It’s taken a few weeks after the heartbreaking end of the 2024 baseball campaign for the Orioles’ postseason strategy under the guidance of general manager Mike Elias’ to be revealed.
And in a few words, and with all due respect to former president Ronald Reagan, the plan appears to be “Move Back That Wall.”
Specifically, the most visible thing Elias has said or done since the Birds were swept out by the Kansas City Royals in the wild card round is to declare that the team will bring in the left field wall at Oriole Park.
That doesn’t exactly have the same impact as Reagan’s dare to Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev to end communism by destroying the Berlin Wall, but the Orioles’ brass hope this is a statement of intent to remain a force.
The club pushed the fences back and raised their height in 2022 under the theory that doing so would make Camden Yards more appealing to potential pitching free agent signees.
The theory behind the move was that, in its previous configuration, Oriole Park was a bandbox, especially for right-handed hitters, and pushing the fences out in left field would raise the park’s attractiveness to pitchers.
For all the talk of the warehouse which adorns the right field area, some of the longest homers in the 32-year history of Camden Yards have been hit to left.
Indeed, former Texas outfielder Juan Gonzalez has the longest regular season home run ever at Oriole Park, a 450-foot blast off Hall of Famer Mike Mussina and two moon shots, one 455 feet and another 473 feet, the following year in the 1993 Home Run Derby.
In the present day, the move of the fences has largely been panned. Hitters have mostly complained about long drives that traveled to left, seemingly destined for home run territory, only to end up in a left fielder’s glove.
According to the website, Baseball Savant, Oriole first baseman Ryan Mountcastle alone has 11 drives over the last three years that would have been home runs at the previous left field distance and height, Switch hitter Anthony Santander has lost seven Oriole Park home runs during that span.
The club is said to be considering re-signing Santander or pursuing Teoscar Hernandez, a right handed slugger, who just won a World Series ring with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Besides the money, both players and other potential right handed hitters are likely to take into consideration that the new left field fence will be anywhere from 9-20 feet closer to home plate and will be 5-6 feet shorter. Or at least that’s what Elias is hoping.
Meanwhile, the Orioles haven’t picked up any noteworthy free agent pitchers during the last three years, though they did trade for starter Corbin Burnes, getting the former National League Cy Young Award winner from Milwaukee before the 2024 season.
Burnes was the only Baltimore player to be named to the All-Major League team and is a free agent. The new fence length might weigh on his mind, but, and this is just a guess, a fistful of dollars might assuage his concerns.
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads, BlueSky and X at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.