The Baltimore Orioles have had a love-hate relationship with their left field wall for some time. After it was one of the most hitter-friendly environments that was significantly hurting their own pitching staff, the organization decided to change the dimensions by pushing the fence back and raising the height. While that helped their pitchers, it also hurt their own batters.
Well, it seems like the Orioles are taking a Goldilocks approach when it comes to their left field wall because, in an announcement made by general manager Mike Elias, they have decided to alter the dimensions once again. Roch Kubatko of MASN noted what these changes will be. “Some areas will be pulled in as much as 20 feet, and others 11 or at a maximum of nine.
A rendering shows the wall lowered from 13 to eight feet,” he reports. That is huge for a number of reasons. Baltimore should be commended for not being stubborn when it came to their first alteration of the Camden Yards fence.
Plenty of front offices or ownership groups might have dug their heels in and refused to make abrupt changes in such a short amount of time. But to the credit of Elias and everyone involved, they listened to feedback and made this a priority. “And given the uncertainties of the game, offensive environments, et cetera, it became clear to us and me and our staff, our coaches and players, the feedback that we received over three years of lived experience, that it was a directionally correct move, but we overcorrected.
Once we came to the decision that that was the case, I decided that this is something we wanted to address as soon as possible, and we’ve developed a plan to seek a happier medium for these dimensions prior to 2025,” the GM stated per Kubatko. The most important thing coming out of this is the positive impact it will have on this Orioles team going forward. No team has been more negatively affected by the new wall than this group.
Hitters with the most home runs stolen by Camden Yards’ left field wall since 2022:Ryan Mountcastle — 11Austin Hays — 8Jorge Mateo — 7Anthony Santander — 7Adley Rutschman — 7Ramon Urias — 5Trey Mancini — 5James McCann — 4Jordan Westburg — 4— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) November 15, 2024When taking a look at that list, it’s clear why Baltimore would want to make this change immediately. It’s well documented that Ryan Mountcastle has been victimized the most by the new wall, so he should see a return to having a high home run rate and power numbers immediately. Adley Rutschman had a dip in power production this past season, so he could get back to hitting the long ball from the right side of the plate based on these changes as well.
The utility men of Jorge Mateo and Ramon Urias could also have a greater impact going forward based on these changes. Since they don’t play everyday or are used in certain situations, their at-bats now have higher likelihood of changing the game if the ball goes over the fence instead of being a long fly out or double. Jordan Westburg is just getting his career started and he’s already been one of the players most adversely affected, so these changes should allow him to put up some power numbers that rival other sluggers at third base going forward.
When looking beyond their current roster, someone who should be a beneficiary is Coby Mayo. The right-handed slugger has a hitting archetype like Mountcastle, so one could only assume that he would also be robbed of multiple home runs per year because of the wall if they hadn’t made this change. This is a smart move by the Orioles and points to just how committed they are to winning right now.
Baltimore had a prolific offense at points during the regular season last year, and with the upcoming adjustments to the left field wall, they could take even another step forward in 2025 and beyond. This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
