Angelos had been battling sickness for the previous few years and had left the general public eye, and his son John took over because the Orioles’ chairman and management individual in regard to official league enterprise in 2020.
A Baltimore native, Angelos constructed his fortune via a famend authorized profession, most notably a landmark consolidated motion case in 1992 representing hundreds of staff in numerous fields who had been uncovered to asbestos over the course of their jobs. Angelos led a gaggle of traders who bought the Orioles in 1993 for $173M, and he shortly established himself as one thing of a maverick inside baseball’s possession circles in the course of the 1994-95 gamers’ strike. Though the strike was settled earlier than substitute gamers took the sector for the 1995 season, Angelos’ refusal to make use of such gamers (who he considered as scabs) drew some animosity from his fellow house owners and respect from the MLBPA.
On the sector, the Orioles went via loads of ups and downs throughout Angelos’ tenure as proprietor. There was little doubt about Angelos’ need to win, as he instantly elevated the staff’s payroll and introduced a number of big-name free brokers into the fold, serving to Baltimore attain the ALCS in each 1996 and 1997. After that final ALCS look, nevertheless, the Orioles didn’t have one other successful season till 2012, as Angelos was usually accused of taking a heavy hand in baseball operations. This manifested itself in a revolving door of managers and basic managers, till issues started to stabilize beneath Buck Showalter and govt VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette. The Orioles had 5 seasons of .500 or higher ball from 2012-16, together with three postseason appearances and one other journey to the ALCS in 2014.
The Orioles’ payrolls tended to fluctuate based mostly on the staff’s aggressive stage, and Baltimore ranked inside the high 10 of league spending as not too long ago because the 2017 season. Angelos had explicit issues about sure kinds of baseball-related investments, maybe most notably a wariness about any sort of long-term assure to pitchers (particularly pitchers with any kind of harm historical past). Angelos was additionally famously essential of baseball’s worldwide signing system, which resulted within the Orioles basically sitting out for the worldwide newbie marketplace for a number of years.
John Angelos’ stewardship of the staff caused some modifications to the Orioles’ enterprise, as GM Mike Elias was given broad leeway to modernize and revamp the baseball operations division as a part of a near-total rebuild. The O’s posted dropping information from 2017-21 (the latter three beneath Elias) earlier than successful 83 video games in 2022, after which bursting out to win 101 video games and the AL East crown final season. With an unimaginable core of younger expertise in place, the Orioles now appear to be World Collection contenders each this season and maybe for a few years to return.
This new period of Orioles baseball will happen considerably outdoors of the Angelos household, because it was announced in February that the staff had been bought for $1.725 billion to a brand new possession group led by David Rubenstein. (John Angelos continues to be an investor within the Orioles.) The information of the sale adopted years of hypothesis and drama about the way forward for the franchise, as authorized and private points inside the Angelos household and the Orioles’ expiring lease at Camden Yards in 2023 led to some issues that the O’s may very well be bought or moved to a different metropolis. Because it turned out, the Orioles arranged a brand new lease to stay at Camden Yards for at the very least the subsequent 15 years, and Rubenstein’s full buy of the group is anticipated to be authorized by the league inside a couple of weeks’ time. Rubenstein was initially slated to take over 40 p.c of the staff, however now will take full possession of the membership because of the elder Angelos’ passing.
We at MLB Commerce Rumors ship our condolences to Angelos’ household, pals and family members.
