3 Baltimore Orioles who definitely won’t be back after another playoff debacle

The Baltimore Orioles spent 75 percent of the 2024 season looking like one of the best teams in the game. They had a chance to finish the season with the best record in all of baseball.

But they ended up in the Wild Card round, where they faced the Kansas City Royals. This matchup with the Royals did not go well for Baltimore, as the Orioles were quickly eliminated from the playoffs in two games, extending their postseason losing streak to ten straight games. Baltimore scored just one run in what ended up being a two-game series with the Royals.

Something has to change in Baltimore. They have the young talent, but will need to make some changes to their roster if they want to have a chance in the postseason.

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There are some players on this list that are fairly easy options. They are the players who were on the major league roster for some time this season but played so poorly that they were sent to the minors and didn’t even make the postseason roster. You’ll notice this as a trend for this Orioles roster, as Baltimore is paying quite a bit of money to players in the minor leagues this year.

Starting things off is right-handed pitcher Adrian Houser. Houser made seven starts and 23 appearances for the Orioles this season and was simply bad the entire season. This came after a successful career with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he posted a career ERA of 4.00 with Milwaukee. But in his time with Baltimore, he posted an ERA of nearly 6.00 with a WHIP of 1.53.

He simply wasn’t a competitive pitcher and the Orioles lost too many games because of their pitching to try to get Houser back next year. There’s a chance he could resurrect his career with another organization since Houser is headed to free agency, but the Orioles certainly don’t want him back, especially after paying him over $5 million this season.

33-year veteran JD Davis is in the same boat as Houser. He spent part of the season on a few different active MLB rosters, but he played terribly and was sent to the minors, where he ended up with the Orioles. Davis never made it back up and was not on the Orioles’ postseason roster for good reason. Still, they paid him nearly $2 million to be a net negative player this season. With Baltimore’s season officially over, Davis is poised to hit free agency.

With Davis heading into free agency, the Orioles front office will likely never speak to him again. They took an outside chance on him this season after he struggled with both the Athletics and Yankees and Davis never amounted to anything for Baltimore. That year, Davis slashed .218/.293/.338 with a handful of extra-base hits. He was released by the Yankees in August and signed with the Orioles.

Davis isn’t a huge loss for the Orioles since he never saw MLB action with the team, but he’s still a player they’re looking to remove from their payroll for the 2025 season. The Orioles only need net positive players and Davis isn’t one anymore.

Austin Slater experienced a bounce in the league this year, starting the season with the San Francisco Giants before moving to the Cincinnati Reds and ultimately the Baltimore Orioles, where he finished the season.

That year, Slater played in just 33 games for the Orioles, in which he slashed .246/.342/.333 with a handful of extra-base hits. Unlike the other two players on this list, Slater was a major league player, and he made the postseason roster, even seeing some postseason at-bats.

Still, the Orioles shouldn’t be interested in adding a veteran hitter who only posts a .675 OPS back to the roster. They have too much talent in their minor league system to toy around with the idea of ​​such a subpar hitter.

Slater has served his purpose in the team, but he just can’t make the difference. The Orioles managed just one run in the postseason and Slater helped them take over at-bats. If they want to compete in the postseason, they can’t have a slugger like Slater making the offense when it matters most.