The Orioles enter 2024 with World Series aspirations. However, salary-wise, they barely give themselves a chance.
Over the past three decades, no team has won a World Series after opening the season in the bottom five in payroll. The Orioles are 26th out of 30 MLB teams, ranked in the bottom five for the sixth straight season. Only three of the 30 defending champions have managed to do so and are outside the top rankings in terms of spending.
This year’s Fall Classic between the New York Yankees and the deep-pocketed Los Angeles Dodgers isn’t proof that spending $250 million a year is the only way to win a World Series. But it does show that behaving competitively based on salary is essentially a requirement for winning championships.
In an interview with NPR earlier this month, Orioles owner David Rubenstein, 75, said he wanted to “accelerate efforts to get to the World Series” because of his age. This offseason will be the first since officially purchasing the team in March.
“Well, success means you win championships,” he said when asked how he defines success. “Everyone wants to win a championship. … I realize it takes a while before you get to the World Series. But what is clear is that without winning a World Series or a championship, it won’t be satisfying. So I try to do everything I can with my partners to make sure that the team has everything it needs to win the championship. This may take some time. Some people have a team for 10 or 15 or 20 years and don’t win a World Series.
“So I have to realize that that might not happen. I am now 75 years old. You know, it’s unlikely that I’ll be doing this for another 20 years. So I had to accelerate my efforts to get to the World Series quicker than a younger owner might have.”
The Yankees entered the season ranked second in payroll at $303.3 million, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. The Dodgers are third at $249.8 million. The price tag for the Orioles is relatively small at $95.3 million.
The World Series, which Los Angeles leads 2-0 heading into Game 3 on Monday night, features the sport’s biggest stars signing massive contracts. Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani signed a unique $700 million contract this past offseason. Yankees tight end Aaron Judge signed for $360 million two offseasons ago. No. 1 starting pitcher The team’s second No. 1 — New York’s Gerrit Cole and Los Angeles’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto — signed for $320 million. Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, perhaps the best hitter this October, has a $325 million contract. Dodgers star Mookie Betts signed an extension — the kind of contract Baltimore fans hope the Orioles give Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and others — for $365 million in 2020.
It’s not realistic – nor would anyone expect – for the small-market Orioles to pay a $300 million payroll or sign multiple players to nine-figure contracts, and spending money doesn’t guarantee success on the field. But it’s critical that the Orioles, who haven’t signed a free agent to a multi-year major league contract since general manager Mike Elias took over, seriously engage the market to address their needs in the rotation, bullpen and lineup.
Elias will enter this offseason with what appears to be his first real opportunity to improve his roster through free agency, and he said at his offseason press conference that he hopes to do just that.
“I can ignore that because it’s still early, and I don’t think it’s fair before I start planning,” Elias said when asked if he expected wages to be higher in 2025. “But, yeah, I would be pretty confident that we will continue to invest in major league payrolls given what we have here and the improvements we hope to achieve again. We’ll see what happens. We will be smart about this. And if it doesn’t happen for some reason, it’s not because of a lack of financial support. This happens because the people running these teams think it is the right thing to do on a number of levels on a case-by-case basis. But I want to reiterate that I don’t expect that to happen.”
When Elias took over the Orioles after the 2018 season, he was tasked with overhauling one of baseball’s most broken operations. From drafting and development to analytics to international markets, the Orioles don’t compete with the top organizations in baseball. Six years since Elias was hired, Baltimore is now viewed as one of the best teams in that department — and success in the big leagues has followed. But October’s results haven’t ended with positive results in back-to-back postseasons.
The Orioles’ strength likely won’t result in a title run until they’re married to a competitive salary cap. Maybe that will finally happen this offseason.
Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com667-942-3337 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.
Gaming Hub
A gaming hub can refer to a central platform or space dedicated to gaming, where players can access games, interact with other gamers, and enjoy related content. Here are a few different kinds of gaming hubs you might be referring to:
Physical Gaming Hubs:
Gaming Cafés: Physical locations where players can rent time on high-end gaming PCs or consoles to play popular multiplayer or single-player games.
Esports Arenas: Specialized venues for competitive gaming tournaments where players or teams face off in games like League of Legends, CS
, or Fortnite.
Digital Gaming Hubs:
Steam, Epic Games Store, or GOG: Digital storefronts where you can purchase and play games, join online communities, and access updates and patches.
Game Launchers: Platforms like Steam, Blizzard’s Battle.net, and Xbox Game Pass often act as hubs where gamers can access multiple titles and keep track of their library.
Cloud Gaming Platforms: Services like NVIDIA GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming that allow players to stream games on various devices without needing high-end hardware.
Social/Community Gaming Hubs:
Discord Servers: Dedicated communities for games where players can chat, share tips, and find others to play with.
Reddit Communities: Subreddits dedicated to specific games or gaming news.
Gaming Consoles as Hubs:
Systems like the PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch act as central hubs for playing games, interacting with friends, and even streaming content like Netflix or Twitch.
If you meant something specific by “gaming hub,” let me know and I can elaborate further!