The Orioles ownership change could be made official in the coming weeks. Evan Drellich of the Athletic wrote yesterday that MLB is likely to formally approve the sale of the O’s to David Rubenstein by April. According to Drellich, there’s a small chance the deal could be completed before Opening Day.
Rubenstein agreed to purchase the franchise from the Angelos family in late January for $1.725 billion. He’ll assume control of 40% of the organization initially and will reportedly take on the majority stake upon the passing of Peter Angelos. The agreement still needs to be approved by MLB owners but that’s largely a formality.
Receiving that rubber stamp still marks a key moment for the franchise. The fanbase is hopeful that Rubenstein will authorize the kind of long-term investment from which the organization has shied away since John Angelos became control person. The O’s finally made their long-awaited consolidation trade for an ace to install Corbin Burnes at the front of the rotation. They haven’t pulled off an analogous strike on the free agent or extension fronts. Félix Bautista’s $1MM salary and a handful of option buyouts are the only contractual commitments beyond this year.
Burnes headlines their group of players who’ll hit free agency after the upcoming season. The former Cy Young winner has spoken about his desire to get to the open market. Anthony Santander is perhaps the second-most impactful of Baltimore’s possible free agents. He has spent his entire MLB career with the O’s after being selected in the 2016 Rule 5 draft. The switch-hitting outfielder indicated he’d be happy to stay off the market.
“I would love that,” Santander replied when asked about an extension (link via Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun). “That’s something that we always talk about outside of this room with my family and friends. I would love to stay here. We leave that business side to the front office. We’re just here to live in the moment right now, prepare ourselves.”
While Santander projects as one of the more effective hitters in the upcoming class, it’s possible the O’s don’t feel much urgency in extending him. Baltimore’s stockpile of young talent extends to the outfield. In addition to established starters Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays (both of whom are under control through 2025), the O’s have Heston Kjerstad, Colton Cowser and Kyle Stowers as controllable outfielders who have reached the majors. They could count on someone from that group stepping into a regular role for ’25 and beyond.
Baltimore would be able to make Santander a qualifying offer in the absence of a long-term deal. It seems unlikely they’d want to offer a one-year salary that’d exceed $20MM, but Santander could play his way into legitimate QO consideration if he turns in another season like his 2023 campaign. He’s coming off an impressive .257/.325/.472 showing with 28 homers.
The O’s can delay that decision until next winter. Their more immediate focus is on defending last year’s AL East crown. Getting Dillon Tate back into high-leverage innings would be a nice boost towards those efforts. The former #4 overall pick turned in a 3.05 ERA over a career-high 73 2/3 frames back in 2022. He missed all of last season nursing a flexor strain but avoided surgery and is back in the bullpen mix this spring. Tate threw a perfect inning with a strikeout of Ryan Kreidler in today’s exhibition game against Detroit, his first game action of the year.
I say trade Santander while he’s got value.
He’s got 3m in surplus value. That gets you like a middling second rounder from 3 years ago. A lot more value in wins.
In reality trade value is, to a degree, based on supply and demand, along with desperation. Nobody has a set value in trade. I’m not sure who else is available in OF. Rosario? I mean Santander has more value than any of the free agent OFs I can think of…by a lot. I assume I understood your post correctly. They certainly shouldn’t extend him unless they get a good price (which is possible as his value in FA is likely limited to 10-14m over 2-3 years). He has little room for decline offensively.
Trade Mullins. He will never be the player again as his mvp run.
They don’t have a CF replacement for Mullins. Why create a hole when you’re trying to win a championship?
They need his defense too much to trade him.
“I say trade Santander”…You’re probably right. The O’s should be extremely selective about who they extend since you don’t want to end up like the NY Yankees, with a bunch of injury-prone, older players locked up to highly expensive, payroll killing long-term deals.
With only 1 year of control remaining and something of a one dimensional profile, he’s probably more valuable to the Orioles this year than whatever they’d get in return for him.
“Than whatever they’d get in return. Quite possibly so. I keep hearing about their numerous prospects I was thinking maybe a trade opens a spot for one of them. To be honest I usually only catch the O’s 1-2x per week but this year I’m planning to put them into my list of “must watch” frequently teams.
Prior to the Burnes trade, I was in favor of trading him as part of a package to a team like the Mariners or Marlins that had pitching to trade and needed some thump for their lineup, but I don’t believe that a pure prospect return would be worth it at this point.
Opening up an immediate everyday spot for Kjerstad or Cowser would also have been nice, but that makes less sense after pushing some noteworthy chips in to rent Burnes for 2024. Might as well just run the best win-now lineup out there to start the year and worry about the kids breaking in later since they have options remaining.
Orioles. An organization with an “embarrassment of human resource riches”.
In the outfield the threesome of Santander, Hays and Mullins were major cogs in a 101 win season. Plus it was a vet off the bench that provided quality play not the kids. Stowers and Cowser bombed, Hicks did not.
If the current outfield starters are productive on another winning team in 2024, oh my, what to do. Extend them all (Santander this year, Hays and Mullins next yr) and trade away the future or go with the future?
Crowded outfield and prospects needing playing time. SD would be a good fit in exchange for lower level prospects to continue fortifying the farm. In order to stay atop the division, they gotta think they’re here for a long time not the short run
Santander is key to the clubhouse culture, above average from either side of the plate, and bridges the gap between Elias’ college white boys & the latin players. He will eventually transition to 1B. And his plate discipline improved every year. He’s a great extension candidate. I’d rather keep him than Hays or Mullins. He does not necessarily occupy an OF spot since Mounty and O’Hearn are both, in my opinion, destined to move on.
Wow. Never occurred to me that the Orioles brass may base roster decisions on something other than need. By the way, 1st round 2023 collegiate pick Bradfield taking over for Mullins at some point seems a given to me. I’m also looking forward to following 2023 collegiate high round draft pick Tavian Josenberger.
Agreed about Bradfield. He’s been fun to watch in the… two televised ST games!
Amazed you have something good to say about Tate. As a reliever who doesn’t K guys the normal routine would be to dissect him and explain why what appears to be cannot be so. All that said I will admit that even before he missed last year he wasn’t really proven beyond one season. We’ll see if he can get back and still limit hits to the same degree. I tend to think this K thing is a self fulfilling prophecy. If they don’t k guys they don’t get a chance or are told to change things (or they do it because they know how the system works). Many of the same tendencies that make today’s players so vulnerable to Ks make them vulnerable to pop ups and soft grounders, so we should really let these guys have a chance more
I always play the opposite side to the popular. If it were the 90s Id be screaming for all the things that are the norm now. I like high leverage relievers to K guys a lot, ideally. I understand all this about Ks. I watched, last year, Bryce Elder routinely throw unhittable pitches for 4 innings only to miss location and give up a 3 run homer. Meanwhile his teammate Strider has the luxury of missing and still getting the outs. It’s certainly not false. I get that.
The only way Santander is still in Baltimore next year is if he plays his way to a QO and then accepts it. He simply is not going to be extended otherwise, nor should he be with Kjerstad, Cowser, Stowers, and Mayo all proven at AAA and in need of MLB playing time at his positions (COF/1B/DH).
Not sure I’d call 1st base one of his positions, he’s played 12 games there in the past 7 years. But unless one of those 4 prove themselves at the MLB level this year, could be dangerous to hand over OF to someone who’s unproven.
He played first somewhat regularly when he was younger (pre-MLB) and has looked just fine there in limited action for the Orioles, so I see no real reason to not include it. There just hasn’t been much reason to play him at 1B regularly with Mountie and O’Hearn on hand.
And if none of those 4 guys I listed can replace at least the majority of his .766 OPS, then perhaps Mike Elias is not the genius the baseball world believes he is.
easier to stomach the $20MM QO when you are celebrating a WS championship. Go O’s!
I was actually surprised Santander stayed on the team this year, given the history of the team $12M or so for 1 player is a huge expense and he popped up on rumors. But there he is. Now I think Hays is the most likely of the 3 current starters to be traded, because of skill set, not because of how he fades in the 2nd half.
That said, Santander is a good player and a switch hitter, but he’s certainly not a dominant player. if $20M is the figure being thrown around for 2025, the Orioles won’t be paying it with the young outfielders who can step in for a fraction of the price.
He won’t get $20/year on the open market, but he could get 3/45, so offering the QO could make sense to try to procure the draft pick. That said, if I were him, I’d take the QO and bet on myself, hoping that one more year won’t hurt my chances of a long-term open market deal. The draft pick compensation will hurt his free agency. However, I honestly don’t think he’ll get the QO.
I could see a QO with another bump up in his stats, say 35-40 doubles, 35 HR, slash line of say .265/.340/.500 which probably puts his OPS+ north of 130 and he’s pushing all star consideration. But it would also depend on Hays (who could be pushed out), etc. Either way I think by this time next year the young guys will force the Orioles’ hand unless its softball and you can play 5 OF’s.
Too risky to QO Santander. He’ll walk at season’s end. Hopefully after winning the pennant.
Best rule 5 pick the O’s have made in quite some time though. Worked out very nicely.
O’s should have been looking to deal Satander due to the fact they have OF depth coming up, and their pitching is still suspect. Loads of talent on this team with or without Satander.
Santander was the most reliable power bat on the team last year and will continue to be. No one is pushing to take over for him yet. No one has the track record or the power from both sides. Plus he’s valuable to the clubhouse culture, a leader, a veteran, and bilingual.
Ubaldo, I completely agree on all your points. The problem is, the Orioles don’t think like that. Over and above all these positives will be: “Santander will cost us $20 million or more in 2025” and suddenly his track record, switch hitting power, and leadership capabilities don’t matter as much, making it more likely a younger player (cheaper, under team control) will be given more consideration.
I’m not certain that’s true. Elias is big on makeup and team culture. We don’t frankly know how a Rubenstein-helmed O’s team will act at this point – we are in entirely new territory.
true…forgot about that. Let’s see….
Santander can hit and hits in critical situations….and is defense will not kill you either……O’s would be foolish to rush their kids up to the show….especially when they’re expected and trying to follow up last years success with more this year and building into the future…..never know how injuries and time work for rookies so advice to be careful and not throw a gamer like Santander to the curb to quickly……
Any O’s peeps have the latest on Bradish’s injury/recovery time?
Great, now Baltimore is on a death watch for Peter Angelos.
Get Mountcastle out from under the shadow of Mount Walltimore to a team where he can do some damage and move Santander to first. Mullins has the most trade value. Everyone needs a good centerfielder. But Bradfield won’t be ready this year and Cowser is not suited for Center. Hays is probably most in danger of just losing his job. So, maybe two new faces in the corners by mid summer?