The Braves may be the best team in baseball, and the Dodgers may be the most star-studded, but the Orioles are the team of the moment. No team better represents how baseball sharply turned an aesthetic corner this year than Baltimore.
The Orioles are the sixth-highest scoring team in baseball, and yet they are 17th in home runs. How do they do it? With a style of play that was near extinction during the launch-angle revolution: They are second in the majors at taking the extra base (behind Atlanta) and second at hitting with runners in scoring position (behind Tampa Bay).
The obvious benefit to the new MLB rules (pitch timer, limit on pickoffs, no shifts) is that games are 25 minutes faster. Just as importantly, the style of play is faster. Nobody does it better than Baltimore, which has the sixth-youngest group of position players. You see it every night. The Orioles are like an up-tempo basketball team; they can run you off the court.
“We play faster than other teams,” manager Brandon Hyde says. “It’s not because we’re faster runners, but we feel our effort level is good almost every single night.”
At 86–51, the Orioles are winning games at a clip exceeded in franchise history only by the 1969 to ’71 teams and the ’79 team, all pennant winners. On talent and gumption, this team is entirely capable of getting the franchise back to the World Series.
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“I’m extremely proud of how hard we play,” Hyde says. “And I get a lot of compliments from other teams, other coaches, other scouts watching us from the stands, including our pregame work. It’s the effort and how we get down the line. That’s a good feeling.”
No team has won the World Series with a below-average home run total since the Royals in 2015, which is when the analytics-driven Power Ball version of baseball began to take root. The Cubs, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles, Reds, Diamondbacks, Giants, Brewers and Marlins all are at least in contention to break that streak. Whether any team does break through is not important. What is important is that the new rules offer another path to a championship, giving a diversity of styles that make baseball more interesting.
The Orioles, for instance, are wizards when it comes to hitting with runners in scoring position. Their .836 OPS in those spots is the best in franchise history except for the 1985 team. Their RISP batting average over the past three seasons has followed the team’s rise in the standings: from .232 to .243 to .282.
Hyde credits the eye of general manager Mike Elias, who has drafted elite athletes with advanced plate discipline such as Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman and brought in savvy, patient hitters such as Aaron Hicks and Adam Frazier.
“And then we have guys who have been here: [Cedric] Mullins, [Anthony] Santander, [Austin] Hays,” Hyde says. “They have learned over the years to work the count, the importance of getting a good pitch to hit, trying to get into hitters’ counts. So I just think our overall hitting philosophy because of our personnel has really, really improved.
“If you look at us, we’re league average in a lot of categories. But we’re top [six] in runs. And that’s because we do believe in keeping the line moving. We do put a lot of stress on situational hitting, putting the ball in play with two strikes. We’re not launch-angle guys. We’re trying to hit the ball in the middle of the field with hard line drives.
“We’re trying to put pressure on the defense. We run the bases extremely well. So we have opportunities to score. We can bunt. We can hit and run. We do all those types of things. It may be traditional baseball, but I believe in it. And I think it’s how you win close games.”
The Orioles are 24–12 in games decided by one run. Only the Brewers and Reds have won more such games. They have 43 comeback wins, the most in baseball. They are 44–32 against winning teams. Only the Braves have more wins and a better winning percentage against winning clubs. The Orioles are 44–25 on the road. Again, only the Braves are better.
Since June they have promoted infielder Jordan Westburg and hard-throwing lefty DL Hall, who looks like a bullpen utility weapon, fixed standout rookie Grayson Rodriguez with a one-month tuneup in the minors and traded for pitchers Jack Flaherty and Shintaro Fujinami for needed depth. Next up in reinforcements is the return of starter John Means from Tommy John surgery. And after that, the possible if not probable debut of 19-year-old infielder Jackson Holliday, who was just promoted to Triple A, his fourth level this year. He looks too talented for Baltimore to keep out of a postseason run.
Holliday will give Baltimore a third franchise impact player at 25 and under. Rutschman has the highest WAR of any second-year catcher in baseball history. Henderson has hit more homers (23) already than any 22-and-under rookie shortstop except Cal Ripken (28), Corey Seager (26) and Troy Tulowitzki (24). He is Seager with a better glove and more speed.
In short, by every measurement over five months the Orioles are a legit World Series contender now and for a few years to come. The tendency is to cast Baltimore as some Cinderella team that has popped up during down years for the Yankees and Red Sox. Not so.
The Braves and Dodgers, the biggest slugging teams in the sport, are the chalk if only because we have grown accustomed to home runs as the only path to a championship. And power is expensive. But we have entered a new era in which youth, speed and athleticism are rewarded. The three teams with the biggest payrolls, the Mets, Yankees and Padres, will be going home when the postseason starts. Two of the three teams with the smallest payrolls, the Orioles (28th) and Rays (27th), will be playing on.
We all know the postseason is a season unto itself. Baltimore’s young starting pitcher, facing workload challenges, could wither in an unprecedented seventh month of work. The bullpen could miss Felix Bautista. The point is no matter what happens in October, the Orioles are the right team at the right time. They and their style of baseball are here to stay.
