MLB Panic Meter: How concerned should Braves, Orioles, others be after two tough weeks?

Thursday marked two weeks since the official Opening Day in Major League Baseball’s 2025 season, meaning we still have a veritable truckload of games to go. The Cubs have played 15 games while 15 teams have played 12 with everyone else in between. No team has even played 10% of its games yet.

In general, we know too much about baseball to start panicking after such a short stretch of the schedule. There are so many ebbs and flows throughout the season. For example, the Dodgers started 8-0 but then lost four of their next five games. The Brewers were 0-4 with a -30 run differential and then all of a sudden got hot. Stuff like that happens all the time. 

Yet when it is this early, everything is magnified for each fan base that waited throughout an entire offseason and was presumably excited for the season to begin. Part of the fun of being a fan is getting antsy and even overreacting in the moment of one of the 162 games. 

As is the case with any season, we’ve obviously seen a handful of teams get off to very disappointing starts. Let’s run through them with the Panic Meter. 

The panic meter is scaled 0-10 with 0 being not a care in the world and 10 being mass hysteria. The 0-4 side is building concern while the 6-10 side is worry building toward panic. A 5 would be the center point between “decent concern” and “slight worry.” 

Record: 3-9

What more could’ve gone wrong? They started 0-7 on a really difficult trip to San Diego and Los Angeles, which they won’t have to do again. Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider aren’t yet back from major injuries. Matt Olson is hitting .190 with a .333 slugging percentage, Ozzie Albies has a 53 OPS+, Austin Riley is hitting .224 with 17 strikeouts against three walks, Michael Harris II has a 51 OPS+, Sean Murphy started the season injured and Jurickson Profar got nailed for PEDs. On the pitching side, Chris Sale and Reynaldo López have gotten hit. 

Enough already, right? 

Through all this, the Braves have won three of five and just took a series from the Phillies.

Panic Meter: 2

I was tempted to go with a 1. Sure, it stinks to have a five-game deficit already, but the Braves have 150 games left on the schedule. They were 10.5 out in June 2022 and still won the division. This team probably isn’t as good as that iteration, but it has a lot more time and less than half the deficit. Plus, there are three wild-card spots. 

I can see being pretty annoyed as a fan. I can see being excited about the 0-7 start if you’re a Mets or Phillies or even a hopeful Nationals fan. 

But in viewing the situation from the outside, there’s no real cause for concern with this Braves team just yet. A 3-9 stretch in the middle of June would raise eyebrows, but not cause panic. We don’t need to make this any different. 

Record: 4-9

After winning a game in Texas against the defending champion Rangers Aug. 17 last season, the Twins were only two games back in the AL Central and holding on to the second AL wild-card spot. They would go 12-27 the rest of the way, a pathetic mark that was only better than the White Sox and Angels among all 30 teams. 

The Twins have picked up right where they left off. They won two of three against the still-hapless White Sox and have gone 2-8 in their other games. Royce Lewis is hurt (again) while Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa struggle. The offense is hitting collectively under .200 (.199) with no one on the team even hitting .275 in this small sample (Harrison Bader‘s .273 and Matt Wallner‘s .270 lead the way). 

Pablo López and Joe Ryan have been great, but the rest of the rotation has been awful. 

The next three teams on the schedule? The Tigers, Mets and Braves. 

Panic Meter: 2

I was lower on the Twins than most heading into the season. I know they have talent, but there’s plenty of variance along with injury-prone and just plain inconsistent players. The organizational depth in terms of the majors and upper levels of the minors isn’t great, either. 

It’s entirely possible the Twins get hot in the coming weeks. After all, they were 7-13 through 20 games last season and then ripped off 12 straight wins. A bit later, the lost seven straight before winning eight of 10. Maybe they’ll be that kind of a roller coaster ride this season, too. They’re only 3.5 games out of first in a division that figures to be very competitive. 

For me, my biggest concerns remain the ones that I had when the Twins were 0-0. The record itself doesn’t much sway me. 

Record: 5-8

In some projection systems, the Mariners were the favorite to win the AL West this season. At minimum, they were in the playoff mix, notably in a three-team race for the AL West title along with the Astros (obviously) and Rangers. 

So far, the Mariners are already three games under .500 with a -15 run differential. The offense is averaging 3.38 runs per game while hitting .200/.303/.333. They’ve struck out 116 times in 13 games, an average of just about nine per game. They do have power and take some walks, but that low batting average and high strikeout rate means the Mariners have a very low margin for error on offense. Meanwhile, the rotation is supposed to be their calling card and while Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo have been good, Bryce Miller has been bad, as has the replacement for George Kirby (who has a shoulder injury, which is worrisome), Luis F. Castillo. 

Panic Meter: 4

I’m well aware they’re within striking distance of first place and things could easily turn within one week, but there are serious concerns here. First off, the offense has “same old, same old” energy. It’s basically what we were expecting heading into the season and that means this is just a precursor for what the entire season is likely to bring. Further, Kirby’s injury being to his shoulder is incredibly worrisome and there’s a chance Miller is regressing. 

I don’t think the Mariners are going to be terrible or anything, but there’s a real chance the A’s and Angels have made gains and the Mariners are closer to last place than first this season. 

Record: 5-8

The Mike Elias front office did one of the most radical rebuilds in MLB history. The Orioles lost 115 games in 2018, 108 in 2019, got a reprieve from a full season in 2020 and then lost 110 in 2021. The rationale here was the pain was a means to an end. When the Orioles broke through with 101 wins in 2023, the fruits of the labor tasted great. 

After two playoff seasons with zero playoff wins, the natives might be getting a bit restless. It has now been over a decade since the last doggone postseason victory! Plus, the Orioles are stuck in one of the strongest divisions in baseball and they are three games under .500, having lost six of their last eight games. 

They’ve had injury issues and those can’t be helped, but the rotation depth was a problem heading into last offseason and Elias still didn’t do enough to rectify it. With Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells already down — as were known heading into the offseason — Grayson Rodriguez and Zach Eflin have joined them on the injured list. Trevor Rogers is there, too, not that he helped last year when healthy. 

The result is a four-man rotation right now consisting of Dean Kremer, Tomoyuki Sugano, Cade Povich and 41-year-old Charlie Morton. 

The Orioles have a talented offense and they’ll hit better once Gunnar Henderson is back. The bullpen has some live arms. That rotation, though… 

Panic Meter: 3

It’s far too early to push them any higher, though I thought about a five or even a six because of the circumstances. The reason I backed off? None of the other four teams in the East look primed to run away with this thing, meaning I still believe the Orioles winning the AL East is a realistic outcome and that means the season would be a success. It would also make the 5-8 record on April 11 a distant and irrelevant memory. 

I just can’t get past how well Elias built the position-player side of the organization juxtaposed against his near-neglect of the starting pitching. It’s going to be a problem all season and that’s why there’s a little bit of concern, rising closer to the level of panic.