2024 Baltimore Orioles

2024 Baltimore Orioles / Franchise: Baltimore Orioles / BR Team Page[edit]

Record: 91-71, Finished 2nd in AL Eastern Division (2024 AL) Wild Card

Coaches: Grant Anders, Cody Asche, Matt Borgschulte, Tim Cossins, Drew French, Ryan Fuller, Fredi Gonzalez, José Hernández, Ryan Klimek, Tony Mansolino, Mitch Plassmeyer and Anthony Sanders

Ballpark: Oriole Park at Camden Yards

History, Comments, Contributions[edit]

After posting the best record in the American League in 2023 but making a quick exit from the postseason, the 2024 Baltimore Orioles wanted to prove that they were not flukes and truly one of the powers of the game. One of the early signs of this was that they decided to send the 2023 Minor League Player of the Year, Jackson Holliday, back to the minors after he had clearly demonstrated that he was ready for the Show with a superlative performance in spring training. The Orioles were so laden with talented young players that they could afford to do this. They quickly showed that they meant business by starting off the year with two decisive wins: on Opening Day, March 28th, they defeated the Los Angeles Angels, 11-3, behind a superlative performance by Corbin Burnes, their new pitching ace acquired in a big off-season trade, in which the O's leveraged some of their surplus young talent to acquire one of the top starting pitchers in the game. Burnes gave up just on hit in 6 innings, while striking out 11. In their second game against those same Angels on March 30th, they romped to 13-4 behind home grown pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, who gave up one run in 6 innings while striking out 9. In both cases, the run they allowed came on solo homers, by Mike Trout and Taylor Ward, respectively. The Orioles had never scored 11 or more runs in back-to-back games to open a season, with Anthony Santander homering in both contests, while 2023 Rookie of the Year Gunnar Henderson went 3 for 4 with a homer and a triple in the second game.

The Orioles had gone the entire 2023 season without being swept in a series even once - discounting the postseason, obviously. In fact, the last time it had happened was back in May of 2022, when the Detroit Tigers had turned the trick, before catcher Adley Rutschman had even made his major league debut. The streak almost ended at home on May 15th, after the Toronto Blue Jays had won the series opener in extra innings tow days earlier, the second game had been rained out, and the Jays were leading the final game, 2-1, heading into the bottom of the 9th. But the Orioles managed to pull out a spectacular win against closer Jordan Romano when Rutschman parked a ball just on top of the right field wall with a runner on base for a 3-2 win. With 105 consecutive series, it was now the third longest such streak in major league history, 19 behind the 124 of the 1942-1944 St. Louis Cardinals. For all that, the O's were in second place at that point, in a neck-and-neck race with the New York Yankees. They finally did get swept in a series on May 20-22, when they lost three games to the last-place St. Louis Cardinals, bringing the streak to an end after 106 series.

The Yankees were very hot at the start of June and built their lead over the Orioles to 4 1/2 games by June 6th, but the Birds continued on their steady pace, and when the Bronx Bombers started to cool down in the second half of the month, began to grind down that lead, finally catching them on June 27th; they took sole control of first place two days later, the first time they had been in that position since May 12th. In a 6-5 win over the Texas Rangers that day, OF Heston Kjerstad hit his first career grand slam, which was also the 60th home run by an Orioles batter that month. Not only did that set a franchise mark for homers in any month, it was also the third highest total by any team ever: the 2019 Yankees had hit and incredible 79 homers in August that year, and the 2023 Braves had hit 61 in June. The Orioles were leading the majors with 139 homers with seven players in double figures. Henderson was leading the pack with 26, and Santander was not far behind with 22.

As good as the first half was, the second half was a real grind. The Orioles were below .500 in both July (12-13) and August (13-15), and September went no better. Their only saving grace was that the Yankees also hit a road bump around the same time, but the Bronx Bombers got the engine revving again in September, and at that point began to create daylight in the standings: the Orioles were still in front by half a game as late as September 6th, but two weeks later, on September 18th, were trailing by five games, with any chance of winning the division having evaporated. They did make it into the postseason, clinching a wild card spot with a 5-3 win over the Yankees on September 24th, but it was thanks to their great first half. Two major factors in explaining the Orioles' troubles included an injury to 3B Jordan Westburg, who had flown under the radar behind bigger names in the first half but still was named an All-Star; his prolonged absence was deeply felt by the Birds, even if they called up Holliday again and he began to show signs of the future stardom he was bound to achieve. Henderson went through a deep slump of his own, but the worst thing was an implosion by the bullpen, with closer Craig Kimbrel completely imploding in the second half after a solid first three months, and being released before the end of September, while efforts to acquire additional arms at the trading deadline were not particularly successful: Seranthony Dominguez and Gregory Soto were adequate at best, and Trevor Rogers was so bad that he was demoted after four ineffective starts. Worse, those deals had cost the Orioles some good players, including OF Austin Hays and IF Connor Norby who could have been of help when things really started to go sour. At least, Baltimore would not be overconfident heading into the postseason, which had been a problem the year before.

Awards and Honors[edit]

All-Stars: Corbin Burnes, Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Anthony Santander and Jordan Westburg
MLB All-Rookie Team: Colton Cowser (OF)
AL Silver Slugger Award: Anthony Santander (OF)

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2024 Baltimore Orioles

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