Orioles' goofy stadium change clearly led to polarizing former Yankees C signing

After several breathless years of Baltimore Orioles fans arguing that moving their left field wall ludicrously backwards (and raising it) was a good-faith and normal move, actually, they've now seen an immediate benefit from relenting and motioning it back towards the field of play.

Back in the day, when the O's tried to shift their fences on the fly in a transparent effort to con middling fly ball pitchers into boosting their numbers on cheap free agent deals, several offensive players were so turned off that the effort became a wash. Ryan Mountcastle, specifically, is probably less than thrilled that they pushed it in just as the trade rumors began to swirl surrounding his name.

But now, hope of luring pull-side righty sluggers has returned to Baltimore. On Saturday night, the O's signed both Tyler O'Neill (three-year deal) and former Yankees catcher Gary Sánchez (one year, $8.5 million).

Unsurprisingly, both of those players are prone to pull-side slugging, and are at their best when they're tattooing baseballs to left field. Surely, this was no coincidence.

Yankees catcher Gary Sánchez joins Orioles to take advantage of moving left field wall

O'Neill is coming off a bigger season than Sánchez, of course; he drilled 31 homers for a 132 OPS+, staying largely healthy, while the ex-Yankee posted a 93 OPS+ as a high-exit-velocity catcher/DH behind William Contreras in Milwaukee.

But when it comes to pull percentage, both players' profiles are similarly overwhelming. O'Neill's pull percentage was a remarkable 52% in 2024, while Sánchez landed at 47.7%. His opposite field percentage? Just 11.6%. If it wasn't a pulled fly ball, it was probably flying to dead center. That would've been a death sentence in Baltimore in 2023-24, but in this brave new world, all Sánchez and O'Neill have to do is continue to mash lasers the way they have been, and they'll thrive 82 games per year.

Soft-tossers who thought they might get a night off coming to Baltimore and inducing contact down the left-field line? Sorry. Things have changed.

Hey, Orioles. Want to show us just how much you care about changing the narrative? Sign your old tormentor Gleyber Torres, too, and let him run wild with the new dimensions.