The Orioles and outfielder Taylor Ward have agreed to a $12.175MM salary for the 2026 season, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports. The two sides avoided arbitration with a figure that comes in lower than Ward’s $13.7MM projection from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, but it’s still a big raise over the $7.825MM Ward earned in 2025. Ward is represented by Wasserman.
In what ended up as his final season with the Angels, Ward hit .228/.317/.475 over 663 plate appearances, with a career-high 36 home runs and 103 RBI. Ward’s 117 wRC+ in 2025 wasn’t much higher than his 112 wRC+ in 2024, and his batting average and OBP actually declined from the previous year. However, since arbitors tend to favor traditional counting stats over advanced metrics, Ward’s big increase in homers and RBI meant that he was in line for a hefty increase.
Since Ward is a Super Two player, he had four years of arbitration eligibility instead of the standard three. With his 2026 figure now established, Ward will have made $27.5MM over his four arb years, which included winning an arbitration hearing with the Angels entering the 2024 season. (The panel gave Ward his desired $4.8MM salary rather than the Angels’ price of $4.3MM.)
Ward will hit free agency next winter in advance of his age-33 season, and on the heels of what Ward hopes is a productive first season in Baltimore. After years of trade rumors, the Angels finally dealt Ward in an intriguing one-for-one deal in November that sent Grayson Rodriguez to Anaheim. The move to a more hitter-friendly ballpark may well boost Ward’s numbers in his platform year, and he’ll surely welcome the chance to play for a potential contender after never playing on a winning team over his eight years with the Angels.