Baltimore’s flimsy pitching staff threatens to sink its season before it really takes off.

The Baltimore Orioles are 6-9 to begin the 2025 season.

It’s way too early to panic, especially with the entire AL East looking vulnerable in one way or another.

Boston’s bats are all cold. New York tends to hit sporadically, aside from Aaron Judge, and the bullpen is flimsy.

It’s hard to take Tampa seriously in a minor league ballpark, sorry. The Blue Jays have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, but what else?

As things sit, the O’s are 2.5 games out of first place. With 147 games left in the regular season, there is plenty of time for Brandon Hyde’s group to turn it around.

That said, what ails Baltimore is a familiar quagmire. There just is not enough depth in the pitching staff.

O’s fans entered the offseason with cautious optimism.

Mike Elias has never been one to break the bank, but with new ownership in charge, there was a belief that Baltimore might spend competitively — if not for Corbin Burnes, then for viable replacements and strength in numbers.

Instead, the O’s inked 41-year-old Charlie Morton and a completely unproven Tomoyuki Sugano to one-year contracts and called it a day.

Losing Burnes in a bidding war is one thing. We all expected that. To basically ignore the rotation, however, was a damning indictment on Elias and O’s management.

Now, Baltimore’s GM is ready to admit defeat.

Mike Elias admits the Orioles should’ve done more to reinforce pitching staff after Corbin Burnes exit

“On the pitching side, I feel we have already tapped into, basically, the depth,” Elias told Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner.

“To say that on April 15 is not the plan… Having Grayson [Rodriguez) and [Zach] Eflin on the shelf simultaneously at this point in the season, at no point were we forecasting that.”

In addition to Rodriguez and Eflin, Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers and Tyler Wells are also on Baltimore’s IL.

The injuries have piled up at an alarming rate, leaving Baltimore undermanned and lacking firepower on the mound. Sugano’s big-league adjustment has mostly gone to plan, but Morton looks like a shell of himself.

It was bound to happen eventually, seeing as this is his 18th MLB season. An 8.78 ERA through three starts is more than a little worrisome.

Baltimore has one of the deepest talent pipelines in baseball. Beyond the big-league lineup, which is stacked with ascendant stars, the O’s are ripe with talent in the minors.

As Jackson Holliday and others break through, this team is bound to stay competitive in baseball’s most cutthroat division.

Still, the offense falls by the wayside if Baltimore can’t keep runs off the board. This has been an ongoing struggle for the O’s since the team became competitive again.

Their pitching staff almost always falls apart. Even last season, with Burnes putting up Cy Young-caliber numbers, the O’s felt completely exposed once the playoffs rolled around. The depth is not where it needs to be.

We can decide on our own terms how much blame Elias deserves for Burnes’ departure — he passed up 4-5 years and solid money in Baltimore to play close to home in Phoenix — but he absolutely takes the fall for the Orioles’ lack of follow-up moves. Morton and Sugano was never enough.

The O’s needed to aggressively pursue upgrades, whether it was a trade (Garrett Crochet would look awfully good in O’s colors right now) or free agency.

Baltimore has time to right the ship, but it’s fair to wonder if the front office has earned the faith of a fanbase so familiar with disappointment.

Both Eflin and Rodriguez should return within the next month or so, but the O’s need to build contingency plans and operate proactively. That probably won’t happen.