A 'happier medium': After 3 years, O's modifying left-field wall again

BALTIMORE -- Right-handed hitters, rejoice. The era of “Walltimore” at Camden Yards in Baltimore is over.

On Friday, Orioles general manager Mike Elias announced that the team is planning to move in the left-field wall at its home ballpark ahead of the 2025 season in an attempt to correct the issues that arose following the decision to push it back prior to the ‘22 campaign. Simply put, Elias called the latest decision the pursuit of a “happier medium” to fix an overcorrection, as the new wall won’t be as shallow as the ballpark’s original, either.

The wall will still begin at the previous 333-foot mark just to the right of the left-field foul pole and move back at an angle to the 373-foot crevice. However, the rest of the wall -- over to the bullpen area -- will be pulled in at varying distances between 9 and 20 feet.

Instead of needing to clear parts of the former wall that were once 384 and 398 feet, the deeper parts will only be 374 and 376. The height of the wall will no longer be 13 feet, but rather 8 in some areas and 6 feet, 11 inches in others.

No seats will be affected, and none will be added in the space between the two walls. The only structure occupying that gap will be a raised platform for “Mr. Splash,” the Orioles’ chief hydration officer who sprays the fans in Section 86 with a hose as part of the “Bird Bath” area.

“Our hope is, by pulling the dimensions in a little bit -- and in some areas it’ll be as much as 20 feet; in others, it’ll be more like 11 feet and as little as 9 -- that we will be able to get closer to what our initial goal was: a neutral playing environment that assists a balanced style of play at a park that was overly homer-friendly prior to our changes in 2022,” Elias said. “It is now a little overly skewed given what we did back then.”

Camden Yards was a hitters’ ballpark from its opening in 1992 up until its final season with the original dimensions in 2021. No ballpark in MLB had more home runs than the 1,140 hit at Camden over the five seasons from 2017-21.

There were 196 home runs hit at Camden Yards from 2018-21 that likely would not have been homers with the dimensions that were introduced in ‘22 and used through ‘24, per Statcast.

The Orioles wanted a more pitcher-friendly ballpark, and they got their wish -- albeit too much so. According to Statcast, there were 138 home runs lost over the past three seasons -- 72 for Baltimore and 65 for opposing teams.

Many fly balls hit to left field at Camden Yards during that time would have been home runs in every other MLB ballpark. Social media often noted the ones that were homers at 29 of the 30 -- everywhere but Baltimore.

“The feedback consistently was that the extremity of the disparity in the park was a little bit more of a topic of conversation than we had bargained for. We didn’t like the degree to which this had become a distraction in many ways,” Elias said. “I know that the pitchers enjoyed it. But for our hitters, for our right-handed hitters in particular -- for our left-handed hitters, too -- aspects of this were a little severe. So as you see with the new intended dimensions, it retains some of the depth in left field, a good bit of it.

“This will be much more fair and favorable to the pitchers than the original dimensions of Camden Yards. But clearly, it’s a lot less severe, and I’m hopeful this will strike the right balance.”

The Orioles were already in pursuit of right-handed bats this offseason. Their current projected starting outfield features three lefties -- Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins and Heston Kjerstad -- with switch-hitter Anthony Santander now a free agent.

It may be even more imperative for Baltimore to add righty hitters to fully take advantage of its left-field wall modifications, though this change will also be helpful for the righty hitters already on the O’s roster for the 2025 season.

No player in baseball lost more home runs to the left-field wall at Camden Yards over the past three seasons than Ryan Mountcastle. The 27-year-old first baseman hit 53 homers from 2022-24, but he would have had 11 more if the ballpark still had its original dimensions. He slugged a career-high 33 in ‘21, the year before the changes.

Jorge Mateo, Santander and Adley Rutschman each lost seven home runs over the past three seasons because of “Walltimore.” Ramón Urías lost five, and Jordan Westburg lost four.

“I think it’ll be easier for right-handed hitters to produce power numbers at this park, there’s no question about it. I’m sure you can name the guys on our team that are probably the happiest about this news. That will be helpful,” Elias said. “We wanted, and we want, a park that is neutral, tilting toward pitcher friendliness, but the disparities between the two sides of the park were not the intent, and it had created some dramatic differences and it affected player personnel thought and outcomes in a way that we weren't anticipating when we made the move.”