Orioles Talking To “High-End” Free Agent Pitchers; Camden Yards’ Left Field Dimensions To Be Changed

Orioles general manager Mike Elias took part in a video call with reporters (including the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko, and MLB.com’s Jake Rill) today, sharing a few guarded details about the club’s offseason pursuits and a major development for Camden Yards’ outfield dimensions.  Elias revealed that the ballpark will have a new left field wall that will be significantly shorter and closer to home plate than the wall that has been in place for the last three seasons.

The old wall will remain in place, stretching from the 373-foot mark in the left field crevice and extending to the Orioles’ bullpen.  However, an unoccupied open area will now sit between the wall and the new left field wall, which Elias said will be closer to home plate by “as much as 20 feet; in others, it’ll be more like 11 feet and as little as nine.”  The deepest distance from home plate to the left-center area of the old wall was 398 feet, but that distance will now be a more manageable 376 feet.  The old wall was also 13 feet high, whereas the new wall’s height will range from 6’11” at its shortest to nine feet tall at its highest.

“Our hope is, by pulling the dimensions in a little bit…that we will be able to get closer to what our initial goal was: a neutral playing environment that assists a balanced style of play at a park that was overly homer-friendly prior to our changes in 2022.  It is now a little overly skewed given what we did back then,” Elias said.

Heightening the wall back in 2022 happened to coincide with a big improvement in the Orioles’ play, as the team has since reeled off three straight winning seasons (and two playoff appearances) due to a marked upgrade in pitching performance.  Baltimore’s 3.94 team ERA ranks tenth in baseball over the last three seasons, and the pitching staff has allowed the ninth-fewest homers (523) of any club in that same span.

According to Statcast’s Park Factor metric, righty batters had more trouble hitting homers at Camden Yards than at almost any other ballpark, save for Cleveland’s Progressive Field and Pittsburgh’s PNC Park.  Unfortunately, this extended to the Orioles’ own batters as well as opposing hitters.  As Rill breaks down the numbers, the Orioles lost more home runs (72) than opponents (65) did at Camden Yards since Opening Day 2022.

“I think it’ll be easier for right-handed hitters to produce power numbers at this park, there’s no question about it.  We wanted, and we want, a park that is neutral, tilting toward pitcher friendliness,” Elias said.  “But, the disparities between the two sides of the park were not the intent, and it had created some dramatic differences and it affected player personnel thought and outcomes in a way that we weren’t anticipating when we made the move.”

Three years of data has now convinced Elias that the past renovations “overcorrected” the initial problem of Camden Yards being too homer-friendly.  Elias made a point of noting that the dimensions weren’t being changed to make it easier for the O’s to attract free agent hitters (particularly right-handed bats), as the GM said that the 2022 alterations weren’t intended as a “permanent” fix in the first place.

“In many ways this may make the park less attractive for pitchers, which is one of the reasons that I initially made this change,” Elias said.

The timing is interesting, as the rotation is certainly a key need for the Orioles this winter.  Corbin Burnes is a free agent and the top arm available on the open market (in the view of MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents list and many other pundits), leaving Baltimore with a projected top four of Grayson Rodriguez, Zach Eflin, Dean Kremer, and Albert Suarez in the starting five.  Cade Povich and Trevor Rogers are among the candidates vying for the fifth starters’ job at the moment and Kyle Bradish or Tyler Wells could emerge when or if they recover from UCL surgeries at some point in 2025, but there’s no doubt that this pitching staff could use some reinforcement.

To this end, Elias said the Orioles are considering “the whole spectrum” of pitching upgrades.  “If you’re running the team optimally….you’re certainly wanting to keep the whole menu of player acquisition open.  That involves high-end free agent deals over many years.  We’ve been engaged in those conversations already.”

It has been widely expected that the O’s have a higher spending capacity under new owner David Rubenstein than in past years when the Angelos family was controlling the team.  Elias gave “credit [to] the ownership change for putting us in the position to” at least check in at every level of the market, though he again stressed that more payroll flexibility doesn’t mean the Orioles are going to suddenly “spend money indiscriminately this offseason come hell or high water.”

Baltimore has already been linked to Max Fried in early free agent pursuits, as well as interest in White Sox southpaw Garrett Crochet on the trade front.  It can be assumed that the Orioles will consider a reunion with Burnes, even if that would likely be the priciest possible way to add to the rotation.  Since Burnes’ departure would recoup the Orioles a compensatory draft pick, the team could opt to get Burnes walk to gain that draft capital, thus perhaps making the O’s more comfortable about surrendering picks if they signed a qualifying offer-rejecting free agent of their own.