2024 was the year the Orioles changed hands, started well and finished poorly
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The Orioles’ 2024 season was a tumultuous year that began with promise and ended in disappointment.
The team was officially sold just days after longtime owner Peter Angelos died. Right after the pending sale was announced, the Orioles acquired their best starter in more than two decades, Corbin Burnes.
Burnes was the most accomplished starting pitcher in the free-agent market and agreed to a six-year, $210 million deal with Arizona that includes an opt-out after two seasons.
Anthony Santander, who became an Oriole in 2017, hit 44 home runs, seventh-most in club history, and is the one of the game’s most attractive free-agent sluggers. To replace him, the Orioles signed Tyler O’Neill.
Three starters — Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells — each had season-ending elbow surgery within days of each other in June. Danny Coulombe, one of their top relievers, had surgery to remove bone chips in June, too. That cost him most of the season.
Baseball’s top prospect, Jackson Holliday, spent nearly the entire spring training with the team, though he was sent back to minor league camp on the final weekend of the Grapefruit League. Holliday was called up on April 10th, just days into the regular season, went 2-for-34 with 18 strikeouts and was returned to Triple-A Norfolk before April ended.
He returned to hit a grand slam one batter after Jordan Westburg had his right hand fractured. Without Westburg, the Orioles’ offense tanked in August, hitting a season-low .231 with a .691 OPS.
Holliday ended the season with a .189 average but confident that in 2025 he’ll fulfill the Orioles’ hopes for 2022’s top draft choice.
The team ended the first half with a 53-33 record but was only a .500 team (33-33) in the second half.
Adley Rutschman, who was voted the American League All-Star catcher, epitomized the team’s offensive struggles after the All-Star break. Rutschman hit .276 with a .780 OPS with 16 home runs and 59 RBIs in the first half but cratered the rest of the way, hitting just .207 with three home runs and 20 RBIs and a .585 OPS.
Gunnar Henderson, who joined Rutschman in the starting lineup in Arlington, Texas for the All-Star Game, finished fourth in the Most Valuable Player voting. Henderson hit .281 with 37 home runs and 92 RBIs and an .893 OPS, but he also slumped in the second half with just 29 of his RBIs coming after the break.
Colton Cowser finished a close second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting and was a finalist for the Gold Glove as a left fielder. Cowser, who had a rough indoctrination to the majors in 2023 with a .115 average in 61 at-bats, did better in 2024 though he did strike out 172 times.
2024 was the year that the Orioles’ prospects got chances to play in the majors. Besides Cowser and Holliday, Heston Kjerstad played 39 games but his season was shortened after he was hit on the batting helmet with a pitch by the New York Yankees’ Clay Holmes, sparking an skirmish on the field with manager Brandon Hyde ejected for yelling at the Yankees’ bench.
With Westburg injured, the Orioles gave another top prospect, Coby Mayo, a look in the last two months of the season, but he was just 4-for-41 with 22 strikeouts.
Another top prospect, Connor Norby, was promoted twice after injuries to infielder Jorge Mateo, but after just nine games, Norby and outfielder Kyle Stowers were traded to Miami for left-handed starter Trevor Rogers, who was sent to Norfolk after a 7.11 ERA in four starts.
Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias was busy at the trade deadline, acquiring a quality starter, Zach Eflin, from Tampa Bay for three mid-tier prospects and two relievers from Philadelphia, right-hander Seranthony Domínguez and left-hander Gregory Soto in two separate trades.
Domínguez’s arrival meant the departure of Austin Hays, the classy outfielder who like Santander and centerfielder Cedric Mullins, was part of a quality outfield that Elias inherited when he arrived in November 2018.
With the offense already slumping, Elias later acknowledged he wasn’t aggressive enough in shoring up the bats at the deadline. The Orioles’ only offensive acquisitions — designated hitter Eloy Jiménez, outfielder Austin Slater and utility infielder Liván Soto — combined for just 13 RBIs.
Last month, Elias announced that the left-field wall, which had been moved out before the 2022 season, would be brought in. The team “overcorrected,” he said.
A team that was one of the healthiest in baseball the previous two seasons had more than its share of injuries. Jorge Mateo needed Tommy John surgery after a freak collision with Henderson, and first baseman Ryan Mountcastle and utility man Ramón Urías went to the injured list in a six-week period.
Another player, backup catcher James McCann, should have gone on the injured list when he broke his nose in the first inning of a game, but he soldiered on, completed the game and conducted interviews afterward. A week later, he flew back to Baltimore to have his nose repaired without missing time.
Thirteen pitchers started at least one game for the Orioles, and seven were on either the major or minor league injured list for parts of the season.
Grayson Rodriguez missed the final two months of the season with a lat/teres injury. Dean Kremer suffered a triceps injury that cost him six weeks, and besides Bradish, Means and Wells, Eflin and Chayce McDermott, who came up for one game in July, all had their seasons disrupted.
The most impactful injury was to closer Félix Bautista, who spent 2024 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery in October 2023. To replace him, the Orioles signed Craig Kimbrel, a possible Hall of Famer. Kimbrel was good in the first half but came apart in the second half. A 10.59 second-half ERA led to his release in the final week of the season.
In the first half of the season, Kimbrel added 24 saves and passed Billy Wagner, John Franco and Francisco Rodriguez on the all-time saves list. For a time, he also passed Kenley Jansen and was in fourth place, but Jansen moved past him, and Kimbrel will have to be satisfied with fifth place and a terrific career.
The Orioles used 60 players, the second most in team history, with six appearing in just a single game.
There was a feel-good story. Albert Suárez, who spent five seasons pitching in Japan and South Korea, recorded his first major league win in nearly eight years. Suárez ended up starting 24 games, tied with Kremer for second on the team, and his nine wins trailed only Burnes and Rodriguez.
When John Angelos announced that he was selling the team to David Rubenstein on January 31st for $1.725 billion, a deal that was formally approved on March 27th, just four days after the death of John’s father, Peter, an era in Baltimore baseball was over.
The polarizing Angelos family had sold the team to one of the nation’s richest men, a native Baltimorean, who eagerly posed for selfies and began tossing hats to the crowd. He even took a turn in the left-field bleachers as “Mr. Splash,” squirting delighted fans.
Rubenstein’s first season as owner ended abruptly as the Orioles scored just one run in two losses to the Kansas City Royals in the Wild Card Series.
A few weeks later, the 75-year-old noted his age and said he hoped the team would “speed up the effort” to get to a World Series. The fans are hoping that means 2025.
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