Players enter and get their break into Major League Baseball in so many different ways. But when you have a player who breaks out in a more unconventional way, it’s always a little sweeter to follow that story.
Some players fit this criteria of success while also simply becoming a long-time fan favorite. For the Orioles, outfielder Anthony Santander has become that exact thing and maybe the most prime example of it.
Now, we can add an All-Star appearance to that criteria, and there is no one more deserving.
Santander gained his entrance into the league via a $385,000 contract from the then-Cleveland Indians. The youngster from Venezuela would never actually play a single inning for Cleveland.
In 2016, Orioles manager Buck Showalter saw something in the switch-hitter sitting unprotected in Cleveland’s farm system. During that year’s Rule 5 Draft, Showalter and general manager Dan Duquette took a chance on the 21-year-old, selecting him in the second round.
Santander made his big league debut in August of 2017, and there really isn’t much to speak of in that season; nothing outside of eight hits in 31 at-bats in that short rookie season.
The 2018 season had a little more to talk about, with most of it being negative. A .198 average on the year and 51 OPS+ in 108 plate appearances was not a great start to a career, even on a team that went 47-115 that season.
Luckily for Santander, he was able to spend time in Single, Double and Triple-A during that 2018 season. The fact the O’s held onto Santander after that first month to allow him to see the minors the next season would matter quite a bit.
As soon as the Oriole organization turned a new corner in 2019, so did No. 25, both on the field and in the hearts of O’s fans.
The 2019 and covid-shortened 2020 seasons saw incredible improvement from Santander in all facets. Regular playing time when healthy, which wasn’t always the case, saw Santander hold a slash line of .261/.306/.501 with a .832 OPS in 533 at-bats between those two seasons.
The 2019 season also saw the rise in the game of Anthony “Tony Tater” Santander. During a home series in 2019, ironically against his former employer in the Cleveland Indians, a section of fans from England sat behind Santander in left field. Soon enough, that section became known as the “Anthony Santander Fan Club,” and as quickly as that group of lifetime O’s fans from England also became Santander fans, so did all of Birdland.
Fast forward from 2021 through the night of the 2024 All-Star Game, the switch-hitting outfielder for the Orioles has accumulated 103 home runs in those three and a half seasons, the most by any switch-hitter in the game in that time frame. In those 596 games, he has an on-base percentage over .300 at and has a 116 OPS+, which statistically ranks him well above where he consistently ranks among the game’s best outfielders in terms of the “experts.”
Not to mention, he has time and time again showcased Gold Glove caliber defense in right field. And if you would like to go there, Santander has also always been one of the first players to run into and defend any of his teammates during any bench-clearing scuffle the O’s have been a part of since his debut.
Again, outside of some incredible baseball, which includes some of Birdland’s recent favorite memories and a bobblehead to go with it, Santander has stolen the hearts of every fan. Alongside his translator, who is nicknamed “My Man,” by Tony, Brandon Quiones has quickly helped assist Santander with the English language, so much so that Santander rarely needs that assistance today.
Unlike when he first debuted, Tony loves his time in front of the camera. Whenever there is one around, he will make sure he is entertaining everybody on the other side, but not until he has introduced Quinoes to everyone watching.
All while basically growing up in front of Birdland’s eyes, Santander has stayed true to his roots, which makes him so easy to root for. We watched him excel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic as a member of the Venezuelan National Team. We also have been given a lot of front row access as fans to the heartwarming relationship between Tony and his mother, something in which most of us can relate.
When you are by far one of the easiest players to root for, an All-Star appearance is something that seems expected, but that’s just not realistic. However, we can now say that Santander is an All-Star as a representative of our Baltimore Orioles, and it is hard to think of another guy more deserving of that prestige.
Anthony Santander had one of the most unlikely paths to an All-Star Game, and yet we as Oriole fans have had the honor to watch the unlikely become reality.
What are your thoughts on the rise of Anthony Santander? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, Twitter (X) and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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