The Orioles are at a ‘crucial point.’ Can they avoid a free fall?

NEW YORK — Back in spring training, when right-hander Chris Bassitt arrived in Florida, he immediately spoke of lofty goals. The reason he signed with the Orioles, he said, was because he intended to return to the World Series — and win it this time.

He had just been to the Fall Classic with the Toronto Blue Jays. They came up short. On that February morning in Sarasota, the veteran pitcher said Baltimore “has the ability” to go all the way.

On Monday, hours before the Orioles suffered the final loss in a four-game sweep to the New York Yankees that dropped Baltimore to 15-20, Bassitt was reminded of his earlier words. With the way the Orioles are playing, is this still a team capable of making a deep run postseason run?

“The reality is, we’re missing so many guys, and so many key guys,” Bassitt said. “It’s hard to say we’re not a World Series contender or we’re not a playoff-caliber team just because the guys we’re missing. It would be one thing if we were missing some — no offense — some smaller-name guys, but a lot of the guys we’re missing are big names for us.”

Be that as it may, every team has injuries. Every team must rely on depth or the presence of the stars who remain healthy. So what’s really going on here?

Baltimore was thoroughly outplayed in every facet by New York, a club that has won 12 of its last 13 games against the Orioles. A source with understanding of the front office’s thinking characterized all three facets of play — pitching, hitting and defense — this year as below the level of projections. What has transpired doesn’t match spring training expectations.

So at the end of this dismal four-game series in New York, one of these teams looked like a World Series contender. It wasn’t the Orioles. Not by any measure.

Beyond the injuries and beyond the fact the Yankees seem to be running away with the American League after one month of play, the Orioles must look in the mirror and reflect. Bassitt did just that.

“It’s a matter to me of how we’re playing, and right now, we’re playing really poorly,” Bassitt said. “So many mental mistakes. Pitching-wise, a lot of mental mistakes, along with just pitching mistakes. Hitting, I think, has been good overall. It’s just, when you’re making a ton of defensive mental mistakes along with a ton of pitching mistakes, it puts a ton of pressure on your offense to score a bunch of runs, so we’ve got to find a way to just play a clean game of baseball.”

He continued: “I’m looking at why this is happening, and again, I just feel like we have to start cleaning things up and we have to play a much cleaner game of baseball. This league is so hard when you’re beating yourself. When you’re beating yourself, it is so hard to be a good team. So, that’s the thing I look for, us cleaning up the game, playing clean, good baseball, and if they beat us, they beat us. But the reality is, don’t beat ourselves, and I feel like in so many games this year, we have just flat out beat ourselves.”

Two things can be true. It’s early, which means the Orioles have time to recover. But if last year proved anything, when Baltimore stumbled in May and couldn’t stabilize, it can get late quickly.

After Sunday’s loss, during which the Yankees scored seven runs in the eighth inning to turn a close contest into a laugher, manager Craig Albernaz posed a question during his media availability that may as well have been streamed right to his players’ phones.

“What team do you want to be?” Albernaz said.

Answering his own question, Albernaz said he firmly believes Baltimore will rally, will “put the work in and really make this happen.”

Around the clubhouse Monday, several key players said they identified with Albernaz’s call to action. Shortstop Gunnar Henderson said there is no time to dally, even though it is early May. “We’ve had a month to kind of settle in,” Henderson said. “Me, personally, I need to step up and be better.”

“We’ve got to get going, for sure,” said Pete Alonso, who signed with the Orioles this offseason for five years and $155 million.

“It’s a crucial point, and I think our guys are up to the challenge,” catcher Adley Rutschman said. “I know our guys are up to the challenge.”

While right-hander Kyle Bradish said he agrees with Albernaz’s appeal, he noted that none of them can afford to be carried away by thoughts of October while in May. “Big picture, one game at a time, as cliché as it sounds,” Bradish said. “Winning today’s game, stacking a few wins, and worrying about what’s next instead of winning the next 130 games. We can’t win all 130 games today.”

They’re having trouble winning any games currently. For the first time in Orioles history, they’ve lost five straight games by five or more runs each. They have the second-worst run differential in baseball.

There’s no other way to put it: This is ugly.

“We’ve just got to start stepping up and playing better baseball,” right-hander Andrew Kittredge said. “I don’t think anything’s preventing it. Guys just have to step up, myself included. Just attack, attack. It’s the same for pitchers as hitters. We need to go take it instead of trying to wait for it to happen.”

The optics around this team are poor, and it’s not solely because of the record. The manner of those losses bypass concern and straddle the line of panic. Bassitt said this has the feel of a team trying to do too much, and by playing with a fear of making mistakes, more mistakes tend to come.

Alonso said it could be that, or the exact opposite.

“Whatever it is, each individual thing, it could be different. It could be pressing; it could be trying to be too casual,” Alonso said. He has seen many things in baseball. He has been part of postseason races and the dog days of summer.

“It’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish and where you finish,” he said. “And I think throughout the course of the year, I think we can draw back from this really tough experience and use this in a positive way where it’s like, ‘Hey, we know what not to do.’”

Did they really need such a reminder? Alonso wasn’t in Baltimore last season, so he didn’t witness first-hand the collapse and subsequent firing of manager Brandon Hyde, but several other players remember that feeling.

Outfielder Colton Cowser said he doesn’t “think anyone’s really thinking about last year, to be honest.” Rutschman said that, if anything, last season’s experience could help this team avoid a similar fate.

But so far, fans can be forgiven if 2025 is on the mind. Albernaz he understands “the fans’ perspective, for sure.” He acknowledged this series was uncompetitive.

Like Bassitt, Albernaz spent the winter and spring training speaking of lofty goals. He and president of baseball operations Mike Elias outlined their intentions to return Baltimore to the postseason, and to win once there.

So, like Bassitt, Albernaz was asked Monday whether he still believed this Orioles team — with all their mistakes, with their pitching woes and hitting slumps — is capable of a deep October run.

“Yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, if you want to jump ship, you can jump ship. But don’t ask to come back on. That’s it,” Albernaz said. “It’s a long season. Like, we’re going about our process each and every day and, yeah, these four games have been tough. But it’s four games. And every loss, it stinks to lose, no matter what it is. But you want to go out the next day and get back to work and try to win the game in front of you. That’s the beauty of baseball. You play 162 games. But like I said, if you want to jump ship, you can. Just don’t ask to get back on.”

But will the ship still be afloat long enough for anyone to ask?