The Main League Baseball free company interval coincided with an enormous announcement about Camden Yards’ new dimensions — a change that performed an enormous function in a single free agent’s resolution.
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 an alternative of needing to clear components of the previous wall that have been as soon as 384 and 398 toes, the deeper components will solely be 374 and 376. The peak of the wall will not be 13 toes, however quite 8 in some areas and 6 toes, 11 inches in others.
Which may sound like a small change. Nonetheless, for Tyler O’Neill, it made a world of distinction in his resolution to signal a three-year, $49.5 million contract with Baltimore final week.
“To be trustworthy, I do not know if I might contemplate signing in Baltimore with that left discipline, 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 Purple Sox/Getty Pictures
O’Neill, a right-handed hitter, slugged 31 residence runs for the Boston Purple Sox in 2024, his closing 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 yr 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 residence park? The Orioles are wagering it can.
In accordance with Statcast’s Park Factors metric, Camden Yards was 7 p.c harder than the typical park on righties when it got here to hitting residence 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 anticipated 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 laborious to not view the choice by any right-handed hitter to register Baltimore by the lens of the brand new left-field dimensions.
“I feel the Baltimore group realized that they have been going to lose that facet of the plate with the place their park was at, as a result of guys like me would not need 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 a must 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 rather more affordable to anticipate.”
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