Orioles batting practice isn’t just a home run derby — although it could be for most of the team’s sluggers if they wanted it to be.
During the pregame sessions on the field before most night games, Orioles hitters don’t just hack away and imagine Chris Berman screaming “back, back, back” after each long ball. If that were the case, Gunnar Henderson, Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn could put on quite the show, and sometimes they do at the end of their round.
Instead, they each work on their own swings, focus on hacking at the right pitches — the “swing decision” gospel the club’s hitting department preaches — and barreling up pitches in the gaps.
That grounded, day-after-day approach is why, those hitters say, Baltimore leads the major leagues with 57 home runs and eight Orioles sluggers already have at least five long balls. Early in the season, a number like that can be deceiving, but the underlying metrics back up that the Orioles are simply one of the hardest-hitting teams in baseball.
“Most of the time in BP, you’re trying to feel something out,” said Mountcastle, whose sixth homer of the year gave the Orioles the lead in Wednesday night’s 12-inning win over the Washington Nationals. “We’re not trying to grip and rip in BP. We’re just trying to hit the ball hard in the air.”
The Orioles rank in the top three in the major leagues in several key metrics — the ones players and coaches draw more conclusions from than statistics such as batting average and RBIs — through the first fifth of the season. Entering Wednesday, the club ranked second in the majors in average exit velocity at 90.2 mph, according to Statcast tracking data, and the Orioles are in good company with the other teams near the top of the leaderboard.
The only team with a better average exit velocity is the Atlanta Braves, while the Los Angeles Dodgers are third. The Braves and Dodgers entered the season projected by FanGraphs to be the two best teams in baseball after winning 100-plus games last year, and the Orioles are on pace to reach the century mark for the second straight campaign.
“That’s one of the ways we evaluate guys,” Orioles co-hitting coach Matt Borgschule said. “You could hit four balls right on the screws right at guys and you’re 0-for-4 and you don’t get a true evaluation of how you’re actually hitting. It’s really challenging because it’s a results business. If you’re not producing, they find other guys. But this is something that’s important — focusing on what you can control and not what you can’t.”
No one on the Orioles knows more about hitting the ball hard right at a defender than Mountcastle. In 2022 and 2023, Mountcastle’s expected stats — which are based on quality of contact, according to Baseball Savant — were much better than his actual numbers. The difference was significant in 2022, causing many to deem it an unlucky season, but he began the 2023 campaign lining out frequently. He even quipped in April 2023: “I’m just an unlucky guy, I guess. How I was made.”
The first baseman hasn’t been as unlucky in 2024, as he ranks in the top quarter of qualified hitters in expected slugging percentage, average exit velocity, barrel percentage and hard-hit rate. Statcast defines a “barrel” as a batted ball that leads to highly productive outcomes — at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging percentage — while it determines a ball is a hard hit if its exit velocity is faster than 95 mph.
“Hitting the ball hard and in the air is a recipe for good results, but sometimes you can fall into bad luck and think it’s your swing when in all reality you’re hitting it right at people,” Mountcastle said. “If you get the right pitch to hit and put a good swing on it, that’s all you can do. Some people may just see the numbers, but as players, you’re still pretty confident if you’re hitting the ball hard even if they’re not falling.”
The Orioles also rank in the top three in the following underlying metrics: expected slugging percentage (.458), launch angle (15.3 degrees), hard-hit rate (43.7%) and total barrels (92). When it comes to the solid contact Baltimore hitters are making, manager Brandon Hyde doesn’t need to check Baseball Savant to know the Orioles rank near the top of the league in these metrics.
“I see it on the Jumbotron a lot,” he said. “The harder you hit the ball, the harder it’s going to be to get you out. We have some good hitters who get into good counts and who can drive the baseball. That’s what they’re trying to do at the plate — get into the best count they can and put the best swing they can on the baseball.
“We have some strong, strong hitters that hit the ball hard.”
Last year, the Orioles ranked 10th in average exit velocity. The Braves and Texas Rangers — the National League’s best team and the World Series champions — finished first and second. In 2019 and 2021, Baltimore ranked in the bottom eight in the metric.
“We’re making more solid contact on the barrel of the bat,” Borgschulte said. “I don’t think anyone is swinging the bat significantly faster. We’re putting a good barrel on the ball. That’s what we try to do — put the ball in play and put it in play hard. If we do that on a consistent basis and we make good decisions, we like our chances.”
Six Orioles hitters have an average exit velocity of over 90 mph: Henderson (94.7 mph), Jordan Westburg (92.5 mph), Colton Cowser (91.5 mph), O’Hearn (91.1 mph), Mountcastle (91.1 mph) and Adley Rutschman (90.3 mph). Three of them rank in the top 23 in hard-hit rate: Henderson (12th), Westburg (17th) and Cowser (23rd).
“There’s a lot of guys on this team that hit the ball really hard,” Mountcastle said. “We’ve got a good lineup. I think day in, day out, anybody has the chance to hit a ball 110 mph off the bat. We’ve got some big power on this team and put the ball in play frequently, too.”
O’Hearn is fourth in expected weighted on-base average — an all-encompassing offensive stat based on quality of contact — behind only Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, Braves slugger Marcell Ozuna and New York Yankees outfielder Juan Soto. Westburg, who isn’t seen as a power hitter despite smacking 27 homers in the minors in 2022, is in the 99th percentile in expected batting average. Cowser, the American League Rookie of the Month for March/April, is in the 97th percentile in barrel percentage. Henderson, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, is fifth in MLB with his 94.7 mph average exit velocity.
“Just hitting the ball hard,” Henderson said when asked what he’s been most pleased with so far this season as he’s smacked a team-best 10 home runs. “Whenever I hit ‘em, I try to hit ‘em hard.”
Henderson isn’t the only one.