Watch: Baltimore Orioles’ Five Longest Home Runs of Last Season
The Baltimore Orioles have some of the top sluggers in baseball, so it’s no surprise there was significant competition to see which player hit the longest home run in 2024.
Statcast recently compiled the five longest home runs for the Orioles last season, as measured by distance, and put together a short video as part of MLB.com’s year-in-review package.
No. 5 on the list was Eloy Jimenez, who joined the Orioles at the trade deadline and hit a shot to dead center field on Aug. 31 that when a projected distance of 441 feet.
No. 4 on the list was a 442-foot shot by Anthony Santander on July 26 as the Orioles were coming out of the All-Star break. Santander hit a career high in home runs last season and is a free agent.
Tied for No. 4 was Emmanuel Rivera’s home run on Sept. 28, which also went 442 feet.
There was a tie for the longest home run by an Orioles hitter last season. On June 4 Ryan Mountcastle slammed one an estimated 443 feet at the Rogers Center. Then, 12 days later, rookie Colton Cowser tied him with a home run that went the same distance at Camden Yards.
Cowser finished second in American League rookie of the year voting and is the latest in an impressive group of players that have come up through the Orioles’ farm system, including Mountcaste and catcher Adley Rutschman.
The most impressive stars, both current and potential, should be manning the middle infield next season. Gunner Henderson was the 2023 AL rookie of the year and finished in the top five in MVP voting this season. He is a budding superstar, one that could be extended for a long-term deal before he even hits free agency.
Opposite him the Orioles hoped that their 2022 first-round pick, Jackson Holiday, is ready to be an everyday player. Holliday struggled at the plate during his MLB debut last season, but he showed flashes of coming around, especially in the second half of the season.
The Orioles are attempting to level up going into 2025, as the franchise has been to the postseason each of the last two years but experienced an early exit each time.
With a new ownership group led by David Rubenstein, the belief is that Baltimore is willing to spend more money to compete. So far, that has yielded two significant signings to help bolster the offense. Baltimore signed outfielder Tyler O'Neill to a three-year contract, with an opt-out after the first year. Baltimore also signed catcher Gary Sanchez to be Rutschman’s backup in 2025.