BALTIMORE -- Late Wednesday night,Pete Alonsoled his Orioles teammates back onto the field at Camden Yards so they could tip their caps to the Baltimore fans following a doubleheader sweep of the Blue Jays. The regular-season home schedule was complete, but Alonso and the O’s were still hopeful they could be playing here in October.
However, they will not. Their longshot playoff aspirations are no more.
The Orioles were eliminated from postseason contention during their off-day on Thursday, when the White Sox clinched a playoff berth with a 9-1 win over the Royals in Kansas City. Baltimore entered the day with an elimination number of one, so it would have taken an improbable run to sneak into the postseason.
This isn’t what the O’s were expecting to happen in 2026. After making consecutive playoff appearances in ‘23 and ‘24 -- including winning the American League East title in the former -- they had a disappointing ‘25 season in which they went 75-87 and finished last in the AL East.
The hopes were high for a bounce-back ‘26. The Orioles had a new manager (Craig Albernaz) and a new star player (first baseman Pete Alonso, who signed a five-year, $155 million deal) to try to lead them back into the postseason.
But Baltimore had an up-and-down start to the year before falling into a hole too deep to climb out of. The O’s were 9-8 at the end of play on April 14, then never had a winning record the rest of the way, as they spent the summer trying to get back to .500.
On Aug. 31, the Orioles finally drew even, improving to 69-69 with a 2-1 win at Colorado that was saved by Colton Cowser’s game-ending home run robbery. They proceeded to lose six straight games to open September, a month in which they have gone 9-12.
It has left Baltimore preparing for another offseason in which it will need to regroup and retool.
“I think we need to make the team better,” president of baseball operations Mike Elias said last Saturday. “I thought we put together a really good team this year. A lot of people did, externally. We’ve just come short of the wins and losses and the projections that everybody had. And there’s been a lot of factors in that.
“But the bottom line is we need to put together a better team next year.”
The Orioles still have one series remaining, as they’ll play a three-game set vs. the AL East rival Yankees at Yankee Stadium starting Friday night. New York has already clinched its postseason berth and is locked into the No. 4 seed in the AL.
For Baltimore (78-81), it still has a chance to finish with a .500 record by sweeping the three-game series. However, the O’s have not swept a series of three or more games in the Bronx since June 6-8, 1986, when they completed a three-game sweep.
Once the season concludes, the Orioles can fully look to the future, one they still believe can be bright. There are players up and down the roster who are worth building around.
Alonso has established himself as a leader and the top player on the team. The position-player core features talented standouts such as shortstop Gunnar Henderson, catcher Samuel Basallo, infielders Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo, Cowser, outfielder Dylan Beavers and more.
Right-handers Kyle Bradish and Shane Baz are under contract long term to anchor the rotation. As always, Baltimore should be in the market for pitching to further strengthen its staff.
Although Alonso hasn’t been with the O’s as long as some of the others, he can see the vision for long-term success and believes better times -- ones that will include frequent visits to the postseason -- are coming in the near future.
“There are so many guys in that room that have got talent coming out of their ears and their eyeballs,” Alonso said. “It’s just a matter of, ‘How can we turn that talent into ‘Ws’? You have to have talent in order to win games, that’s a must. But the how, and how you use it, I think that’s a major part of it, too.”
And Alonso is ready to help the group improve and build toward positive results moving forward.
“This year, obviously, we’re not where we want to be. But I want to win in the worst way,” Alonso said. “I think, regardless of the results this year, I feel like hopefully we’ll take some time to reflect, and we’ll be better next year. I’ll be sure of that.”