Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles chairman John Angelos released a statement through the team Monday saying the MLB franchise will "never leave" Baltimore.

Angelos' comments come after his brother, Louis Angelos, filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging John was trying to seize control of the organization from their parents, Peter and Georgia Angelos, and would eventually move the club to Tennessee, per ESPN.

The Orioles franchise has been located in Baltimore since 1954 after previous stops in Milwaukee and St. Louis. They've played at one of MLB's most iconic stadiums, Camden Yards, since 1992.

Peter Angelos placed the franchise in a family trust in 2017 while dealing with a heart issue.

Louis alleged in the lawsuit John has attempted to "squeeze" him out of the picture in order to gain full control of the organization in the future and argued his 92-year-old father would "vociferously reject any effort by an adult child presuming to override his will," per Daniel Chavkin of Sports Illustrated.

The lawsuit also alleges John has been successful in manipulating Georgia, 80, by preying on their mother's "fear of abandonment," according to The Athletic.

"John intends to maintain absolute control over the Orioles—to manage, to sell, or, if he chooses, to move to Tennessee (where he has a home and where his wife's career is headquartered)—without having to answer to anyone," the lawsuit states.

Louis' allegations also include a claim John transferred "tens of millions of dollars" in assets from his father to an LLC in his own name without informing other members of the trust. He seeks that money restored to his father along with John and Georgia being removed as co-trustees, per The Athletic.

John didn't respond directly to the various allegations in Monday's statement.

In March, Forbes estimated the Orioles are worth $1.32 billion on its annual list of MLB team values, which ranks No. 23 among the league's 30 franchises.

Jeff Barker of the Baltimore Sun reported in 2020 there were "at least three people" with interest if the Orioles were put up for sale, but so far, the Angelos family has publicly shown no intention to sell.

John said in February the focus was extending the club's lease with Maryland, which runs through the end of 2023 following a one-year extension.

"I would say that the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority have never at any point in time, from the first minute I got together and sat down with [MSA chairman] Tom Kelso, neither one of us has ever said anything other than, 'We can't wait to extend and renew this public/private partnership,'" Angelos told reporters.

Baltimore owns a 26-35 record during the 2022 season. The Orioles play in the hyper-competitive AL East and last made the playoffs in 2016.

The two sons of longtime Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos are headed to court to decide the future of the franchise, as well as their father’s law firm and the family fortune.

According to Tim Prudente and Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Banner, Louis Angelos is suing his brother John and mother Georgia in Baltimore Circuit County Court. Louis contends that John seized controlling power for the Orioles despite their father's intention for the two of them to control the team equally.

Louis also insinuated that if John maintains control of the Orioles, he could look to move the team out of Baltimore.

"John intends to maintain absolute control over the Orioles—to manage, to sell, or, if he chooses, to move to Tennessee (where he has a home and where his wife's career is headquartered)—without having to answer to anyone," the lawsuit states.

After suffering a heart issue in 2017, Peter Angelos established a trust with his wife and two sons appointed as co-trustees. Louis Angelos' attorneys Jeffrey Nusinov and Paul Raschke released a statement explaining the goal of their client's lawsuit.

"The purpose of this lawsuit is simple," it read. "Peter Angelos created a trust for the express purpose of ensuring that his sons would share equally in decision-making and inheritance of all family assets, including the Orioles. John Angelos, however, has been working secretly to undermine his father’s intentions and to gain unilateral control. Lou Angelos is compelled to bring this action to set things right."

John Angelos was able to assume controlling power of the Orioles amid his father's declining health. In 2019, MLB inquired who was running the team and requested that a "control person" be identified.

Louis was working in a principal role in their father's law firm, and John "took a more prominent role in running the business" of the Baltimore franchise. In November 2020, John was approved as "control person" by other MLB owners.

The lawsuit states that Georgia had been trying to sell the team for quite some time, but John nixed a potential deal. Louis claims that John has been "openly displaying his disregard for his father’s prerogatives as the managing partner" of the team.

Baltimore Orioles prospect Grayson Rodriguez could miss the rest of the 2022 season because of a Grade 2 right lat strain.

General manager Mike Elias announced Sunday that the pitcher will be shut down with the forecast of returning by September, although he might be out until 2023.

"I mean, the timing of this really stinks, is all I can say," Elias said. "He was basically at the point of checking every box you could think of in terms of his minor league work. I think that he's shown that if he's healthy and himself, we want him to be in a position to help this team next year out of spring training."

Rodriguez is rated the top pitching prospect in baseball and No. 3 player overall by MLB.com.

The 22-year-old was a first-round pick in the 2018 draft and has excelled at every stage of the minor leagues.

Through 11 starts in Triple-A this season, Rodriguez has a 5-1 record with a 2.09 ERA, 0.839 WHIP and 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings. He allowed just three total earned runs in his last six starts.

The right-hander pitched 5.2 scoreless innings Wednesday before leaving with lat discomfort. He underwent multiple MRIs, which revealed the extent of the injury.

"There's probably a lot of variability to the exact amount of weeks that this takes for him to get back out to competition," Elias said. "It just kind of depends how it goes."

The Orioles likely won't rush Rodriguez back to the mound considering his long-term potential. Elias said the organization will be "as careful as possible" to avoid re-injury.

Baltimore entered Sunday in last place in the American League East with a 23-32 record.

At long last, the Baltimore Orioles have called up prized catching prospect Adley Rutschman to the big leagues.

The O's announced the move Saturday ahead of a home game against the American League East rival Tampa Bay Rays:

MLB.com ranks Rutschman as the No. 1 overall prospect in baseball, and he is now set to make his major league debut three years after the Orioles selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft.

The 24-year-old Rutschman starred collegiately at Oregon State before getting drafted by the Orioles, and he has continued to perform at a high level during his minor league career.

In 19 games this season across three different levels, he is slashing .309/.427/.515 with three home runs, nine RBI and 12 runs scored.

Rutschman's 2022 season got off to a late start since he suffered a strained right triceps during a minor league intrasquad game in March, per ESPN.

The slugging backstop has since demonstrated that he is healthy, however, paving the way for his big league debut.

Rutschman's development was perhaps delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season, but he showed what he could do over the course of a full season in 2021.

Splitting 123 games between Double-A and Triple-A, Rutschman slashed .285/.397/.502 with 23 homers, 75 RBI and 86 runs.

His arrival comes at an ideal time for an Orioles team that has struggled mightily at the plate this season, especially at the catcher position.

Through 40 games, the Orioles rank 23rd in team batting average (.228), 25th in runs scored (139) and 22nd in home runs (31), leaving them last in the AL East with a 16-24 record.

Robinson Chirinos and Anthony Bemboom have been Baltimore's catchers this season, and it hasn't been pretty from an offensive perspective.

Chirinos is hitting .139 with one home run and six RBI, while Bemboom is hitting .115 with one homer and one RBI. To make room for Rutschman, the O's designated Bemboom for assignment.

Rutschman should instantly be a fixture in the middle of the Orioles' lineup. He will also give Orioles fans a reason to come to the ballpark in the midst of a long and painful rebuild.

New York Yankees star Aaron Judge isn't the only player that dislikes Camden Yards' new pitcher-friendly left-field wall.

Even Baltimore Orioles slugger Trey Mancini dislikes the new dimensions of the wall, which has been pushed back about 30 feet and raised to 12 feet high, making it more difficult for batters to hit a left-field home run.

"Nobody likes it," Mancini told Nathan Ruiz of The Baltimore Sun. "No hitters like it, myself included."

Judge's initial comments came after he was robbed of a home run in the first inning of Tuesday's 5-4 win over the Orioles at Camden Yards. He sent a blast out to left field that traveled 399 feet and instead of sailing into the stands, it bounced off the new left-field wall.

The hit would have been a home run in all of the other 29 MLB parks, Ruiz noted. It even would have been a homer at Camden Yards last season. After the game, Judge said the changes to Camden Yards are a "travesty" and that it now looks like a "create-a-park."

That said, Mancini added that there's not much hitters can do at this point. 

"There's nothing we can do to change it," Mancini told Ruiz. "It's nothing you can be thinking about when you're up at the plate. But it doesn't make it any less tough when you hit a ball that you think should definitely be a homer."

Nearly every batter has had difficulty hitting a home run at Camden Yards this season, with just 1.8 percent of plate appearances resulting in a round-tripper, per ESPN Stats and Information.

Last year, Camden Yards saw 4.5 percent of plate appearances result in a homer, which was the highest percentage in the league, per ESPN Stats and Information. The Orioles gave up 155 home runs at home in 2021.

Both Judge and Mancini have hit their fair share of home runs over the years, too. However, Mancini entered Thursday's game against the Yankees without a home run at Camden Yards this season. 

In 16 home games, Mancini is hitting .307/.343/.339 with 19 hits, two of which are doubles, and four RBI. For comparison, he hit 14 home runs in 75 games in Baltimore last season.

Judge, meanwhile, leads the league in home runs this season with 14 and is hitting .306/.373/.672. He hit six homers at Camden Yards last season and has two so far at the ballpark this year. 

The Baltimore Orioles reportedly aren't looking to trade center fielder Cedric Mullins or left fielder Austin Hays, but that hasn't stopped teams from asking.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported multiple teams have inquired about their availability in potential trades even though Baltimore moving them remains "unlikely" since they are each under team control for four more seasons. 

"While the Orioles, like most clubs, will listen to any proposal, they want to get a clearer picture of how their rebuilding plan is progressing before considering trades of their better players," Rosenthal wrote.

Baltimore is in rebuilding mode after a fifth straight losing season, but Mullins is 27 years old, and Hays is 26 years old.

Given their age and how long they remain under contract, both players could still be key pieces in the team's lineup when it is once again ready to compete in the American League East. While trading them could give the franchise quite the haul in return, the hope is to eventually build around players like the two outfielders.

Mullins is coming off an excellent season that saw him win a Silver Slugger and make his first All-Star Game while finishing ninth in American League MVP voting.

He slashed .291/.360/.518 with 30 home runs, 59 RBI, 37 doubles and 30 stolen bases as someone who can impact the game with his power, speed and ability to get on base. It was a stunning breakout campaign for someone who played 48 or fewer games in each of his first three years and indicated he is just hitting his prime.

As for Hays, he too had a breakout season in 2021 while slashing .256/.308/.461 with 22 home runs and 71 RBI.

A number of contenders would instantly improve if either of these players were on their roster, so the interest comes as no surprise. Baltimore can also hold onto them and potentially move them down the line if the rebuilding process is slower than expected or if there are several head-turning offers that are difficult to refuse.

For now, though, it appears they will remain Orioles.

Defense attorneys for Eric Kay—the former Los Angeles Angels communications director who has been charged with giving former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs the counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl that killed him in 2019—said Tuesday at trial that MLB pitcher Matt Harvey will be named as a potential drug source for Skaggs.

The prosecution is arguing that Kay provided Skaggs with the drugs that he took on the day of his death.

ESPN's T.J. Quinn reported that a source within the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office said in 2019 that Skaggs didn't have Percocet in his system when he died. Skaggs died from choking on his own vomit stemming from "mixed ethanol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication," per the Tarrant County medical examiner's toxicology report in 2019.

Kay is also being charged with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute after he allegedly sold fentanyl and oxycodone.

Per Quinn, the prosecution said in trial Tuesday that Kay "was providing opioids to multiple players, who are expected to be named, and even got them from the umpire's clubhouse attendant at the ballpark."

Skaggs' former teammate and current Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, Andrew Heaney, testified at trial Tuesday. Other former Angels players between 2017 and 2019—when Kay is accused of distributing oxycodone to players on the team—are on the government's witness list, including Cam Bedrosian, Blake Parker and Garrett Richards.

Richards plans to testify that Kay once asked him for unused oxycodone pills, according to the prosecution's filings, while Bedrosian, Harvey and Parker will testify that Kay distributed drugs to both Skaggs and other players.

After an uneven split between home and road homers in 2021, the Baltimore Orioles are taking steps to making things closer to normal next season. 

An Orioles spokesman confirmed to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN) that the wall in left field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards will be moved back "as much as 30 feet" before the start of the 2022 campaign. 

"For the start of the 2022 season, the distance from home plate to the left field wall will be pushed back as much as 30 feet, in varying increments at different points in the wall, and the height will raise approximately five feet," the club told fans in an email shared with the AP.

"By pushing back the left field wall, we've created a playing field that is fair for both pitchers and hitters. While Oriole Park will remain a hitter's ballpark, it will no longer be an outlier among the parks"

Per BallparksofBaseball.com, Camden Yards has the seventh-longest left-field foul pole in MLB at 337 feet. The stadium also has a seven-foot-tall fence. 

Moving the fences back could take a huge strain off Orioles pitchers in 2022. Their starters ranked last in MLB in innings pitched (735.1) and ERA (5.99) last season. Their entire pitching staff had a 6.00 ERA at home in 2021, more than one full run higher than the second-worst team (Chicago Cubs: 4.99). 

The Orioles are trying to improve on their recent run of ineptitude on the field. They have lost at least 100 games in three of the past four seasons and have finished last in the American League East four times in the past five seasons. 

Their only season with fewer than 100 losses and not in last place during that span was the pandemic-shortened 60-game season in 2020 (25-35, fourth in the AL East). 

Orioles hitters had 122 homers at Camden Yards, compared to 73 on the road. Their pitchers allowed 155 home runs at home and 103 in road games. 

Assuming the MLB lockout doesn't impact the start of the regular season, the Orioles will host the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park on Opening Day on March 31.    

Former Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles general manager Roland Hemond died Sunday at the age of 92.

Hemond also spent 19 years in the Arizona Diamondbacks' front office, and per Noah Trister of the Associated Press, the organization released the following statement from Hemond's family: "He passed peacefully in his son Jay's arms. The Hemond family shared many laughs with him until the end, and we appreciate the love and support of all his baseball family."

Hemond was GM of the White Sox from 1970-85 and of the Orioles from 1988-95. His time in Chicago saw him win the Sporting News Executive of the Year award in 1972 and the United Press International Executive of the Year award in 1983. He won the Sporting News Executive of the Year award for a second time in 1989 with the Orioles.

While neither the White Sox nor Orioles won a World Series during his tenure, Chicago made it to the American League Championship Series in 1983, and a Baltimore team he largely constructed reached the ALCS in each of the two seasons after he departed in 1996 and 1997.

The Rhode Island native's Major League Baseball career began with the Boston Braves in 1952, and he won his first World Series in 1957 while serving as the assistant scouting director for the relocated Milwaukee Braves.

Hemond also had a stint in the California Angels front office from 1961-70 before his run as a GM with the White Sox and Orioles.

The Diamondbacks didn't officially enter the league until 1998, but Hemond was part of their front office beginning in 1996 until 2000, and he later returned for another stint from 2007-17.

In between, Hemond returned to the White Sox from 2001-07 as an executive adviser and was on the staff when they won the World Series in 2005.

Along with being a two-time World Series champion and three-time Executive of the Year, Hemond won the Branch Rickey Award in 2003 in recognition of his community service, and he won the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award in conjunction with the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011.

The Baltimore Orioles are willing to listen to teams' offers for center fielder Cedric Mullins, but their asking price is understandably high after the 27-year-old just polished off an All-Star season with 30 home runs and an .878 OPS.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network and Audacy provided the report:

Mullins is also under team control for the next four seasons, so he isn't eligible for free agency until 2026. That further raises Mullins' trade value, and he figures to be a core piece in the Orioles' ongoing multiyear rebuild if he isn't moved.

On the surface, dealing Mullins doesn't make any sense.

He became the latest member of the exclusive 30-30 club following his 30-homer, 30-stolen base season. Mullins also finished ninth among American League position players with a 5.7 WAR (wins above replacement), per Baseball-Reference.

Plus, there's no guarantee that the Orioles receive any players of Mullins' caliber.

Nick Stellini of the FTN Network provided this thought.

The Orioles have a promising farm system that includes MLB.com's No. 1 overall prospect (Adley Rutschman), the No. 8 prospect (right-handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez) and three other prospects in the top 100.

This team's complete overhaul will take some time. Having patience and retaining Mullins is the most prudent option.

On the other hand, it's possible Mullins' most recent campaign was a fluke after he hit .225 (.632 OPS) in 115 games over his first three seasons. But he just established himself as one of the game's top center fielders with a dominant 2021 season. The most recent numbers are hard to ignore.

For now, Mullins is the team's star in center field as the Orioles look to bounce back from a 52-110 season.