The coaches and players aren’t alone. Everyone is trying to figure out what’s wrong with this Orioles offense. A scout from a rival major league team. An analytically inclined fan. And two baseball writers — yours truly and FanGraphs statistics expert Davy Andrews — racked their brains Thursday.

The facts: The Orioles don’t chase pitches out of the strike zone but swing at strikes and produce high average exit velocities.

The question, then: Why are they failing?

Make it make sense, please.

In reality, there is no singular, one-size-fits-all answer. You can stop reading now if that was the search. Nothing is ever so simple, fitting into a box just so. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that to contextualize this Orioles offense, there are contradictory statistics to be dealt with. There are statistics that seem to indicate they’re unlucky; there are others that illustrate these are deserved results.

“Beats me, man,” the scout said when asked what’s at the heart of these struggles, although he elaborated to show he has some idea.

The scout said the current state of the Orioles reminds him of the 2023 St. Louis Cardinals, who came off a division title just to start the next season with one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball. The wheels fell off from there, impacting every facet of the game, and St. Louis finished with 91 losses.

Andrews, who helped with some of the statistical analysis in this story, said there are two major questions when it comes to the Orioles’ offense: “Why are they striking out so much, and why is their good contact quality not translating into success?”

And the analytically minded fan, who will remain anonymous for the purposes of this story, added: “This is definitely not satisfying, but it’s pretty clear that a good bit of it is luck or, maybe more accurately, randomness.”

In an effort to make this both readable and digestible, let’s start with the statistics that are often indicative of offensive success — even if that isn’t the case currently.

Generally, the harder a ball is hit, the better it is. It travels farther. Fielders have less reaction time. And the Orioles, entering Thursday, were near the top of the majors in average exit velocity (90.2 mph, tied for fourth best).

The Orioles can also take a (small) amount of pride in their chase rate, which at 26.7% ranks ninth in the majors. Baltimore doesn’t expand the zone often; hitters wait for their pitch, and when they make excellent contact, it shows itself with a 10% barrel rate (fifth best). Barrel rate is a helpful stat because it isolates how many balls leave the bat with an exit velocity of at least 98 mph and a launch angle from 26 to 30 degrees. Balls that fall into both categories tend to yield extra-base hits.

Granted, when manager Brandon Hyde was asked Thursday what metrics he pays most attention to, Hyde said it “definitely [is] not exit velocity.”

“Looking at competitiveness of at-bats, the ability to swing at strikes,” Hyde said. “I don’t look at how hard we’re hitting balls or anything like that. Think that that’s great and sexy. But for me it’s not winning baseball.”

First baseman Ryan O’Hearn agrees, and one of his points plays directly into the next segment of this story.

Baltimore’s expected slugging percentage is .423, which is slightly above league average. That hardly matters, though, when the raw results don’t reflect that.

“Pull side on the ground might look good on an expected stat, but it doesn’t really play,” O’Hearn said.

Despite Baltimore’s high barrel rate, there’s a larger issue at play. When the Orioles hit the ball well, they hit the ball really well. When they don’t, well …

Consider this: Baltimore’s batted-ball profile leaves much to be desired. The Orioles’ sweet-spot percentage, according to Statcast, is 31.8%. That’s the fourth worst in the majors.

Sweet spot is a valuable stat because it covers a wider range than barrel rate. Balls that leave the bat at a launch angle of 8 to 32 degrees are in the sweet spot. This doesn’t take into account exit velocity, and it doesn’t need to. What this shows is a lack of ideal launch angles when considering all batted balls.

And, as Andrews noted, 41.7% of their hard-hit balls are hit in the sweet-spot range. That ranks 27th in baseball.

Too many of those hard-hit balls (95 mph exit velocity or faster) are on the ground, where defenders can more easily make a play. About 60% of their hard-hit balls are fly balls and line drives, which ranks 23rd.

The Orioles’ solid contact percentage is 5.7 (fourth worst). Solid contact exits the bat at a rate slower than barrels (below 98 mph) but holds an exit velocity considered good (Statcast doesn’t specify the numbers that fall in the solid range).

What that shows, then, is the hardest of Baltimore’s hits are extremely hard. That raises the team’s average exit velocity. But the Orioles’ 90th percentile exit velocity ranks 11th, which is still up there but shows the potential for high-end outliers.

The Orioles preach plate discipline and swing decisions. There is a medicine ball that sits atop a bucket during batting practice, and when a pitch hits the ball, players know that pitch was in the “go zone,” an area of the plate where they should swing and do damage. They lay off edge-of-zone offerings as they search for pitches to throttle.

When things are going well, that’s a good strategy. But during skids — and this is an extended one — it can lead the Orioles to being too disciplined. Baltimore’s strikeout rate is 24.1%, again third worst in baseball. The Orioles’ walk rate is just 8%, which is 23rd.

Furthermore, a major issue is how poor the Orioles have been in three-ball counts. Those situations are when batters should be at the highest advantage to walk or see a pitch they can handle. Instead, the Orioles have a .479 on-base percentage in those counts, which is third worst.

That’s exacerbated when there is bad batted-ball luck. The Orioles’ batting average on balls in play is .270 (again, third worst), and that is hard to understand at times. Defensive web gems seem to be a regular occurrence against Baltimore.

But working counts and drawing walks are ways to overcome bad luck — or at least to bridge the gap until luck turns.

This is baseball. There’s no easy answer. There’s no one reason the Orioles have performed so poorly on offense despite some metrics indicating they should be good. Maybe it will turn. Or maybe this is who Baltimore really is: a team that hits the ball hard but not often enough to make it count for much.