It’s go time for the 2024 Orioles, who open the season in Baltimore for the first time in six years.
The Orioles have a new owner. They have a new ace. Their roster is packed with more young talent than O’s fans have seen in a long, long time, and expectations are sky high for the 2024 season. Today, their journey of 162 games — and hopefully many more — begins at Camden Yards against the Los Angeles Angels.
This marks the Orioles’ first time opening a season at home since 2018, the last year of the Buck Showalter/Dan Duquette era. That game went well enough — with starter Dylan Bundy throwing seven shutout innings and Adam Jones bashing a walkoff homer in the 11th to beat the Twins — but the rest of the season sure didn’t, turning into a 115-loss disaster that cost Showalter and Duquette their jobs. Since then, the O’s twice were scheduled to begin their season at Camden Yards — in 2020 and 2022 — but the former was wiped out by the pandemic and the latter by the late end to the MLB lockout.
This is also the first time since that 2018 opener that the O’s have started the season against a non-division opponent, and you have to go all the way back to 2005 to find the last time they played an AL West team on Opening Day. This Angels team isn’t expected to be particularly good one — projected by FanGraphs for a 78-84, fourth-place finish — though they do have a highly respected new manager in baseball lifer Ron Washington, who’s helming a team for the first time since his long Texas Rangers tenure ended in 2014.
The franchise is beginning its post-Shohei Ohtani chapter after the supernatural two-way sensation left for the Dodgers in free agency. It ends what was a historic but ultimately unsuccessful era for the Angels, who never so much as had a winning season, let alone made the playoffs, during Ohtani’s six years with the team. The club’s utter inability to build a winner around Ohtani and Mike Trout — who’s not far removed from being the best player in baseball — was one of the truly staggering misfires in MLB history.
Trout, at least, is still around, but injuries have ravaged his once brilliant career. He has missed more than half the Angels’ games the last three years with issues ranging from a torn calf muscle to a back injury to a fractured wrist. For now, Trout is back to full health, which could be bad news for Orioles pitchers. Trout has smacked 25 career dingers against the Birds, his most against any non-AL West team.
Trout and baseball-player-who-seems-annoyed-by-baseball Anthony Rendon are the graybeards of the lineup, but the Angels have an intriguing core of young position players, including their two most recent first-round draft picks, shortstop Zach Neto and first baseman Nolan Schanuel. Schanuel was the first 2023 MLB draftee to make the majors, getting called up just over a month after the Angels selected him from Florida Atlantic University. Among the more experienced players, former Twins All-Star Miguel Sanó is back in the majors for the first time in two years, and the Angels signed familiar face Aaron Hicks after his breakout season with the Orioles last year. I wish Hicks the best of luck, but not in this series.
With their longtime ace Ohtani gone, the Angels’ rotation is now fronted by three left-handers, who all are expected to face the Orioles in this series. It seems like this would have been a great opportunity for Jackson Holliday to get the experience against southpaws that he needs, but according to the Orioles he can only do that in Triple-A. (Yes, I’m still salty that he’s not on the roster.)
The Angels also reshaped their bullpen, adding free agents Adam Cimber, Luis García, and Matt Moore, as well as Robert Stephenson, who is a good pitcher in addition to writing Treasure Island. Now that’s a talented guy! They’ll set up veteran closer Carlos Estévez.
On paper, the Orioles have the more talented team, and they have every opportunity to start their 2024 season on the right foot. At the very least, they should be able to continue their 91-game streak of series without being swept, which dates back to 2022. (Annoying caveat: we now have to clarify that it’s a regular season streak, thanks to that awful 2023 ALDS.)
Game 1: Thursday, 3:05 PM, MASN
LHP Patrick Sandoval (7-13, 4.11 ERA in 2023) vs. RHP Corbin Burnes (10-8, 3.39 for Brewers in 2023)
It still doesn’t feel real that Corbin Burnes is actually an Oriole. A real, live, legitimate ace who’s still in his prime or darn close to it. That type of pitcher hasn’t played for the Orioles since….what, Mike Mussina, a quarter-century ago? It’s awesome, and hopefully Burnes lives up to his reputation in what could be his only season in Baltimore. He’ll face some relatively unfamiliar opponents as a newcomer to the American League, including the Angels, who he just faced for the first time last year in an interleague matchup in Milwaukee. Burnes beat them with a six-inning, one-run quality start. Expect him to be amped up for his O’s debut in front of a raucous, sellout Opening Day crowd. Can’t wait.
Sandoval, who’s been a solidly above-average pitcher by ERA+ the last three years, assumes the mantle as the Angels’ ace. He’s been able to prevent runs more than you’d expect from a guy who allowed more than 1.5 baserunners an inning last year. He’s got the stuff to strike batters out but continues to struggle with walks, with a career 4.0 BB/9 that rose to 4.6 last season. If Orioles batters can tone down the emotions of Opening Day and work patient at-bats, they should be able to get the best of Sandoval.
Game 2: Saturday, 4:05 PM, MASN
TBD vs. RHP Grayson Rodriguez (7-4, 4.53 in 2023)
Rodriguez’s first start of 2024 is happening under much different circumstances than 2023, when he failed to make the O’s opening roster but was an emergency call-up when Kyle Bradish got hurt in his season debut. This year’s version of Grayson should be much better prepared than the overmatched rookie who got torched in his first 10 starts a season ago. He’ll hopefully build on the momentum of his sizzling second half, when he posted a 2.58 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 13 starts. Rodriguez has faced the Angels twice, once during that awful early spell — when they bashed him for eight runs in 3.1 innings — and once after his revival, when he held them to two runs in six innings.
The Angels haven’t officially announced a starter for the second or third games, but this one is expected to be Tyler Anderson’s turn. The veteran lefty disappointed in his first season with the Angels after signing a three-year, $39 deal, posting a 5.43 ERA and 4.1 BB/9 in 27 games. Like Sandoval, the Orioles will need to wait him out and force him to throw strikes.
Game 3: Sunday, 1:35 PM, MASN
TBD vs. RHP Tyler Wells (7-6, 3.64 in 2023)
Before spring training started, Wells wasn’t expected to be part of the Orioles’ rotation, with the Burnes acquisition seemingly push him back to the bullpen, where he finished 2023. But the injuries to Bradish and John Means created an opening, and Wells more than grabbed it during spring training, giving up just two runs in 14.2 innings to secure his spot as the #3 starter. Wells proved last year that he has the talent to be a reliable starter, carrying a 3.18 ERA and a spotless WHIP through his first 18 starts, but ran out of gas in late July and was banished to the minors until late September. If he pitches like he did in the first half of 2023, Wells could stay in the rotation even after Bradish and Means return.
The Angels’ projected starter for this game is Reid Detmers, who has a no-hitter to his name but was essentially a league-average starter last year. He’s another of the young Angels who the club fast-tracked to the majors, making his MLB debut a year after he was a 2020 first-round pick. Still just 24 years old, he has the highest upside of any Angels hurler. Detmers faced the Orioles last September and held them to one earned run despite giving up nine hits.