Woeful Orioles to set record for futility

By Ben Krimmel

On Opening Day, the Baltimore Orioles won on a walk-off home run by Adam Jones. That's the final time the Orioles would be above .500 in 2018. 

After Monday night's 5-0 defeat at home to the Blue Jays, the Orioles' record fell to 43-107, one loss shy of setting a franchise record for defeats since the team moved to Baltimore in 1954. 

With the #BlueJays win in Baltimore tonight, the Orioles match their franchise record 107th loss in a single season. There's still 12 days left to go.Oh, and that 1988 team that went 54-107 started 0-21. THAT team kind of recovered.

Buck Showalter's club needs just one win in their final 12 games to avoid the embarrassment of equaling the 2003 Tigers, who finished with 119 losses in a 162-game season. They've already escaped the total humiliation of  matching the modern era record of 120 defeats set during the Mets' inaugural season of 1962. But Baltimore has already set the record for the fastest team to be eliminated from playoff contention in the divisional era after just 125 games.

“I’ll tell you this. I’ve never seen sports teams survive seasons like this without people losing jobs, period. Players, you name it,” Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph told The Athletic. “It’s a privilege to be here, but you don’t lose a record number of games and not expect some retribution. Everybody. Every single locker in here should be thinking, ‘You know, I should be fired because I sucked. Period.’”

And after mid-season trades of Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, Zach Britton, Kevin Gausman, Brad Brach, and Darren O'Day for younger, inexperienced, prospects, the rebuilding process means there are more defeats on the horizon.