The one thing MLB has been begging for could be the silver lining to the Orioles' slow start

Over the past several years, as the Dodgers have flexed their financial muscles to the tune of back-to-back championships, and as the upcoming CBA negotiations approach, the word "parity" has been a hot topic. When parity is discussed in baseball, it's about the lack of parity, but it is different this season in the lead-up to CBA negotiations. Many of the typical basement dwellers have put a better foot forward than usual and as you look around the league, the difference between the leaders in the standings and the those bringing up the rear is smaller. The biggest beneficiaries of this flattening might just be the Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles entered the season with high expectations following a disappointing 2025 campaign and an unusually aggressive offseason. They had what on paper looked like an easy schedule to start the year, which is why the fact that they've started the year 11-12 is somewhat disheartening. Beyond their record, several of their key young players they were counting on to take a step forward have looked completely overmatched at the plate and, honestly, don't look like MLB-level hitters right now.

Their two "top of the rotation" arms, who they expected to carry the rotation, have not looked like real aces, and the rotation in general seems to struggle with its command, start to finish. The bullpen has been good, but if the starters can't make it out of the fifth more often, they'll soon be worn down from overuse.

This doesn't feel like the team that Orioles fans were promised, but that may just be okay

The good news is that many teams feel that way. In their own division, the Blue Jays and the Red Sox both entered the season with high hopes of winning the division and contending for the World Series, and just a few weeks into the season, those teams don't look at all the way their fans imagined they would either. They are both looking up at the Orioles in the standings, and they didn't get there by accident; they've really struggled.

A big reason for these would be contenders getting off to slower starts than they thought they would is that the worst teams in the league aren't as bad as they've been over the last few years. The White Sox and the Rockies have set records for how they've been losing over the last few years. This season, they both have already won series against the defending AL Champs and have respectable records. There just aren't a bunch of walkover teams where you can stack wins with your eyes closed, and that is manifesting in that there are only five teams in the AL with winning records.

This is good for the Orioles, because if the inverse were true and the dregs of the league were handing out wins left and right, the Orioles' sub-.500 records through 23 games would have put them in a hole to start the year. As is, they're just a half-game out of the wild card and just 2.5 games out of the division. To quote Aaron Boone, "it's right in front of them".

The flattened standings mean the Orioles' sputtering is not a death knell for their season. You look at their roster, and they are too talented to be a sub .500. team. Pete Alonso is going to get up to his career numbers, Gunnar Henderson is not going to hit below the Mendoza line, and at least one, if not two, of the Orioles starters is going to get their ERA down below 4.00 eventually.

This isn't going to be a season where you have to win 94 games to make the playoffs, as long as the Orioles can hover just above .500, they'll be back playing in October again.

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