It’s been a tough season for the Orioles. Despite a fantastic 2014 season, the team has no chance at making the playoffs – MLB.com pegs their playoff odds at exactly 0.1%, which is only mathematically distinct from zero. Still, at just under .500 in a tough division, the Orioles haven’t been a bad team, just a very, very unlucky one.
How did we get here? The Orioles won the division last year. If you’re an fan, all you can do is throw up your hands — and blame this crazy season on these four things that went wrong.
A Quiet Offseason
The Orioles didn’t make big moves at the trade deadline, because the season was already on shaky ground by then. But what about last offseason? Why didn’t they make moves then?
It’s a question that still has fans scratching their heads. The Orioles had a big 2014 season, and they lost some key pieces in the offseason (including Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis, and Andrew Miller). Plenty of observers said that the Orioles needed to sign some free agents or make some trades to shore up their squad after these losses. Instead, the Orioles sat tight and saved their money. This season proved the observers right.
Damn Yankees
The Yankees were supposed to be lousy this year. With aging players filling a mediocre roster, there was every reason to believe that the two traditional powers in the AL East (New York and Boston) would be also-rans. Sure, there were some pundits who picked the Yankees and Red Sox (there always are), but it seemed like Toronto would be Baltimore’s primary competition and vice versa.
That didn’t come to pass. A-Rod is delivering, and so are the Yankees as a whole. That made the Orioles division schedule tougher and the standards for making the playoffs in of the AL East higher. It put pressure on Toronto, who made big trades to get better at the deadline. In short, it threw a wrench into the whole thing.
The Rays have been mediocre, and they’re only slightly behind the Orioles. Boston has had its own struggles, but they’re still performing significantly better than truly bad teams like the Braves and the Phillies. The AL East looked like a cakewalk division at the start of the year, but it’s been absolutely brutal.
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