Taylor Ward adds plenty to the Orioles’ outfield mix — right-handed thump, better at-bats against lefties and durability for a group that lacked in all of those departments.

He also adds uncertainty. He’s going to play every day, you’d imagine, and that’s in pretty much any outfield configuration you can come up with from the current roster. Beyond that, the answers to two questions — “Who else can say the same?” and “Is this collectively good enough?” — suggest Ward’s addition isn’t going to be the only outfield move the Orioles make this winter.

This is all with the knowledge that Ward, in president of baseball operations Mike Elias’ estimation, brings “stability” to the Orioles’ outfield. He said Ward’s addition “solidifies the outfield picture in a way that gives us more flexibility with hunting that next impact bat and where that person plays.”

That feels true in Ward’s role and prominence in their lineup specifically; he himself is stable and solidifies one spot. But it’s hard to feel the same when looking at the larger group including Tyler O’Neill, Colton Cowser, Dylan Beavers and Leody Taveras— with Jeremiah Jackson and Heston Kjerstad presumably depth behind that bunch.

It can certainly work. Considering that trading for Ward and giving up Grayson Rodriguez was a move toward certainty and away from uncertainty — which makes sense given the Orioles’ stated offseason goals and the stakes the 2026 season will carry — it’s hard to imagine Elias and his team being OK with so many question marks.

At its best, this collection of outfielders is a group you can win with. It’s also a large leap to assume the individuals involved will fulfill their best-case scenarios, for different reasons. O’Neill’s myriad injuries in his first year with the Orioles muted his impact and added more questions around a player who came to Baltimore with reliability issues. His presence — or, I suppose, the uncertainty around it — goes a long way to undermining whatever stability Ward brings to the picture.

Cowser has no such history of unreliability, but injuries ruined his 2025 season nonetheless. If he can replicate the decent center field he played in the final two months of the season and get back to the hitter he was in 2024, that will help the Orioles a lot. So, too, would Beavers avoiding a sharp regression as the rest of the league spends the offseason identifying the best way to get him out. The way he started strong suggests he’s capable of that.

Taveras, by virtue of being a switch hitter who has been an above-average center fielder his entire career, is a valuable piece. It’s hard to expect anything of Kjerstad at this point. And, although Jackson was better in the outfield than the infield, he’s basically third on the right-handed-hitting outfield depth chart, if that’s his home after this trade.

Against righties, you’d expect Cowser to start in center field, with Beavers getting the platoon advantage in a competition for a corner spot. But leaving either Ward or O’Neill out of the lineup regularly would feel like a strange thing to plan on. Beavers may take a seat against lefties, and Taveras can probably snag a start in center every once in a while against lefties to give Cowser a break.

I think the Orioles could live with that setup if no other outfield upgrades present themselves. But it wouldn’t be a group that, no matter what kinds of starting pitchers are chosen to fill out the rotation, is part of a team forecast atop the American League East — which is Elias’ stated goal for the winter.

And that’s why this feels unsettled. The report from The Athletic suggesting the Orioles could be in on Kyle Tucker points to a different stratosphere of signing than this club has ever entered in free agency. But the idea of it checks out under this line of thinking, even if that means someone this team is counting on for years to come being the odd man out. No one has proven himself to the point that making this kind of upgrade is unnecessary.

Rodriguez might end up being better than any of the free-agent pitchers the Orioles sign. For the purposes of 2026, the Orioles will feel better about the contribution they can expect from any of those imports, and that’s kind of the point. I’m sure their preference would be to pay someone to take O’Neill the way the Cardinals shipped $20 million with Sonny Gray in a trade with Boston.

But, to apply the same lens to the team’s young outfielders, there’s a good chance Cowser or Beavers delivers more value than a free agent could, and the Orioles will have to weigh the near-term certainty an experienced and proven player can bring against that outcome.

They can also make all the big splashes they want and figure out the roster considerations later. All it means is that everything is on the table. And, with only a backup infielder required elsewhere on the roster, it’s hard to hear Elias talk about potential further additions to the lineup without thinking he means another outfielder.

If anything, adding Ward’s stability shows how little of it there is around him. And the Orioles don’t have much room — or tolerance — for uncertainty as they load up to win in 2026. After all, that’s why the trade that brought Ward was possible in the first place.