O's young stars ready for 'new high' of October
Jake Rill
@JakeDRillThis story was excerpted from Jake Rill’s Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BALTIMORE -- From 2012-16, no team in the American League won more games than the Orioles. They went 444-366 during that span, reaching the postseason three times. But none of those Baltimore squads won 100 games in a season.
The 1997 O’s went wire-to-wire in the AL East, leading the division from Opening Day until the regular season’s final day. But they didn’t win 100 games. They went 98-64.
Cal Ripken Jr., the greatest player in franchise history, was part of some special Orioles teams during his 21-year career (1981-2001), all of which was spent in Baltimore. He never was a member of a 100-game winner.
This year’s Orioles went 101-61, the fifth-best regular season in team history and the best since 1979 (102-57). They reached the century mark for the first time since ‘80 (100-62).
Does Baltimore’s budding young core realize how special of an achievement it was?
“I feel like it’s hard to when you’re in the midst of it,” rookie infielder Gunnar Henderson said. “But I’m sure the day that we retire and we can look back at the seasons, to be able to see how rare it is will be pretty cool.”
Henderson, 22, isn’t retiring anytime soon. Nor is 25-year-old catcher Adley Rutschman. Nor is 23-year-old right-hander Grayson Rodriguez. Nor is 24-year-old infielder Jordan Westburg. Nor is 25-year-old left-hander DL Hall.
These rising stars have only just arrived. And with the Orioles in the postseason for the first time since 2016 -- crowned AL East champs for the first time since ‘14 -- the youngsters will be spotlighted for a national audience.
For as long as Baltimore stays alive this October, a popular storyline is sure to be how the team reached this level more quickly than many externally thought it would. Everybody knew general manager Mike Elias and the O’s front office were stockpiling young talent, but outsiders may not have expected these types of results as soon as a handful of top prospects reached the Majors.
It’s not a surprise to the Orioles’ young core, though. Rutschman, Henderson, Rodriguez and Hall spent days at the alternate training site during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season talking about what it would be like for them to all reach the big leagues and lead Baltimore to success, and each knew it was possible once they got there.
Since Rutschman arrived in May 2022, the O’s haven’t been swept in a series (an active streak now at 91 multigame series). Henderson, who debuted on Aug. 31, 2022, only knows what it’s like to be in a postseason hunt -- Baltimore fell three games shy of a Wild Card berth last season.
Entering 2023, the Orioles knew more young talent was on the way to help. That’s why they could ignore the pundits who projected them to regress because their offseason was “too quiet.”
The more experienced prospects who opened the year in the Minors -- such as Rodriguez, Westburg and Hall -- were motivated to get called up and join the fun.
“In the Minor Leagues, I was just focused on trying to be a part of this team,” said Westburg, who debuted on June 26. “I wasn’t really thinking about anything other than, ‘Man, how bad I want to get up there and how bad I want to contribute and how bad I want to be a part of that team.’
“Because I could tell something was brewing. I could tell that the energy was different in Spring Training and that everybody in the clubhouse was focused on winning ballgames.”
Baltimore has won a lot. It needs only 11 more victories to capture the fourth World Series championship in franchise history. That’s the goal.
But the goal is to also be back in the postseason in 2024, and then the years beyond. Because this is the first trip to October for the Orioles’ rising stars, but it’s unlikely to be the last.
“Now, there’s no going back,” Rutschman said. “It’s like, ‘You’ve got to reach this, because this is the new high.’”
Added Henderson: “This is what we’re going to expect for years to come.”