The 2022 MLB season has been a nice, pleasant surprise for the Baltimore Orioles.
A season ago, they finished 52-110, tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the worst record in all of baseball.
This season, things have been quite a bit different.
With the third Wild Card spot being added to both leagues as a result of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Orioles have found themselves in the mix for a playoff spot.
They’ve outperformed their expectations thus far and find themselves just a half-game behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the final Wild Card spot in the American League.
And according to odds courtesy of DraftKings, the Orioles have a decent chance to get into the postseason and make some noise.
Orioles have been one of the best stories in baseball this year…
They're +550 to Make the Playoffs @DKSportsbook… Any takers? 🤔
(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/ViSy5GoXRU
— br_betting (@br_betting) August 10, 2022
The O’s Have A Chance
It’s been years since the Orioles were last in postseason contention.
You would have to go all the way back to September of 2017 to find them in playoff contention.
They last made it to October as the second AL Wild Card back in 2016.
Even after trading Trey Mancini and Jorge Lopez, the Orioles look like a team that is ready to take the next step and make a run at a playoff spot.
Again, they haven’t been since 2016, which at the time was their third postseason appearance in a five-year span.
They managed to beat a good team last night, holding off a late rally by the Toronto Blue Jays to pull themselves to within a half-game of the Rays.
The story of the Orioles this season has been fantastic, and it would be even more fantastic to see them reach the playoffs after a couple of bad years, especially when their preseason expectations were so low.
