Orioles lose yet another key bat ahead of pivotal week of games leading up to the trade deadline

For most of the season, three of the Orioles' five best hitters were Adley Rutschman, Samuel Basallo and Blaze Alexander. In the span of the last two weeks, all three of them have now hit the IL, with Basallo joining Rutschman and Alexander yesterday morning just before the Orioles’ doubleheader against the Red Sox.

Basallo had not played since leaving Sunday's series finale against the Astros in the second inning, but the Orioles clearly were hoping that he'd be able to avoid the IL with a few days off. A rainout made it possible that Basallo might only miss one game, but while trying to get ramped up on Wednesday morning, Basallo just wasn't right, and rather than go into a doubleheader with a short bench, the Orioles bit the bullet and added Basallo to the pile of names already on the IL.

Samuel Basallo and Adley Rustchman's injuries have come at a bad time for the Orioles

Basallo and Rutschman hitting the IL within two days of each other puts the Orioles in a tough spot. It weakens the top of the order becuase the Orioles usualy three hole and five hole hitters are now out of the lineup forcing worse hitters into those roles and it also weakens the bottom of the lineup becuase instead of having Jackson Holliday as a sort of second leadoff hitter in the nine hole that spot is now going to have to be filled by either Sam Huff or Chadwick Tromp who are both very poor hitters.

The timing of these injuries is especially brutal becuase the team has nine games before the trade deadline against the Braves, Tigers, and Phillies, all teams that are pushing for the playoffs. How the Orioles perform over that stretch is going to decide what happens to the team at the trade deadline.

A 3-6 stretch or anything worse most likely results in the team selling at the deadline; a 4-5 or 5-4 stretch probably has the Orioles standing pat, while a 6-3 or better stretch could turn them into aggressive buyers.

It seems a little silly that a nine-game stretch would weigh so heavily, but the difference between 3-6 and 6-3 is probably the difference between being 1-2 games out of a playoff spot or 6-7 games out, and that's a big difference.

The only good news is that, according to the Orioles, these are not serious injuries that should keep Rutschman and Basallo out longer than the minimum 10 days. In both cases, it seems like these are nagging issues, and the Orioles decided they would be better off giving their star players extra time to recover rather than having them try to play through discomfort and risk exacerbating the injuries while also playing worse because of them.

Hopefully this pays off, and the Orioles can play well enough without them that the front office doesn't sell at the deadline and both Rutschman and Basallo can come back and be effective for the rest of the season.

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