to the mean, an avoidable slide that became their worst season since 2021. You can talk about bad luck, schedules, or small samples. But the truth is simpler: Baltimore bet the year on stitching together a rotation, and the seams split by Memorial Day.