Anthony "Slamtander" has put on a show for the 2024 Orioles

Anthony Santander is having quite the season for a player about to enter free agency. He is a pretty invaluable player for the Orioles – productive on the field while being a leader in the clubhouse.

He is one heckuva Rule 5 draft pick. The O’s selected him from the Cleveland organization in the December 2016 Rule 5 draft.

Heading into Saturday’s game at Cleveland, over 106 games he was batting .246/.311/.534/.846 with 17 doubles, two triples, 32 homers and 75 RBIs.

He's on pace to finish with 47 homers and 109 RBIs. Chris Davis and Brady Anderson are the only Orioles ever to hit 50 homers. Tony taters has an outside shot.

We thought his June was great right, where he hit 13 homers. That month he batted .264 with a .960 OPS. But in July, he batted .303 with a .987 OPS and nine home runs.

Now comes the month of August and Santander is historically very good then too.

Orioles, Highest slugging percentage in August all time – (minimum 500 plate appearances):

Anthony Santander .551
Manny Machado .540
Eddie Murray .529
Frank Robinson .499
Rafael Palmeiro .497

Since 2019, Santander has 36 career home runs in August – sixth most in MLB during that span.

Santander’s next homer will be his 33^rd, tying his career high, first posted in 2022.

In fact, since 2022 he has hit 93 homers and that total is among the most in MLB in that span. He is seventh in the majors in homers since 2022:

139 – Aaron Judge
115 – Kyle Schwarber
111 – Shohei Ohtani
109 – Pete Alonso
106 – Matt Olson
94 – Marcell Ozuna
93 – Anthony Santander

Santander has been consistent this year hitting both lefty (.823 OPS) and righty (.853 OPS) pitching.

In 32 games against American League East opponents, he is batting .288 with a .949 OPS, 11 homers and 22 RBIs.

Per Stats, a close and late situation is defined as a game situation in the seventh inning or later and the batting team is leading by one run or tied or has the potential tying run on base, at bat, or on deck. 

In such spots this season, Santander is batting .319 with a 1.309 OPS. Yeah, pretty good.

The O’s single-season home run leaders:

53 – Chris Davis, 2013
50 – Brady Anderson, 1996
49 – Frank Robinson, 1966
47 – Chris Davis in 2015, Mark Trumbo in 2016
46 – Jim Gentile, 1961

He has put himself in position to get a nice contract moving forward, whether it is from the Orioles or another team via free agency. 

O's beat the Guardians: The Orioles and Yankees remain tied for first in the AL East with both at 66-46. The Yankees won Saturday afternoon and the Orioles won Saturday night. The Birds beat Cleveland 7-4 at Progressive Field.

The O's started two of their new players against a lefty starter and Austin Slater went 2-for-3 with a double. Eloy Jiménez went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Jackson Holliday was 2-for-4 with a double, a run and an RBI. He is 4-for-7 his past two games. In four games since he rejoined the Orioles, Holliday is 5-for-14 with a homer, four runs and six RBIs.

Winning pitcher Zach Eflin gave up two runs over 6 1/3 innings. The right-hander is 2-0 with a 3.65 ERA and two quality starts since joining the club. 

The O's will try to split this four-game series today as righty Corbin Burnes (11-4, 2.47 ERA) takes the mound for the Orioles. 

The Orioles are now 8-8 since the All-Star break.