Just over a year has passed since MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald discussed Ryan O’Hearn’s then-developing breakout in Baltimore and concluded, “The Orioles may have found the lefty bat they wanted.” After a DFA, O’Hearn was acquired from the Royals in exchange for cash. The Orioles then designated O’Hearn for assignment, but he was sailed through waivers unclaimed and sent straight to Triple-A Norfolk.
It was the kind of seemingly insignificant exchange that is done hundreds of times in a year and swiftly forgotten, unless it isn’t. As most Orioles fans know, O’Hearn did turn out to be the left-handed bat Baltimore had been looking for. O’Hearn was slashing at the time of Darragh’s article from the previous year.had six home runs in 115 plate appearances, slashing 308/.348/.542. Although the sample size was small and his walk rate was low (5.2%), O’Hearn’s batted-ball statistics provided evidence for a large portion of the initial surge. With considerable playing time against right-handed pitchers, he concluded the season with a solid slash line of.289/.322/.480, which was 18% higher than the league average by wRC+.
The previous season was a startling breakout for a player who had hit.211/.282/.351 with a 27% strikeout rate across the four seasons with Kansas City (2019–22) prior to being designated for assignment. While O’Hearn came to Baltimore with more than four years of playing time, the Orioles would have been happy to have him for just that one season, which would have kept him under control until the 2024 campaign. It made perfect sense to offer him a contract and take him to arbitration; even if he went back to his 2019–22 form or made some at-bat regressions, the entire acquisition process would have been worthwhile based only on 2023.
