The Main League Baseball free company interval coincided with a giant announcement about Camden Yards’ new dimensions — a change that performed a giant position in a single free agent’s choice.
On Nov. 15, the Baltimore Orioles revealed they have been shifting the left-field wall in at various distances between 9 and 20 toes. As famous by Jake Rill of MLB.com:
As a substitute of needing to clear elements of the previous wall that have been as soon as 384 and 398 toes, the deeper elements will solely be 374 and 376. The peak of the wall will now not be 13 toes, however fairly 8 in some areas and 6 toes, 11 inches in others.
That may sound like a small change. Nevertheless, for Tyler O’Neill, it made a world of distinction in his choice to signal a three-year, $49.5 million contract with Baltimore final week.
“To be sincere, I do not know if I might think about signing in Baltimore with that left area, the way it was the final couple years, only for my participant profile and the way I hit the ball,” O’Neill instructed Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast. “It swallowed me up a little bit bit.”
Maddie Malhotra/Boston Crimson Sox/Getty Photos
O’Neill, a right-handed hitter, slugged 31 dwelling runs for the Boston Crimson Sox in 2024, his remaining season earlier than hitting free company. With a slash line of .241/.336/.511 (.246/.322/.469 profession) he grew to become one of many extra coveted right-handed bats on the free agent market.
Final season, O’Neill went 2 for 8 with two singles and 5 strikeouts in two video games in Baltimore. The 12 months earlier than, he went 1 for 8 with a single and three strikeouts. Will the brand new park dimensions play to his favor and enhance his stats at his new dwelling park? The Orioles are wagering it’s going to.
In response to Statcast’s Park Factors metric, Camden Yards was 7 p.c more durable than the common park on righties when it got here to hitting dwelling runs — twentieth in MLB. (Boston’s Fenway Park, for the report, was 2 p.c beneath common.)
The change in dimensions may also assist the Orioles’ different free agent place participant signing, catcher Gary Sanchez. The 32-year-old catcher has two 30-homer seasons on his resume, however none since 2019. Sanchez is predicted to again up Adley Rutschman in 2025.
Extra information: Orioles Sign Japanese Free Agent Pitcher to $13 Million Contract
Given O’Neill’s feedback, it is onerous to not view the choice by any right-handed hitter to check in Baltimore by way of the lens of the brand new left-field dimensions.
“I believe the Baltimore group realized that they have been going to lose that aspect of the plate with the place their park was at, as a result of guys like me would not wish to signal there,” he mentioned. “Simply to have it at a extra affordable size — it is nonetheless comparatively deep on the market — however now it’s important to hit the ball 375 toes as a substitute of 400 toes for it to be injury, or hit a house run. And that is way more affordable to anticipate.”
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