4 October 2023
Ryan O’Hearn didn’t have much time to talk in the Orioles’ clubhouse before he went out to the field, but he didn’t need it.
The question wasn’t one that required a long-winded answer: How would you describe the 2023 Orioles in one word?
“That’s a really hard question,” he responded.
Other Orioles players said the same thing before landing on different words. Danny Coulombe said “magical.” Tyler Wells offered “underdogs.” Gunnar Henderson cheated a bit and used the hyphenated “never-give-up” to describe the team’s attitude.
As O’Hearn rummaged through his locker, he paused and grinned.
“Tenacious.”
His reason?
“Because it’s an awesome word, and it fits our team.”
What about his regular season? A year ago, he was a Kansas City Royal coming off a year in which he spent more games on the bench than in the lineup and hit just .239.
“Breakout,” he said with a smile.
The Orioles’ season isn’t over, as their first postseason game since 2016 — and first at Camden Yards in nine years — is just days away. But that doesn’t mean the regular season is unimportant and should be tossed aside. When evaluating a player’s year, the 162-game sample from late March to early October is far more important than what happens in the postseason.
So, let’s answer the same question to recap the 2023 regular season. Here is one word to describe every Orioles player’s performance.
Catchers
Adley Rutschman — Consistent: It’s possible that at no point this season was Rutschman the Orioles’ best or hottest player. But he was their most consistent, posting an OPS at or above .770 in all but one month. He led the team in games played with 154 — an impressive feat for a catcher — and a .374 on-base percentage.
James McCann — Professional: One of manager Brandon Hyde’s favorite words to describe a player who acts the right way is “pro.” McCann provided just that as the club’s backup catcher, aiding an inexperienced starting rotation and playing well enough to spell Rutschman behind the dish in one-third of the team’s games.
Infielders
Ryan Mountcastle — Scary: It was concerning when Mountcastle went on the injured list and missed a month with vertigo, opening up questions as to whether the slugger would get back to himself. He did, and then it became scary for opposing pitchers as he was the club’s best hitter in the second half.
Ryan O’Hearn — Persistence: Breakout was a fitting choice, but it doesn’t totally capture the story of O’Hearn’s miraculous campaign. The 30-year-old was a bench bat for one of the majors’ worst teams in 2022 and became one of the best hitters on the AL’s best club in 2023. O’Hearn persisted and thrived in Baltimore, hitting .289 with an .801 OPS.
Adam Frazier — Clutch: The second baseman said high-leverage moments are “what I live for,” and he lived it up this year. Overall, his .696 OPS was slightly below league average, but he posted a .932 OPS with runners in scoring position. He frequently came through in clutch moments, none bigger than his game-tying double in the Orioles’ playoff-clinching win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Ramón Urías — Dependable: Urías is a quintessential league-average hitter with an above-average glove, and he did that again this season with a .703 OPS. A dependable player like Urías who played three infield spots was valuable to Hyde’s mix-and-match infield.
Jorge Mateo — Perplexing: Mateo was the Orioles’ best hitter in April with a 1.062 OPS. His .472 OPS the rest of the way was the worst in the majors by 79 points. Mateo has still been valuable at times on the bases and in the field, but his bat has caused Hyde to only play him versus left-handed pitchers.
Gunnar Henderson — Superstar: After a slow start, Henderson emerged in June as one of the sport’s best players and never looked back. He led Baltimore in OPS at .814, tied for the team lead in homers with 28 and was perhaps their best defensive player en route to being named Most Valuable Oriole. His 6.3 wins above replacement ranks ninth in the majors and fifth in the American League, according to Baseball-Reference.
Jordan Westburg — Promising: Westburg’s numbers don’t jump off the page, but he proved he belonged in the majors the moment he arrived in Baltimore in late June. He didn’t struggle the way almost every other fellow prospect did and ended the regular season with a respectable .260 average and solid defense at second base.
Outfielders
Austin Hays — Gritty: Early in the season, as Hays dealt with a hand injury, Hyde said he’s one of the toughest players he’s “one of the toughest players I’ve been around.” He didn’t hit as well in the second half as he did in his All-Star first half, but he still managed a .276 average and 36 doubles while playing Gold Glove-finalist caliber defense in left field.
Cedric Mullins — Glue: With his clutch hitting (team-best 1.025 OPS with runners in scoring position) and game-saving plays in center field (like the home run robbery in Seattle), Mullins proved how valuable he is to the team when healthy. He didn’t return to his 2021 self, when he became the first Orioles to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season. but as someone who survived the rebuild and has the upside to near-single-handedly win games, Mullins is the glue for a team with a lot of moving parts.
Aaron Hicks — Proof: Hicks’ success as an Oriole after three straight bad seasons with the New York Yankees was proof that whatever Baltimore is doing to get the most out of change-of-scenery guys is working. Hicks hit .198 in his final two-plus seasons in New York. He took a week away, grew a beard and suddenly hit .275 with an .806 OPS with the Orioles after joining the team in late May.
Anthony Santander — Difference-maker: Santander has been a streaky hitter this season, but that doesn’t take away from his confidence when he steps to the plate. He is, perhaps more than any hitter not named Henderson, a difference-maker in the heart of Baltimore’s order as its top run producer with 95 RBIs.
Ryan McKenna — Intangibles: McKenna was one of a handful of players who spent the majority of their season in Baltimore but didn’t get to enjoy either clinch celebrations. As a bench player, Hyde frequently praised McKenna’s intangibles — his attitude as a cheerleader for his teammates and his readiness to be a defensive replacement, pinch runner or pinch hitter.
Heston Kjerstad — Pop: In a small sample of 20 batted balls, Kjerstad’s average exit velocity after his mid-September call-up was elite. At 92.3 mph, it would rank first on the Orioles and in the top 20 in the majors. The outfield prospect played just 13 games and posted a .748 OPS after his winding path led to the big leagues.
Starting pitchers
Kyle Bradish — Ace: Bradish entered his second campaign as a wild card after an up-and-down 2022. He ended the 2023 regular season as an AL Cy Young Award candidate and Baltimore’s ace with a 2.83 ERA. The last time a qualified Orioles pitcher posted a sub-3.00 ERA was Hall of Famer Mike Mussina in 1992.
Kyle Gibson — Veteran: The Orioles paid Gibson $10 million this offseason to shepherd a young starting rotation with his veteran presence and eat innings. Nearly every young starter around him took steps forward, and Gibson ate 192 innings. Check and check.
Grayson Rodriguez — Blossomed: His rookie season wasn’t going as expected with a 7.35 ERA in his first 10 starts. But after a trip to Triple-A Norfolk, Rodriguez returned in July and blossomed into a solid 1B to Bradish’s 1A. The only starting pitchers to have a better second-half ERA than Rodriguez’s 2.58 were Bradish and AL Cy Young Award front-runner Gerrit Cole.
John Means — Remarkable: To come back from Tommy John elbow reconstruction and pitch the way Means has is nothing less than remarkable. Whether he’s a member of the Orioles’ playoff rotation or not, Means missed 17 months after spending the rebuild as the club’s ace and returned to a first-place team and posted a 2.66 ERA in four starts.
Dean Kremer — Unflappable: In the two biggest games of the season, Kremer didn’t waver. He tossed five innings of one-run ball in the playoff-clinching win over the Rays and 5 1/3 shutout frames in the AL East-clinching victory versus the Boston Red Sox. After a poor start, Kremer ended the regular season with 13 wins and a 4.12 ERA.
Tyler Wells — Perseverance: Wells was the team’s best starting pitcher in the first half of the season, but he spent much of the second half in the minors as he managed fatigue. He persevered through the hardship to return as a late-inning bullpen arm in September, slamming the door on the team’s AL East-clinching win last week.
Cole Irvin — Selfless: Overall, Irvin was the same pitcher in 2023 that he was before the Orioles traded for him in January, but he spent most of the year either in Triple-A or fighting for his job in the big leagues. Despite posting a 3.22 ERA since June 10, Irvin didn’t stick in the rotation and was optioned three times. But the originator of the homer hose remained ready whenever Hyde needed him, providing crucial and effective innings when called upon.
Jack Flaherty — Disappointing: The Orioles traded for Flaherty with the hopes of getting a big-game pitcher with an elite pedigree and playoff experience. Instead, he pitched his way out of Baltimore’s rotation and into a relief role. His season isn’t over, though, as the right-hander can still be an important piece of Hyde’s playoff bullpen.
Relief pitchers
Félix Bautista — Heartbreaking: Bautista was on pace for one of the greatest relief seasons in MLB history before partially tearing his ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. He will miss the remainder of the 2023 season and likely all of 2024 after undergoing Tommy John elbow reconstruction sometime this month.
Yennier Cano — Storybook: No player on the Orioles has a better story than Cano, who went from being banned from playing in Cuba to being an All-Star. Since his mid-April call-up, he pitched in a team-high 72 games with a 2.11 ERA.
Danny Coulombe — Diamond: When Baltimore traded cash considerations to the Minnesota Twins at the end of spring training for Coulombe, they found a diamond in the rough. Coulombe, 33, has since enjoyed a career year as one of the best left-handed relievers in the sport with a 2.81 ERA in 61 appearances.
Cionel Pérez — Inconsistent: Entering the season, Pérez was a prime regression candidate after his excellent 2022. It hit hard, as he pitched a 4.81 ERA through late July. But he returned to being one of Hyde’s most reliable relievers down the stretch with a 1.37 ERA since July 29.
Jacob Webb — Lucky: This isn’t to mean that Webb’s performance has been lucky this season. Rather, it’s the Orioles who were fortunate the Los Angeles Angels put Webb on waivers and that 27 MLB teams passed on him. Webb, who has a 3.27 ERA in 22 innings for Baltimore, is also sitting pretty in his new spot ahead of the playoffs as the Angels prepare for a long offseason.
Shintaro Fujinami — Volatile: When the Orioles acquired Fujinami from the Oakland Athletics in July, they were getting a volatile reliever whose highs are as high as almost any reliever on the team and whose lows are as low as anyone’s. With the Orioles, he’s been exactly that. He’s pitched well at times — both in low- and high-leverage — but he has yet to earn the consistent trust of Hyde.
DL Hall — Resilient: Hall’s season didn’t go as planned. After an offseason back injury, Hall’s velocity was down to begin the year with Norfolk. He went to the team’s spring training facility to focus on strength training, returned as a reliever and has been a key member of Baltimore’s bullpen this month with a 2.76 ERA.
Mike Baumann — Winner: Baumann’s 2023 season will be a fun trivia question in the future. “Question: Who is the only Orioles reliever in the 21st century to record 10 or more wins in a season? Answer: Mike Baumann.”
Bryan Baker — Stumbled: Baker’s numbers don’t look much worse than his 2022 performance, but his stumbles with inherited runners is what’s missing from them. He posted a 3.64 ERA before his August demotion but allowed 54% of inherited runners to score.
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