Orioles moving in left field wall for 2025 season

The Orioles went a little too far in pushing back their left field wall, prompting some changes in the other direction for the 2025 season.

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias announced today in a video call that the baseball operations department after careful deliberation has “decided to pursue modifications to the dimensions in left.”

Some areas will be pulled in as much as 20 feet, and others 11 or at a maximum of nine. A rendering shows the wall lowered from 13 to eight feet.

The initial renovations moved back the wall 30 feet and raised it about eight.

“We made the change between the 2021 and 2022 seasons as we were trying to pursue a more neutral but also more pitcher-friendly array at Camden Yards,” Elias said, “and we were doing so under the time constraints of a single offseason and seeking a way to make at that time our extremely homer-prone park more neutral and perhaps erring to the side of pitcher-friendliness. And given the uncertainties of the game, offensive environments, et cetera, it became clear to us and me and our staff, our coaches and players, the feedback that we received over three years of lived experience, that it was a directionally correct move, but we overcorrected.

“Once we came to the decision that that was the case, I decided that this is something we wanted to address as soon as possible, and we’ve developed a plan to seek a happier medium for these dimensions prior to 2025.”

The hope is that the Orioles will get closer to their original goal of a neutral environment with a balanced style of play. The desire to rid the ballpark of its launching pad reputation led to an alignment that Elias described as “a little overly skewed.”

From 1992 to 2021, a total of 5,911 home runs were hit at Camden Yards to lead the majors.

The changes are intended to still assist the pitchers but without hurting the club’s right-handed hitters, who grow more frustrated with barreled balls being caught at the track or striking the wall.

“I think this is something that I know our hitters are obviously going to be excited about,” Elias said. “The pitchers will be less excited, but we’re thinking that this will improve the overall style of play and retain some of the benefits from the changes that we made while discarding some of the extremities.”

Elias downplayed the idea that the Orioles are trying to improve their chances of recruiting right-handed batters in free agency, though bringing in and lowering the wall is likely to have that effect.

“That’s not a reason that we’re doing it,” he said. “In many ways this may make the park less attractive for pitchers, which is one of the reasons that I initially made this change.

“The right field area of our park where the flag court is and the warehouse, that’s a very hitter-friendly dimension. And so, in order to pursue what we were hoping was a more neutral overall environment for the park, the method that we used back in 2021-2022 was to push the left field area back most drastically. That’s where we had more than our fair share of homers, the most in Camden Yards, (and) was also the area that we could modify easily and most realistically in one season. And so, we did. But we overcorrected and the offensive environment shifted a little bit and we got more than we bargained for.

“I think we saw a lot of good benefits. The pitching program got off the ground as perhaps a byproduct of us alleviating some of the pressures on our pitchers. It coincided with the team entering a winning phase. But as I’ve been saying for years, this was something that we were going to keep an eye on. Don’t think it was perfect, didn’t think it was permanent, and we’re deciding to make this change currently, and I’m very hopeful that this is going to be better.”

The offense sputtered in the second half this season, leading to a top seeding in the Wild Card, rather than a repeat as division champions, and a sweep by the Royals with only one run scored. Players offered their opinions on the dimensions, which cost Ryan Mountcastle 11 home runs. The Orioles’ top prospect is right-handed slugger Coby Mayo, who will try to make the team in spring training.

“This isn’t the kind of thing that we call a meeting for, but the feedback consistently was that the extremity of the disparity in the park was a little bit more of a topic of conversation than we had bargained for,” Elias said. “We didn’t like the degree to which this had become a distraction in many ways. I know the pitchers enjoyed it, but for our right-handed hitters in particular – our left-handed hitters, too – aspects of this were a little severe.

“As you see with the new intended dimensions, it retains some of the depth in left field, a good bit of it. This will be much more fair and favorable to the pitchers than the original dimensions of Camden Yards, but clearly it’s a lot less severe, and I’m hopeful this will strike the right balance.”

The Orioles could lose 44 home runs from switch-hitter Anthony Santander, who’s a free agent. They traded Austin Hays to the Phillies around the deadline. Right-handed power is a priority, and reducing the distance from home plate to the left field wall amplifies it.

“I think it will be easier for right-handed hitters to produce power numbers in this park. There’s no question about it,” Elias said.

“I’m sure you could name the guys on our team that are probably the happiest about this news. That will be helpful. But yeah, I look at our current outfield mix with guys that we know are returning for sure, and it’s a very left-handed mix and we’ll be seeking some right-handed players to balance that out. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see where it goes. We’ve got a lot of possibilities on that front. But I think that we wanted and we want a park that is neutral, tilting toward pitching-friendliness. But the disparities between the two sides of the park were not the intent and it had created some dramatic differences.

“I hope this lands on a spot where our park dimensions are not a topic for player recruitment, because they had been in different directions before this change but also after this change.”

Seating won’t be impacted by the renovations. Mr. Splash will stand on a platform next to the bullpen area.