5 players who are entering their final days with the Orioles after disappointing 2025

As a disappointing season winds down for the 2025 Baltimore Orioles, fans are left with their eyes on the future. While not many expiring contracts remained on the team past Baltimore’s fire sale at the trade deadline, there are still players for whom the future may not be in orange and black.

The lead-up to the 2026 season looks to be a new chance for a young, hungry Orioles team to contend. This group still very much sees itself as a championship contender to load up on exciting new players, but, inevitably, others must be cut loose in order to make room for these arrivals.

While the offseason always brings unpredictability and unexpected moves, we can probably expect these guys to depart when the offseason arrives.

5 players who are entering their final days with the Orioles after disappointing 2025

Tomoyuki Sugano

Despite the early collapse of the pitching staff, Baltimore won’t find much to complain about in Sugano’s maiden campaign in Major League Baseball. The longtime NPB standout has tossed 149 2/3 innings to a respectable 4.39 ERA, 100 Ks and 10-8 record on his one-year deal thus far.

However, underlying metrics could be signaling towards a difficult reality check in future seasons. Sugano’s 5.79 xERA and .299 xBA present a steep decline from his actual stats, suggesting quite a bit of luck in his 2025 performance. While a respectable innings eater who may have caught himself some lucky bounces, he has been an incredible asset to an Orioles squad desperate for consistent starting pitching. Then again, there’s no doubt Elias and Co. will be looking for high-impact arms in the offseason, making the Orioles highly unlikely to re-sign the 35-year-old impending free agent.

Gary Sánchez

It has been a frustrating season for the veteran Sánchez. While his .231/.297/.418 slash line is far from unplayable, injuries have limited his playing time to the point his presence has barely been felt on the Orioles. Multiple IL stints have seen Sanchez limited to just 29 games this season, and he has not seen play since July 5. He's unlikely to return in what will ultimately be a lost season for both him and the organization.

While Sanchez’s one-year, $8.5 million contract was far from a bank-breaker (and his bat could possess some value in 2026), Baltimore would be hard-pressed to find a spot for him in a catching room which already has Adley Rutschman, Samuel Basallo, and Alex Jackson for next year.

Zach Eflin

Zach Eflin wound up being an incredibly important contributor to the Orioles’ 2024 stretch run, pitching to a 2.60 ERA across nine starts and getting the ball in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card series against Kansas City (he allosed one earned run over four innings). Unfortunately, his 2025 season has been nothing short of disastrous. The veteran righty has seen his numbers drop to lows not seen since the very beginning of his career — he's logged an ERA north of 5 alongside a sub-replacement level WAR for the first time since 2017.

Unfortunately, it appears the 31-year-old Eflin has begun to regress after many quality years of big-league pitching. While he can certainly regain form and discover a career renaissance in his 30s, he will likely have to try and find it somewhere else. The urgency level in Birdland is far too high to allow a rotation spot to go to a bounce-back veteran arm in the hopes a late-career resurgence can be unearthed.

Jorge Mateo

With an affordable $5.5 million club option in 2026, it may seem strange for the Orioles to let a longtime contributor like Jorge Mateo go this offseason. While the speedster utility man has not appeared in many games since his injury in July of 2024, his elite speed, defensive ability, and versatility can serve a team well off the bench.

However, Mateo may be getting beat out for his utility bench spot before our eyes as the season winds down. Jeremiah Jackson’s emergence into a quietly effective all-around utilityman could be enough to give him the nod for 2026 (and his league-minimum cost presents budget savings compared that could be put towards acquiring high-impact free agents or extending the young core of hitters). Ultimately, it seems the organization will opt for the younger, cheaper, and recently more effective Jackson and either decline Mateo’s option outright or look to ship him out in the offseason.

Ryan Mountcastle

It’s time to address the biggest hole in the Orioles’ projected lineup heading into the offseason. Neither of Mountcastle or Mayo have been effective starters at first base in recent years, with Mounty’s .256 average, 83 OPS+ and five home runs leaving plenty to be desired and Mayo’s .209 average, 79 OPS+ and nine home runs proving equally underwhelming.

Both hitters are producing poor offensive numbers at a position in which offense is at a premium, and with both doing so from the right-handed batter's box with almost no positional flexibility (Mayo has just two games at third this season), at least of them needs to go. And with Mountcastle entering his third year of arbitration eligibility at a high price, he's likely to get non-tendered while Mayo will get an opportunity to get more runway after his 2025 rookie campaign.

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