Despite having one of the best records in the American League, Brandon Hyde thinks the Orioles can play better.
Baltimore’s game Saturday against the Minnesota Twins will be its 81st — the exact midway point of the season. Unlike his first four years as manager, the Orioles are well-above .500 through 81 games at 48-32 and have spent much of the first three months as one of the three best teams in the major leagues.
The success, though, doesn’t mean the Orioles have been perfect, and Hyde knows with a remaining schedule that is one of the sport’s hardest, that his club will likely have to get better down the stretch to make the postseason.
“I’m really happy with how our team’s played so far this year, and I think that we have room to grow and room to get better,” Hyde said. “We’ve had some really good stretches. I don’t think we’ve played our best baseball in June. If you look at our schedule, it doesn’t get any easier, and I think we have room to get better, honestly. But for the most part right now, sitting where we are record wise, we’ve had a lot of guys play well and we’ve won a lot of series this year, and I just want to see it continue.”
To commemorate the halfway point of the 162-game campaign, here is one number that defines how every Orioles player — those who have spent the majority of the year in the majors — has performed over the season’s first three months.
Kyle Bradish: 30.2% — To end his 2022 campaign, Bradish increased his slider usage to great effect. The same thing is happening this season, as the second-year right-hander is throwing the pitch more often.The strikeouts have followed, with seven-plus in three of his past four starts. At 30.2%, his slider is his most-used offering, making him the only Orioles starter to have an offspeed pitch atop his distribution.
Kyle Gibson: 1.6 — The past two starts for Gibson haven’t been pretty, and his overall numbers (4.66 ERA, 1.376 WHIP) somewhat reflect that. For most of the season, though, Gibson has been the pitcher the Orioles paid $10 million for, hoping he’d bounce back after a down 2022. His 1.6 wins above replacement on FanGraphs ranks first among Orioles starters.
Dean Kremer: 19 — Only two other pitchers in the majors have allowed more home runs than the 19 Kremer has. The right-hander surrendered two more Friday for nine in his past 26 innings. Kremer’s had stretches of success this season, but his ERA at the midway point is 5.04.
Grayson Rodriguez: 4.84 — To no surprise, Rodriguez has dominated Triple-A hitting since being optioned in late May. His 2.51 ERA in 32 1/3 innings with Triple-A Norfolk is 4.84 runs better than the 7.35 ERA he posted in 45 1/3 innings with Baltimore over the first two months of the season.
Tyler Wells: 0.885 — Well, this one is obvious, wasn’t it? Wells leading all qualified starting pitchers in WHIP — at 0.885 through 92 2/3 innings — has been a talking point for most of the season. While seeing 19 home runs allowed on his stat line is jarring, his ability to keep runners off base is why he’s been Baltimore’s best starter and a candidate to make the All-Star Game.
Keegan Akin: 3.87 — Akin, who was placed on the 15-day injured list Friday, has allowed 35 hits in 23 2/3 innings, but he’s surrendered just seven walks and two home runs. That combination is why his 2.98 fielding independent pitching (FIP) — which measures what the pitcher has most control over (walks, strikeouts and home runs) on an ERA-equivalent scale — is 3.87 runs better than his 6.85 ERA.
Bryan Baker: 2.21 — Baker’s 11.7 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate ranks third-best on the Orioles, but his 2.21 strikeout-to-walk ratio is tied for the third worst. Baker, who has had an inconsistent season, has walked 14.2% of the batters he’s faced this season — the most of any pitcher on the team.
Mike Baumann: 35.3% — Baumann has emerged as a mostly reliable reliever for Hyde, who has at times deployed the hard-throwing righty in high-leverage situations to positive results. A key reason behind his success is his sharp curveball, which hitters have a .238 slugging percentage against with a 35.3% swing-and-miss rate.
Félix Bautista: 18.2 — This entire story could be dedicated to stats that define Bautista’s eye-popping strikeout numbers. But here’s the most basic one, since it’s the one that could go down in history if the 6-foot-8 right-hander keeps his pace: Bautista is striking out 18.2 batters per nine innings — a rate that is well above the MLB record of 17.7 set by Aroldis Chapman in 2014.
Yennier Cano: -6.1 — What a half a season can make. Cano went from an unknown reliever with control issues to one of baseball’s best sinkerballs in the past few months. This number is why. The average batted ball off Cano is hit at negative-6.1 degrees — in other words, a ground ball — which is the second-lowest average launch angle against qualified pitchers and just one of seven below 0 degrees.
Danny Coulombe: 78.4% — Coulombe, a 33-year-old journeyman with his six organization, is also enjoying a breakout season. He ranks in the top quartile in several key metrics, including No. 1 in average exit velocity and hard-hit rate. His unconventional pitch mix is a main reason why Coulombe is having a career year, as 78.4% of his pitches have been breaking balls, as the left-hander throws a slider, sweeper and curveball.
Cionel Pérez: .317 — Over his first 108 1/3 career innings before this season, opposing batters were hitting .227 off Pérez. This year, they’re hitting .317 off him. The left-hander was one of Baltimore’s best relievers in 2022, but he’s struggled for most of 2023 with a 4.60 ERA and 1.84 WHIP.
Austin Voth: 9 — Over his first 22 2/3 innings, Voth walked just five batters. But he walked nine in his next 8 1/3 before being placed on the 15-day IL with elbow discomfort that he said he’s dealt with “off and on” all year. He said Friday the elbow pain was most noticeable when he’d lose his command.
James McCann: .497 — In his career, McCann has a .758 OPS against left-handed pitchers, and 20 of his 28 starts this year have come against lefty starters. However, McCann, who could soon come off the IL, is struggling against southpaws this year with a .497 OPS in 61 plate appearances.
Adley Rutschman: 52 — With 52 walks, Rutschman is on pace to become the first Oriole with a 100-walk season since Albert Belle in 1999. His plate discipline and batting eye are significant reasons Rutschman is one of the best hitting catchers in the sport, as the switch-hitter ranks in the top 15% of qualified batters in strikeout rate, walk percentage, chase rate and whiff percentage, according to Baseball Savant.
Adam Frazier: .955 — Frazier’s two-run, game-tying home run Wednesday wasn’t a one-off clutch moment. In 53 high-leverage plate appearances this year, the eight-year veteran is hitting .333/.431/.524 — good for a .955 OPS.
Gunnar Henderson: 50.7% — No Oriole hits the ball hard as often as Henderson does. While he swings and misses more often than almost any other hitter on the team, when he makes contact, it’s rated a hard-hit ball by Statcast 50.7% of the time — nearly 6 percentage points better than any other Oriole.
Jorge Mateo: .155 — After a scorching hot April, Mateo has cooled down severely the past two months. In 142 at-bats since May 2, Mateo is hitting just .155. His .618 OPS is the worst among Baltimore’s qualified hitters.
Ryan Mountcastle: 41.4% — It’s hard to judge Mountcastle’s season given he’s missed the past three weeks with vertigo. His .529 expected slugging percentage is more than 100 points better than his actual figure, suggesting he’s received poor batted-ball luck. On the other hand, his 41.4% chase rate is the 10th-worst in the majors.
Ryan O’Hearn: 93.4 — No Oriole is hitting the ball harder than O’Hearn. In his first season in Baltimore, O’Hearn has consistently hit the ball hard with an average exit velocity of 93.4 mph. He doesn’t have enough plate appearances to be a qualified hitter, but that figure would rank 13th in the majors if he did.
Ramón Urías: 101 — In his four-year career, Urías has been a near-league average hitter — and that’s not different this year. Entering Friday, Urías’ OPS+ — a normalized version of OPS in which 100 is league average — was 101 after he posted an OPS+ of 104 last season.
Terrin Vavra: .000 — Vavra has split his season between Triple-A and the majors, and this number is a reason why. In 49 at-bats, Vavra’s isolated power — the difference between his batting average and slugging percentage — is .000. He went 12-for-49 with zero extra-base hits before he was optioned to Triple-A in June.
Austin Hays: .316 — No AL hitter has a higher batting average than Hays. After his two-hit night Friday, Hays is hitting .316 during his first half that Hyde has repeatedly said should earn the left fielder a bid to the All-Star Game.
Aaron Hicks: .369 — Hicks has only been an Oriole for the past month, but the value he’s brought to the team is described by this number. After posting a .524 OPS with the New York Yankees before his release, the 11-year veteran has an .893 OPS with the Orioles — a difference of .369.
Ryan McKenna: 61 — Only six other position players have appeared in more games this season than McKenna. As Hyde’s go-to defensive replacement in the outfield, McKenna often finds himself called upon to play right field late in games. He has just 28 more plate appearances than games played.
Cedric Mullins: 1.245 — Before he was placed on the IL in late May, Mullins was among the Orioles’ RBI leaders despite mostly batting in the leadoff spot. The reason for his high RBI total is because Mullins has been the Orioles’ best hitter with runners in scoring position, entering Friday with a 1.245 OPS across 63 plate appearances in those moments.
Anthony Santander: 12 — Throughout April, Santander managed a power outage that caused him to have one of the worst months of his career. Between May and June, though, the switch-hitter found his power, smashing 12 home runs to bring his team-leading total to 14.
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