After 101 wins, expectations will be high for the 2024 Orioles

After 101 wins, expectations will be high for the 2024 Orioles

The 2021 Orioles ended 48 games off of first place with a 52-110 record.

The Orioles were 39 games adrift of fourth place in the American League East that season,

as fourth-place Toronto won 91 games.

Nobody could have predicted the squad would win the AL East two years later.

In three seasons, the Orioles went from 52 to 83 to 101 wins.

The ascent to the top of the division was quite the run.

They made the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and won the division last year,

their first since the 2014 campaign.

Following such a successful season—the most in the AL and second-most in the majors—

the Orioles will now have to contend with increased expectations from both the media and

fans when the new season starts.

After a 31-win increase entering the 2023 campaign,

there were several who believed the team may slightly regress before picking up steam once more.

Some teams get out to a fast start,

hit a snag, and then pick up where they left off while approaching 100 victories.

In 2023, the Os had no speed bumps.

They had a somewhat mild schedule, but they had a strong start and ended up 19-9 at the end of April.

The Orioles held their own as their opponents grew more formidable in May,

potentially demonstrating that their April success was legitimate.

The Orioles trailed Tampa Bay,

who had won all 13 of their games to start the season,

by 6 1/2 games going into July.

However, Tampa Bay was losing every night and the Orioles were tied for first place by July 19.

That was unexpected, but it did happen.

when winning the AL East, the Orioles lost the AL Division Series to

Texas when they were swept three games in a row.

What can we anticipate from the 2024 Orioles,

then? What happens if they don’t win the division title? Does a wild card berth suffice?

Some have conjectured that the Orioles are at a disadvantage due to modifications to the postseason field since

Major League Baseball switched to a 12-team playoff system beginning in 2022.

Five days are off before the first round of the playoffs for the top two division champions.

And in the two years under this system,

teams that won 100 games or more have gone 1-5 in the Division Series,

despite the teams’ best attempts to remain competitive during that break.

The top seeds in October 2022 were the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta in the NL and Houston and

the New York Yankees in the AL.

They had a combined Division Series record of 2-2.

The top seeds in this year’s Division Series were the Dodgers, Houston, Atlanta, and Baltimore;

they all finished 1-3.

During the regular season,

the clubs that participated in the 2023 World Series won 90 games (Texas) and 84 games (Arizona).

In their division, neither prevailed. Arizona earned the No. 6 seed in the NL,

and Texas was ranked fifth out of six clubs in the AL.

Yes, with the current playoff system, we only have two years of sample size and this is just one season,

but perhaps the Orioles don’t need to win 100 games.

Perhaps qualifying for the playoffs and finishing with a win total in the upper 80s will be adequate,

if not ideal. For Arizona, 84 wins was sufficient last year.

So maybe the plan is to just enter the dance and see what happens,

even though expectations may be raised after a 101-win season,

after a year when the Orioles pushed so hard to win the division,

only to lose a single playoff game. Both winning 100 and winning the division are not necessary.

For the Orioles, winning an AL East championship was a huge accomplishment.

Not too long ago, most of their admirers could not have envisioned it coming to pass. Once more, in 2021,

they were 48 games off the top spot. They have advanced significantly.

However, a lot of people will genuinely remember when and how their season finishes.

and their postseason performance, rather than their regular-season record.

At the start of the 2024 season, it might alter the expectations game a little.

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