The only thing Ryan Mountcastle hates more than the Camden Yards left field wall is talking about it. Cole Irvin fell in love the first time he laid eyes on it. The teammates are on opposite ends of an extreme spectrum.
One of the most substantial ballpark dimension changes in recent MLB history, now three seasons old, has flipped Baltimore from one of the most hitter-friendly parks to one of the most pitcher-friendly ones. Until now, though, the Orioles had yet to capitalize.
Orioles hitters lost more home runs to the wall, which was moved back nearly 30 feet and raised by about 6 feet, than Orioles pitchers during the first two seasons of the new dimensions. That’s flipped in 2024. The changes are starting to have the intended results, with the Orioles finally the benefactors.
“The wall is really far,” Orioles offensive strategy coach Cody Asche said. “But the way our lineup and our athleticism is constructed, there’s not a team better suited to take advantage.”
Overall, the change has still hurt the Orioles more than it’s helped. Baltimore hitters have lost a total of 69 homers to the pushed-back fence (it’s 384 feet to left field and 398 feet to left-center) while its pitchers have lost just 63 entering Sunday, according to Baseball Savant, which published the batted ball data for the first time last week. That difference was most stark in 2022, the first year after the move, when Orioles hitters lost 31 long balls to just 19 from their pitchers.
That gap shrunk in 2023, becoming a 20 to 17 difference but still in the opponents’ favor. This season, Orioles pitchers have finally been helped more than their counterparts. Baltimore hurlers have had 27 balls that would have been homers stay in the park in 2024, while that’s only happened to their hitters 18 times, according to Baseball Savant.
It took a while, but both hitters and pitchers are finding ways to play into their home park’s extreme dimensions.
“It’s there for a reason,” Irvin said. “I’m pitching to the wall. Plain and simple.”
The left-hander leads all MLB pitchers with 10 total home runs saved and seven this season. Dean Kremer has the second most with seven. Grayson Rodriguez has had six homers saved.
When Irvin was traded to Baltimore before the 2023 season, he embarked on a re-wiring of his brain to go against how he’d always been coached. Pitchers are generally taught to prevent hitters from pulling the ball and lifting it in the air, the easiest way to achieve an extra-base hit.
That’s now exactly what he aims to do.
“There was a little bit of an adjustment period when I first got here to change my thoughts and how to pitch that way,” Irvin said. “It’s a little bit of a mind game.”
Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said three years ago he hoped the wall would provide the home team’s pitchers with more confidence, in turn helping him attract talented veterans and develop young pitchers. Those hopes have come to fruition. A park where pitchers once despised taking the mound in is now one that offers the most comfort.
“I think left-handed pitchers can have an advantage here because of how teams stack right-handers,” manager Brandon Hyde said.
Mountcastle’s 11 home runs lost to the wall lead MLB hitters. The Orioles’ Austin Hays, Jorge Mateo, Anthony Santander and Adley Rutschman trail the first baseman by a wide margin. The Chicago White Sox’s Luis Robert Jr. is the most impacted visiting player.
No one has been hurt more than Mountcastle, who hasn’t quite mastered how to use it to his advantage like Irvin — he’s still learning how to deal with the frustration that comes with seeing a well-struck ball bounce off the fence or land in an outfielder’s glove.
When that happens, Asche and other Orioles coaches have to remind hitters that a sound process does not always equal positive results. The team still encourages their right-handed sluggers to pull and lift the ball, as much as watching a ball smack off the mountainous wall might want to dissuade hitters from sticking to that plan.
“It’s frustrating at times,” Asche said. “We feel it for them. It sucks when Mounty hits a ball 110 [mph] and it hits the wall, then you see a guy on another team clear the wall. The game’s not fair. We try not to be as result-oriented. Even though it’s the big leagues, results matter, it’s how you get paid, it’s how you win games. But there’s tough conversations in the dugout. ‘Hey, that was a good at-bat. The process was right. The result was wrong.’”
Additionally, and perhaps more important to the favorable trend, Baltimore has become one of MLB’s most left-handed dominant lineups.
Since the wall’s introduction, Gunnar Henderson has become an All-Star. Colton Cowser and Jackson Holliday arrived and established themselves as everyday players. Ryan O’Hearn blossomed into a dependable middle-of-the-order bat. Cedric Mullins remains a contributor. Heston Kjerstad is still waiting, too. What they all have in common is they bat left-handed.
Baltimore has the third most home runs from left-handed hitters this season, trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. They were eighth in that mark last season. In 2022, they were 22nd.
In that same time, Orioles’ home runs from right-handers have declined from 20th in the league three seasons ago to 28th this year.
“We’re way more left-handed now, which I think would play a part in that,” Hyde said.
Baltimore has finally obtained one of baseball’s best home-field advantages. The difference in how much the wall benefits the Orioles versus their opponents should only widen moving forward.
That was always the plan. It just took three seasons to materialize.
What’s to come?
The Orioles travel to Los Angeles to face the National League-leading Dodgers and NL Most Valuable Player favorite Shohei Ohtani for three games this week. The designated hitter recently eclipsed the 40-home run, 40-stolen base mark on the season, becoming the sixth player in MLB history to do so and just the third this century.
Ohtani is on pace to surpass 50 in both categories with just over a month left in the regular season. He’d be the first player to ever reach those benchmarks in a season.
The Orioles are familiar with the superstar — he’s slugged eight homers in just 26 career games versus Baltimore. Ohtani’s numbers, while still gaudy, take a dip versus left-handers, and he’ll see Cole Irvin on Tuesday and Cade Povich on Thursday.
What was good?
The Orioles offense was in a slog that, if it continued, could have taken them out of the division title race for good. Anthony Santander’s and Jackson Holliday’s heroics woke up the lineup and sent Camden Yards into frenzies that Hyde called some of the loudest he’d ever heard.
Santander and Holliday powered a pair of comeback victories, the former crushing a grand slam Friday to put Baltimore ahead of Houston in the eighth inning and the latter knocking a go-ahead, three-run double in Saturday’s come-from-behind victory.
“I think it’s real good momentum going into these next few weeks,” the 20-year-old top prospect said Saturday.
Their efforts salvaged a 3-4 week that could have been much worse to stay within 1 1/2 games of the New York Yankees for first place in the American League East and three games up in the top wild card spot.
What wasn’t?
Every team deals with injuries this late in the season, but few have been impacted as much as Baltimore. The Orioles took more hits this week as Ryan Mountcastle (wrist) and Cedric Mullins (quad) both missed time and prized trade deadline acquisition Zach Eflin landed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.
The team received good news on all three — Hyde said he hopes Mountcastle and Mullins won’t need injured list stints and Eflin is confident he can return as soon as he’s eligible on Sunday. Still, it forced the Orioles to turn to inexperienced or struggling pitchers and limited the team’s lineup and bench flexibility during a losing week.
On the farm
Vance Honeycutt, the Orioles’ first-round pick in last month’s draft, made his organizational debut Thursday with Low-A Delmarva. He went 1-for-3 with a single, two walks, two steals and a run scored in a 3-1 victory.
In three games with the Shorebirds, Honeycutt is 3-for-11 at the plate.
The 21-year-old outfielder debuted at No. 7 on the club’s prospect rankings, according to Baseball America, behind right-hander Chayce McDermott and ahead of outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., Baltimore’s first-round pick last year. Honeycutt signed for a $4 million bonus, nearly $200,000 over the slot value of the No. 22 pick.
Infielder Griff O’Ferrall and catcher Ethan Anderson, the Orioles’ second and third selections behind Honeycutt, also debuted with Delmarva on Aug. 13 and are hitting a combined 24-for-76 (.316) to start their professional careers.