O’Hearn on ’25 Orioles: ‘Félix Bautista is back … a massive thing’

One of the best acquisitions made by executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias during his tenure was purchasing the contract of Ryan O’Hearn from Kansas City in early 2023.

Though O’Hearn was soon dropped from the 40-man roster, fortunately for Elias, he wasn’t claimed, and despite starting the 2023 season at Triple-A Norfolk, quickly made his way to the Orioles and forced his way into manager Brandon Hyde’s lineups.

While primarily a first baseman, O’Hearn has also played right and left field, and in his two seasons with the Orioles, he’s hit .275 with a .779 OPS with 29 home runs and 119 RBIs.

Before coming to the Orioles, O’Hearn hit .219 in six seasons with the Royals.

During the Birdland Caravan at PBR Baltimore on January 31^st, O’Hearn talked about his optimism for the 2025 Orioles.

“Félix Bautista is back on our team, which is a massive thing,” O’Hearn said. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on Félix. Obviously, he was the best pitcher in the world for a good stretch in 2023. That’s one I’m really excited about.

“Can’t replace [Anthony] Santander and Corbin [Burnes]. It’s not like a one-for-one replace type of thing. If you look at the pieces that we added [and] some of these young guys have a chance to have breakout years, Jackson [Holliday] comes to mind, [Colton] Cowser, I think, is going to take another step. Obviously, we have guys that have already done some things, Gunnar [Henderson] and Adley [Rutschman], and all that.

“When you look at the group as a whole, it’s a really good group of players, and it’s deep. There’s really not a weak link. I think from a position-player side, there’s probably 15 guys that can make the team, or can play and help us in the major leagues, so it’s a really deep group. If you look at it as a whole, it’s an impressive group, and I’m excited to see what we can do.”

The Orioles had an $8 million option on O’Hearn, and with no in-house candidates to replace him at first base, it seemed like a certainty that the Orioles would exercise that option, but he wasn’t that was going to happen.

“I wasn’t confident. In this business, you never really know,” O’Hearn said. “But I had hoped that I was coming back, and I think I made it clear to Hyde and Mike and everybody at the end there that I wanted to be back. So when I got the call, I was extremely excited, happy to be an O for another year. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this team?”

During O’Hearn’s time with Kansas City, they never came close to the postseason. In his two seasons with the Orioles, they’ve won the American League East and been a wild-card team, though they’ve lost all five postseason games.

“You can’t replicate the playoffs,” O’Hearn said. “It’s the height of the sport. It’s the most pressure. It’s the most eyes on you. It’s something that until you experience it, you don’t know how you’re going to react, so I think even though we only played two games [in 2024] getting those guys out there, myself included, I’ve only played in a few playoff games, but any kind of experience you can gain from that.

“We have that bad taste in our mouth. We want to do something special, and we’re going to take our past experiences and use it to benefit us.”

O’Hearn enjoys the competition in the American League East.

“The division’s really good,” he said. “If you look at what the Yankees have done this offseason, obviously they won the East last year. Boston is going to be good. Toronto has made some moves. Every team is good and every team is competitive.

“That’s kind of a like a never-ending gauntlet when you’re playing teams in our division, but we’re confident in ourselves and know what we can do, so let’s kind of focus in on internally what we can do to get better every day. When it’s time to go to battle, we’ll be ready.”

Note: The Orioles have signed right-handed pitcher Dylan Coleman to a minor league contract. Coleman was 5-4 with a 3.84 ERA in 97 games, 96 with Kansas City over the last three seasons. Coleman, who pitched one scoreless inning last season for Houston, has allowed 5.6 walks per nine innings in his major league career.

Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.