In April of 1980, Walt Woodart wrote and released a song dedicated to the Baltimore Orioles. “Orioles Magic” was a response to other franchises also making catchy and cheesy tunes to represent their team and fans in the 1970s. He penned it to commemorate the 1979 Orioles, a young team that surprised and made it to the World Series. The song has been played repeatedly throughout the years and still plays when the Orioles walk it off.
Woodard ended up predicting the future. One of the lines in “Orioles Magic” is, “every day has a different star; that is the magic of Orioles Baseball.”
Fifty-three years later, the 2023 Orioles feature a team of young players who stepped up daily to create something magical. This team accomplished so much this year, and they continue to raise our expectations. The meteoric rise from 2021 to now has been documented everywhere. We, as fans, understand how we got here, but the speed of how fast it happened never fails to impress.
Think about this: just two years ago, this team’s biggest highlight was Stevie Wilkerson pitching, or Rio Ruiz hitting a walk-off home run to upset Houston. Now they are champions of the toughest division in baseball and have 101 wins this year. The question becomes, how did it all come together? That is why we are here today. This is a piece to give much credit and love to the 2023 Baltimore Orioles, a tough, scrappy, talented team that makes your heart race and soar simultaneously.
The best way to start is by looking back on the 2022 Season. That team was also special for how much they exceeded expectations, but a poor start due to injuries and a bad finish in September ultimately sunk them. Now, all eyes were on Mike Elias and what he would do to help his team. His comments about “liftoff” filled everyone’s minds with high expectations, but his actions didn’t live up to his words in the eyes of many.
He didn’t go out and get the big names or even B-list talents like Josh Bell or Brandon Drury. Instead, he filled the margins. He got Kyle Gibson, Adam Frazier, Mychal Givens and traded for Cole Irvin. That wasn’t the offseason we were expecting, and fans and the baseball media took notice of the lack of big-name moves made. It was chalked up as a massive disappointment, with finger-pointing at Elias, and at owner John Angelos. Baseball took notice, and experts slapped the Orioles in the face with a disrespectful 77 Win over/under.
Look, you can complain that Elias isn’t aggressive and hoards prospects too much. You can complain about how cheap Angelos is. You can complain that Brandon Hyde doesn’t understand how to manage a bullpen and that he plays veterans over prospects. Here’s the one thing you can’t debate: that win total projection was a complete joke, and it proved one thing – this team would have to earn respect with their play on the field.
So that is what they did throughout the early parts of the season. They just grinded and found ways to win. It didn’t matter if the score was 1-0 or 10-9; they just pulled out wins. It was something special to see in April; they didn’t hit a bunch of home runs to clobber their opponents, they just did what they needed to do to win. It was nerve-racking as anything, though. They very often fell behind early before fighting back in the middle innings and then making us sweat it out late.
2023 Orioles Checklist
✅ Fall behind early
✅ Battle back in mid innings
⬜ Late-inning butt clenching
⬜ Win— Eutaw Street Report (@EutawStReport) May 3, 2023
Eventually, they started to get known for their comebacks. Remember that May series in Toronto when the O’s swept the Blue Jays? Fun times, right? That series showed this team’s grit and toughness because they looked like they would lie down and die in the second game. Then Ryan O’Hearn came up clutch and hit a game-tying three-run shot in the eighth to spur the sweep. It was the same thing in the next series against the Yankees. Have a terrible game where Felix Bautista blows the save, and they get walked off in the tenth? Well, the next day, they were down by four runs, seemingly sunk, only to put up a seven-run 7th inning and win the game 9-6. The O’s would carry that moment into a series win the next day. This became a theme with the 2023 Orioles. Have great moments early on, suffer some kind of horrific loss, and look dead in the water only to come back and somehow win a series. It wasn’t great for the blood pressure of the fans, but it was exciting to see these types of games constantly play out.
That takes us into June when some things looked to be established. After a wishy-washy road trip to start the month, one thing became transparent with this team: Gunnar Henderson was morphing into a superstar. That sequence, from the last game in Milwaukee to avoid the sweep to that series with the Blue Jays, where they dominated them again, Gunnar just went off. It helped get him to where he is now, winning the Most Valuable Oriole and being a lock to win ROY. Gunnar will be one of the most talented members of this team going forward, and it all started in that stretch in June. That wasn’t the only thing that was established. Adley Rutschman was having a great year, Austin Hays was putting together a career season, and the back end of Yennier Cano and Bautista was devastating. They also got production from Anthony Santander, their most consistent hitter this year.
As June wound down, bad losses were getting in the way of the vibes. A disappointing series loss to the Reds was followed by a disgusting series loss to the Twins, where the offense was nonexistent.
Going into July, the team had lost three straight series against the Reds, Twins, and Yankees. Then, like, they always do something just clicked. They bludgeoned the Yankees in the last game of that series, then carried that momentum over to a three-game sweep of the Twins to end the first half. They Orioles would send Adley Rutschman, Hays, Cano, and Bautista to the All-Star game. Then, they swept the Marlins to bring their winning streak to seven games. After a series loss to the Dodgers, it was time for their biggest series of the year, a four-game series in the Trop against the Rays. They started July 6.5 games back but entered the series one game up. They scratched, clawed, fought, and won three of four versus the Rays in their house. It was more magic that this team constantly showed every series. They have grit about them because they don’t get swept. There are highs and lows, but this team doesn’t let that affect them; they keep fighting. They would leave the Trop with a two-game lead and never surrender it, even if it got dangerously close.
August saw a new kind of Orioles team led by their pitching. Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez both stepped up. Both put up numbers in the second half rivaling those of AL CY Young favorite Gerrit Cole. Bradish and Rodriguez have been huge for this team, and they will be the first two pitchers out of the gate in the ALDS. Not to say the offense wasn’t good, but they weren’t good enough to carry the team. Elias got the O’s Shintaro Fujinami and Jack Flaherty at the deadline. While both have been hit or miss, they added value at times, and helped ease the blow that came when the O’s lost Felix Bautista in late August; he was a big reason they had been winning all of these close games, so the offense or pitching would have to step up as we made our way to September.
September started well with a winning road trip. The Birds then came home and lost a series to St. Louis thanks to a dormant offense. That disaster would be followed up by losing the first two games of a four-game set to the surging Rays. The division lead was dwindling, and this team needed answers. Luckily, they had them in Rodriguez, who put up the best start of his career when they needed him most. The Orioles split the series after they walked off the Rays, clinching a playoff spot. After a celebration, the Orioles would magically win two out of three in Houston; then, the struggles returned in Cleveland as they again dropped the first two of a four-game set. This team just looked exhausted, approaching their first off day in seventeen days. They salvaged the series and returned home, needing to win three games to clinch the AL East. We learned about the passing of Brooks Robinson, and how fitting for the Orioles to win five in a row to clinch the division.
So, what was the difference maker this year? Well, for one, the starting pitching was a huge boost in the second half. We know how good Grayson and Bradish are, but additionally, John Means returned and looked like himself and Dean Kremer had some good starts after a rough stretch. Second, Elias did an excellent job filling out the holes in this roster with lesser moves. Getting Ryan O’Hearn for nothing, Cano as a throw-in for Jorge Lopez, and filling out the bullpen with waiver claims like Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb were all moves that led to 100 wins. Even guys like Cionel Perez, DL Hall, and Tyler Wells coming back have given the bullpen a lift in allowing certain guys to stay fresh. As for the offense, they have guys like Gunnar and Adley producing, but also got production from O’Hearn and Santander to balance out the struggles of Cedric Mullins.
As you can see, the Orioles are a village; they don’t have one superstar they can consistently count on. Instead, they are greater than the sum of their parts. Everyone plays a role, and a massive shoutout to Brandon Hyde. Yes, he plays veterans a little too much and is obsessed with righty-lefty matchups, but the guy has a lock on this team and gets the most out of his players.
What happens in the postseason is all up to them now. Some people are worried they will struggle in the playoffs, but here is why they won’t: they have been playing playoff baseball all year. From chasing down the Rays and holding them off to having a healthy team outside of Bautista, and getting a much-needed break, they should be good to go for the playoffs.
One thing is for sure, though: this team was special no matter what happens next week. Every night the 2023 O’s took the field, something remarkable would happen, or something unbelievable would occur. There is just something in the water with this team that analytics can’t explain. The San Diego Padres spent over $150 million more than the O’s, have more prominent names, yet will be watching Baltimore in the playoffs from their couch. Experts can’t explain it, yet it seems easy; this team never quits.
So thank the players, coaches, front office people, and whoever else made this season possible.
The 2023 Orioles will be my favorite team of all time, especially if that magic carries over into October and, hopefully, November.
