{"id":107593,"date":"2025-09-22T23:28:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T03:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=107593"},"modified":"2025-09-22T23:28:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T03:28:23","slug":"orioles-could-drop-three-players-this-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/09\/22\/orioles-could-drop-three-players-this-offseason\/","title":{"rendered":"The Orioles Could Drop Three Players This Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore Orioles have been eliminated from postseason contention, meaning they can now focus on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/31\/three-orioles-breakout-players-poised-to-erupt-in-2026\/\" target=\"_self\">offseason<\/a>. There&#8217;s already been discussion on who the team is going to target and where their biggest needs are. Pitching is their biggest need, along with a hole or two in the outfield.<\/p>\n<p>What hasn&#8217;t been discussed are the pieces that might be leaving in the offseason. The team has one impending free agent and four others that will become free agents in 2027. It doesn&#8217;t include other players that might switch teams in the offseason to make room for big signings.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_101313\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101313\" style=\"width: 576px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-101313\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/05\/USATSI_26332663_168400885_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Mountcastle suffered an apparent injury on Friday, but others are waiting in the wings at first base if he misses time.\" width=\"576\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/05\/USATSI_26332663_168400885_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/05\/USATSI_26332663_168400885_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/05\/USATSI_26332663_168400885_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/05\/USATSI_26332663_168400885_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/05\/USATSI_26332663_168400885_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/05\/USATSI_26332663_168400885_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/05\/USATSI_26332663_168400885_lowres.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-101313\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">May 30, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles first baseman Ryan Mountcastle (6) hits a single during the sixth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Three Orioles Who May Be Departing This Offseason<\/h2>\n<h3>Will Tomoyuki Sugano Stick Around?<\/h3>\n<p>The 35-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/suganto01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tomoyuki Sugano<\/a> is arguably the biggest impact signing for the team coming off the 2024-25 offseason. He <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/suganto01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">started<\/a> well, holding an ERA under 3.50 through April and May with a WHIP consistently around the 1.100 mark. While he did surrender around one hit per inning, he didn&#8217;t constantly walk batters, boding well for his decent start.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Tomoyuki Sugano kept rolling in August, firing five scoreless innings against the Red Sox and trimming his ERA this month to 2.01. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XjaZlFjXBn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/XjaZlFjXBn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pitch Profiler (@pitchprofiler) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pitchprofiler\/status\/1957978095673307470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As the season went on, his hit rate increased to well over one per inning, and his walk rate slowly increased. What made it worse was his soaring ERA, eclipsing 6.00 for June and 5.75 for July. Sugano surrendered an American League-leading 30 home runs as well, along with a low 16% strikeout rate.<\/p>\n<p>With all of this in mind, it&#8217;s unlikely the Orioles will re-sign Sugano to the team. His numbers are not sustainable for any pitcher in the long run, even if he were to be moved to the bullpen. The team could place him in the bullpen, but there are better options.<\/p>\n<h3>Tyler O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s Contract Is Eating The Team<\/h3>\n<p>Amid a lackluster offseason, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=oneilty01,oneill001tyl,oneill002tyl&amp;search=Tyler+O&#039;Neill&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler O&#8217;Neill<\/a> was billed as the Orioles&#8217; second premier free agent signing. He started his <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.fcgi?id=oneilty01&amp;year=2025&amp;t=b\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tenure<\/a> rather amicably, hitting a .215\/.284\/.668 with two home runs in April. Subsequently, he collapsed in May while hitting under .100 in six games and then getting injured.<\/p>\n<p>After returning from the injured list, O&#8217;Neill had a productive July by going .259\/.339\/.931 with five home runs. He only played nine additional games in the next two months, however, as injuries piled up. His hard-hit percentage and exit velocity decreased substantially despite not losing any bat speed.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Tyler O\u2019Neill since coming off the IL on July 4:<\/p>\n<p>.292 BA<br \/>\n.375 OBP<br \/>\n.667 SLG<br \/>\n1.042 OPS<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s now homered in four straight games. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/o2MLaFxCVy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/o2MLaFxCVy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jcalvinmeyer\/status\/1950268785128329471?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Neill still has a route to be on the starting roster in 2026, but likely as a fourth outfielder given the emergence of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/beavedy01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dylan Beavers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cowseco01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colton Cowser<\/a>. If <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=bradfi000enr&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Enrique Bradfield Jr.<\/a> improves his hitting in the minors, then the 30-year-old veteran might be out of a job. His July might have bought him some time, and he does have an opt-out for 2026, but his $16.5 million cap hit could be too much for the team.<\/p>\n<h3>Ryan Mountcastle&#8217;s Decline<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mountry01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Mountcastle<\/a>&#8216;s <a  href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/ryan-mountcastle-663624?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">decline<\/a> this year is the culmination of many factors. While he still hits the ball hard, his power numbers have decreased dramatically over time. Whereas 35% of all his batted balls were grounders in 2021, that number jumped to 46% in 2025. His flyball rate also plunged to a career low of 22%.<\/p>\n<p>Mountcastle is not getting under the ball like he used to and is rather swinging above the ball. This isn&#8217;t even including the fact that he holds one of the highest chase and whiff rates in all of baseball. Something is wrong with the veteran first baseman&#8217;s swing, and it could be time to jump ship.<\/p>\n<p>No team would likely trade for Mountcastle one-on-one, so he would likely be bundled with a prospect package. Regardless, his job is in jeopardy as the team could look to get a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/09\/08\/does-kazuma-okamoto-make-sense-2026-orioles\/\" target=\"_self\">Japanese<\/a> first baseman, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=okamot002kaz&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-09-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kazuma Okamoto<\/a>. It won&#8217;t be easy, but the team is very likely to move on from him in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore Orioles have been eliminated from postseason contention, meaning they can now focus on the offseason. There&#8217;s already been discussion on who the team is going to target and where their biggest needs are. Pitching is their biggest need, along with a hole or two in the outfield. What hasn&#8217;t been discussed are the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5304,"featured_media":103726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1071,35],"tags":[3336,4361,1978],"class_list":["post-107593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orioles","category-mlb","category-news","tag-ryan-mountcastle","tag-tomoyuki-sugano","tag-tyler-oneill"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107593"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107625,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107593\/revisions\/107625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}