Jon Meoli: How Blaze Alexander and Coby Mayo fixed both their seasons and the Orioles’ third base problem

Blaze Alexander was fooling himself. Literally.

By the end of April, pressed into near-everyday service for the Orioles and struggling with a .172 average and a .428 OPS, he’d peek up at the scoreboard and tell himself that his OPS was actually his batting average.

“It’s right in front of you,” he said. “Everyone can see it.”

He and Coby Mayo were part of the Orioles’ third base solution as it grew more and more unlikely that Jordan Westburg’s injured elbow would allow him to retake his place on the infield. A month in, their lack of production made the position perhaps the Orioles’ most significant concern.

Both have turned their seasons around since, thanks to some adjustments from the Orioles’ hitting coaches. Since Westburg’s surgery on May 15, the Orioles’ third basemen rank near the top of the league offensively, and there’s a case now that both should be included in the team’s best lineups.

“Blaze’s superpower is his ability to play all over the field and be that versatile piece for us, and Coby has shown, as of late, the ability, one, to play third base and also to be an impact bat,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “It’s a nice problem to have.”

Early on, though, third base was not such a nice problem. Mayo was given the run of the position after Westburg was shut down early in spring training with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament. He hit well in spring training but failed to carry that into the season. He was batting .152 with a .500 OPS entering their series finale against the Marlins last month — a homecoming game of sorts for Mayo.

His costly ninth-inning error meant that the Orioles suffered a walk-off loss in the series finale on May 7, but he felt like the two hits that preceded it marked the beginning of something better at the plate. He went hitless in two games against the Athletics at home that weekend, but hit a go-ahead three-run home run in the seventh inning against the Yankees on May 11. That was a turning point for him.

“That kind of boosted me a little bit, gave me a little bit of confidence and had a good few games after that,” he said. “I think just from there, just rolling.”

He also cited more chances against left-handed pitching since then, with Mayo hitting an eye-popping .526 with a 1.835 OPS off lefties since May 11.

“Once you get a little confidence in this game, it can go a long way,” he said. “It gives you confidence versus righties, lefties. Gives you confidence at third base, just playing better.”

It wasn’t all just feel, though. Given how well he was hitting the ball in spring, he held off on implementing the plan the hitting coaches had for him when he reported. His slow start led him to decide he was going to “put my faith in them a little bit more and go all-in on what they told me,” he said.

They suggested Mayo move closer to home plate to give him a better look at the pitches on the outer half, particularly spin from a right-handed pitcher that breaks away, which has long been how pitchers try to get him out.

He was, on average, 27.6 inches off the plate in 2025, according to MLB Statcast data. He was 2 1/2 inches closer at 25.2 inches off the plate in Sunday’s game, which is around what he’s been since May 1. It’s changed how he sees those pitches off the plate. If it starts middle-away now, he says, he can recognize it’s likely going to be a ball — a perspective he didn’t have when he was farther from the plate and felt they could still end up strikes.

Mayo has known for years those sliders from righties are the hardest pitches to hit.

“I think to change a team’s perspective and plan against you, you kind of have to force them to, which is not chasing at the sliders, and then ones that are in-zone, hitting them hard,” he said. “I think I’ve been doing that a little bit more recently,”

Including that May 11 home run against the Yankees, Mayo has a .791 OPS and six home runs — and a throwing program has helped him on the defensive side, where he has had just one error since that Marlins loss.

Alexander had a similar moment that turned his season around with the hitting coaches. He came to the field ahead of the doubleheader on April 30 and assistant hitting coach Brady North asked him about reintroducing some forward pressure to his stance as he had in past years.

To that point, Alexander had been shifting his weight toward his backside and couldn’t get consistent with his timing. He was fouling off fastballs he felt he should be on time for. And while he was by expected metrics one of the unluckiest hitters in the game through April, he was ready for a change.

“The light bulb went off in my head — that’s kind of what I’ve done the past two or three years, it’s just something I knew I could repeat, and I started working right away,” he said.

In the first game of that doubleheader, Alexander shot a double to right field and added a walk. He hadn’t been on base twice in the same game for over three weeks, and his season took off from there. He’s hitting .383 with a .991 OPS in 105 plate appearances since; his wRC+ of 176 — with 100 representing league-average — is sixth-best in all of baseball since May 1.

He cites a “sauna sesh” with infield coach Miguel Cairo where they talked baseball as starting his mental turnaround.

“Honestly, it felt like I started asking questions, started talking, getting feedback, and things just started kind of coming together,” Alexander said. “First, I wanted to just control at-bats, have really good at-bats, grind the pitcher out, and then the barrels started to come after that. Then, I’m up there really just competing. That’s the bottom line — compete."

It’s now been a month since Westburg’s season-ending Tommy John surgery was announced. We were seeing glimpses of improvement from Alexander and Mayo at that point, but such was their circumstance at the position that Jackson Holliday was taking reps there on his rehab assignment in case the team needed a solution.

In the month since, the third base position for the Orioles — with one game of Holliday and a handful of Weston Wilson at-bats mixed in — has been among the most productive in the league, providing an .816 OPS and 124 wRC+ that ranks fifth in baseball.

What was once a place in the Orioles’ lineup where it felt like president of baseball operations Mike Elias may have to address via trade midseason is instead one that gives Albernaz multiple options.

“Me and Coby are both capable of going out there and playing third base and being in that lineup,” Alexander said, noting that his own role is different based on how much he moves around. “I’m excited for what’s to come.”