Baltimore Sun Orioles reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer will answer fan questions every Friday during baseball season.

Here are JCM’s thoughts on several questions from readers:

Editor’s note: Questions have been edited for length and clarity. Email jameyer @baltsun.com with questions for next Friday’s mailbag.

Should the Orioles extend Ryan O’Hearn? What about three years, $45 million? — @BirdlandMark on X

It is hard to envision the Orioles without O’Hearn at this point. He is not just the best hitter in this lineup (or one of the best hitters in MLB), but his ethos as a ballplayer is one that is important to this club and one that more of its players could probably adopt.

Should they try to extend him? Sure, why not?

Should O’Hearn be interested in such a thing when he’s in the midst of a career year and only a few months from free agency and potentially his only opportunity at a life-changing payday? No, he probably shouldn’t.

Mark’s hypothetical contract is pretty spot on for a bat-first player, coming off a career year, entering his age-32 season. It would be a well-deserved wad of cash for a castoff who was acquired for cash considerations 28 months ago.

Is there any chance the Orioles buy at the deadline instead of sell? — @xTh3Kn1ghtx on X

With the way they’re playing, no.

The Orioles would almost certainly have to get back to around .500 by the deadline to avoid selling.

It’s inconceivable that the Orioles could be in a position to buy after opening the season 19-36.

Assuming the Orioles are sellers, it is possible the players general manager Mike Elias gets in return are ones who are able to help the 2026 team. Last summer, Elias made a pair of unconventional trades with a fellow contender in the Philadelphia Phillies in deals that didn’t/haven’t bore fruit for either club.

The Orioles’ farm system isn’t what it once was, and this could be a way to stock up. But an organization that prides itself on drafting and developing players — and one with three first-round picks in this year’s draft — might be better off finding trade partners that could provide Baltimore MLB-ready players with the potential to contribute in 2026 and beyond.Could Heston Kjerstad and Coby Mayo be shopped around by the Orioles? — @Alaskan0832 on X

Entering the season, it wouldn’t have been a shock to see either or both of these players dealt at the deadline. That’s when the Orioles were seen as a team firmly in the middle of its World Series window.

Now, they’re one of MLB’s worst teams. Bad teams don’t trade young, controllable players. And smart front offices — yes, it’s still fair to say this is a smart front office, despite the failures of the past year — don’t sell low on players they’re high on. Kjerstad is engrossed in perhaps the worst slump of his life (.190 average, .545 OPS), while Mayo (still only 23 years old) has struggled in each of his three trips to the big leagues.

Last year, the Orioles decided to keep Kjerstad and Mayo over Kyle Stowers, Joey Ortiz and Connor Norby. It is far too early to tell if those were the right decisions or not. But the Orioles bet on Kjerstad and Mayo’s big bats, and they need to figure out a way for them to contribute in the big leagues.

Is the best-case scenario for the Orioles to leave town and Baltimore be awarded an expansion team? — @FlaccoLamar on X

It’s nice to see that fans haven’t lost their sense of humor amid the bad start.

As recent as December 2023, some Baltimoreans were concerned about John Angelos’ plans for the Orioles and whether he was still interested in moving the team to Nashville as Camden Yards lease negotiations dragged on. Now, fans are joking about whether it would be best to just completely start anew. What a difference 18 months can make.

Will the Orioles fire their hitting coaches? — @ayeager40 on X

This was a reasonable question two weeks ago when Brandon Hyde was still the club’s manager. It isn’t now. Elias pulled the lever to fire Hyde instead of the hitting coaches. It’s not realistic — nor is it smart — to fire nearly half your coaching staff in the middle of a season.

Also, to what end would that decision be made? The Orioles’ problems are much deeper than the hitting coaches. All it would do is throw the day-to-day operations of the club into even more chaos than what’s already been done by firing Hyde.

Furthermore, whenever the Orioles decide to hire a manager, that person will likely have significant say in who his assistant coaches will be. It’s quite likely that few people on the current staff will be in Baltimore next season anyway.

Should the Orioles drop Adley Rutschman in the lineup? — Sean S. from Linganore

We’re going to answer this question without mentioning how Rutschman’s expected stats and underlying metrics suggest he has positive regression coming his way, but let’s at least keep it in the back of our heads. His overall numbers — .206 average, .641 OPS — are not good, and his underperformance since July is directly correlated with the club’s downturn.

The cries to move Rutschman down in the order would be fair if the Orioles were a good baseball team or if there were better options. But they aren’t a good baseball team, and there aren’t better options. That could change soon when Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser return from the injured list, but for now, there’s little choice but to keep having Rutschman hit in the top four of the batting order.

Some fans cheered Tony Mansolino’s first lineup as skipper because it featured three lefties in a row — Jackson Holliday, Ryan O’Hearn and Gunnar Henderson — atop the lineup. That hasn’t happened since, and perhaps the reason is because it’s a mistake to do so. All three of those hitters have struggled against southpaws in their careers. O’Hearn is on a tear and has hit well off lefties this season, but Holliday and Henderson haven’t. That lineup construction is a gift for the opposing manager, giving him an easy lefty pocket to target.

To break up the lefties, the Orioles need two righties to hit in the top five of their batting order. Ryan Mountcastle, who has been much better in May than he was in April, is one of them, hitting either second between Holliday and Henderson or cleanup between Henderson and O’Hearn. The only other righty option who is a regular in the lineup is Ramón Urías. Putting Urías in the No. 2 hole and moving Rutschman down isn’t an absurd suggestion, but it’s far from an actual solution. Also, what better way is there to get Rutschman back than having him in front of Henderson? Pitchers have to pitch Rutschman in the zone or risk facing Henderson with a runner on base.

Perhaps fans want to see the focus on lefty-righty matchups thrown out the window, but that’s as misguided as it is unrealistic. The past two weeks have proven that Hyde’s focus on platoon matchups was just as much an organizational philosophy as a personal one.

Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer @baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.