Joseph blasts Orioles over 'shameful' and 'embarrassing' record

The Baltimore Orioles tied their franchise record for the most losses in a single season on Monday - falling 5-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays - and before the game, veteran catcher Caleb Joseph didn't mince words about the organization.

"I'll tell you this, I've never seen sports teams survive seasons like this without people losing their jobs, period," Joseph told Dan Connolly of The Athletic. "Players, you name it. It's a privilege to be here, but you don't lose a record number of games and not expect some retribution. Everybody. Every single locker in here should be thinking, 'You know, I should be fired because I sucked. Period.'"

Monday's loss was Baltimore's 107th of the season, tying a club record set in 1988. The Orioles are projected to finish with 116 losses and currently sit 60 games back of the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox.

"Losing absolutely wears on you and when you've done it as often as we have, sadly, it almost becomes the norm. And that’s absolutely unacceptable. And that's what scares me about these youngsters," Joseph continued. "The team is full of youngsters. This is not OK. And we can talk about it as much as we want and say in meetings that it’s not OK. It’s just not. On winning teams, they replace people."

The 32-year-old Joseph has struggled at the plate this year, authoring a .213/.252/.320 slash line over 75 games in a timeshare with 23-year-old Chance Sisco.

"They always say winning cures everything. And it really does," Joseph said. "I'm not a loser. So, to be associated with that severity of losing is embarrassing. It's shameful, really. You don’t want to have your name next to that, in the same way that you don’t want to have your name next to a zero-homer, zero-RBI season. You are trying your best to do your part. This is bad. Just no way to sugarcoat it."

The Orioles came into this season having spent a combined $73 million to bolster their rotation with Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner, but pivoted to a rebuild during the campaign, trading away superstar Manny Machado as well as Zach Britton, Jonathan Schoop, Kevin Gausman, Darren O'Day, and Brad Brach.