Industry Analysts Shocked at Sale Price of Baltimore Orioles
John Angelos agreed to sell the Baltimore Orioles on January 30 to a group led by billionaire David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group.
Rubenstein purchased the control stake of the team from Angelos and his family for $1.725 billion. Angelos will remain an investor in the club and will stay in the organization in a senior advisor role.
While $1.725 billion is a huge amount of money, people around the industry thought the Angelos would sell the team for much more than that.
According to Ken Rosenthal and Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic, seven industry analysts and rival officials all had the same feeling when they heard the price.
"Low."
Recent teams have sold for similar amounts, but they weren't in the same position that this current Baltimore team is in.
The Kansas City Royals were sold for $1 billion in 2019 and the Miami Marlins were sold for $1.2 million in 2017.
Baltimore isn't the same market as Miami, no one would argue that, but the Marlins' future wasn't half of what the Orioles' currently is.
There's an argument to be made that no team in baseball history has had a future as bright as the current Baltimore organization.
Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson have already proven they can be big-league stars and others are expected to do the same within the next year or two.
It's the prospect side of things that makes things so bright for the Orioles.
Jackson Holliday is the No. 1 prospect in baseball and Samuel Basallo, Colton Coswer, and Coby Mayo are another three that are expected to be future stars.
The sale was surprising and the price didn't justify the reason.
The hope, however, is that the new ownership retains their talent and will spend on free agents to better this team and bring the city a World Series.
