Baltimore Orioles vs New York Yankees: 3 takeaways

The Baltimore Orioles’ struggles continued against the New York Yankees, bringing their losing streak to a whopping seven games.

The recent run of rainy weather in the state of Maryland has affected every facet of life, from road closures to baseball. The Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees were scheduled to play four games between Thursday and Sunday, but Mother Nature had other plans, causing a pair of postponements.

The Orioles did play on Friday and Saturday, and what we saw wasn’t pretty. The Birds jumped out to a first-inning lead in both contests, but starters Andrew Cashner and Kevin Gausman were both worn down by the Yankees’ potent lineup. The O’s also struggled to make plays on defense, capping the frustrating weekend with a three-error inning on Saturday.

At 17-41, the Orioles have the worst record in baseball — even stripped-down teams like the White Sox and Marlins are outperforming them by a significant margin. With their losing streak up to seven games, they’re on pace for a 47-115 record. They won’t finish quite that low — numbers tend to regress toward the mean over the course of a long season — but it’s worth wondering how far they’ll fall before the tide starts to turn.

The Birds’ poor play looked even worse than usual going up against the Yankees, but there’s still the future to look forward to. They’ll try to turn things around when they take on the Mets this week. Until then, here are three takeaways from a wet and woeful weekend.

The AL East is the most stratified division in baseball

The Orioles and Yankees spent the weekend showcasing the two extremes of the American League East. While the Yanks have the second-best record on all of baseball, the Orioles have been stuck in the cellar from the get-go.

More than two months into the season, the Birds’ poor play isn’t exactly headline news, but watching them struggle against the Yankees did put it all into perspective. Buck Showalter’s club was outclassed in every way, as the 12-6 run differential suggests.

The Yankees’ outright dominance encapsulated the dynamic in the AL East in 2018. The Red Sox (41-19) and Yankees (37-17) are miles ahead of the chasing pack — at 28-30, the Rays are the next closest at 12 games behind. No other third-place team in baseball is more than 5.5 games off the division lead, and of the seven teams that trail by 10 games or more, three are in the Al East.

The Yanks and Sox lording over the division may feel like the status quo, but it’s actually a stark change from recent seasons. In 2016, the top four teams in the AL East all finished within nine games of one another; the year before that, they finished within 13 games of one another, and in 2013, the number was 12. Fast forward to this year, and it’s a totally different story: the Yankees and Red Sox are on pace to finish over 20 games ahead of the competition for the first time since 2004.

The difference between MLB’s contenders and pretenders is rapidly expanding, and this transition is on full display in the AL East. Rebuild or not, Orioles fans would love to see the Birds reverse the trend.

This week’s MLB Draft will be huge for the Orioles’ future

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With a 9-19 month of May and a seven-game losing streak to boot, the Orioles don’t look like they’ll be contending for the World Series any time soon. The team is underachieving across the board, and several of those who are succeeding, including Manny Machado and Adam Jones, are set to hit free agency this offseason.

That’s why this week’s MLB Draft is so important to the franchise’s future. If the Birds are going to continue to perform as poorly as they did against the Yankees, they need to use these lean years to develop the next generation of All-Star Orioles.

Armed the 11th overall pick, the Orioles will have a big decision to make on Monday, and all signs point to them taking an experienced pitcher. Per Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com:

MLB.com’s latest mock Draft has the O’s selecting right-hander Cole Winn out of Lutheran High School in California. Others they’ve been linked to include prep righties Grayson Rodriguez and Carter Stewart, and lefty Ryan Weathers. If they go the college route, Callis predicts, it could be Stetson righty Logan Gilbert. … Pitching, particularly guys who are polished and can move quickly through the system, would be huge for an Orioles club that has always struggled to draft, develop and keep quality arms.

As the article states, developing a quality starter would be a huge win for the Birds. Current rotation mainstays Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy were developed in house, but beyond that, the pitching coaches have had no recent successes to speak of. Even worse, Gausman will become a free agent after the 2020 season, giving him only a slim chance of contributing to the Orioles’ next contending team.

MLB has become a league of haves and have-nots, and the weekend games against the Yankees provided a harsh picture of what that looks like. If the Orioles are going to survive in a rapidly changing landscape, the rebuild must begin now.

Next: The top 5 strikeout pitchers in Orioles history

What was your biggest takeaway from the Yankees series? Let us know on social media, and keep it here at Birds Watcher for more updates on the Baltimore Orioles.