Ryan O’Hearn is here to do two things: crush right-handed pitchers and chew bubble gum. And he’s all out of bubble gum.
If there were any questions about O’Hearn’s staying power after his out-of-the-blue, breakout 2023 season, he silenced the skeptics by putting up a nearly identical 2024 campaign. And I do mean identical — his OPS+ of 122 this season was exactly the same as the year before. O’Hearn, unfortunately, also replicated the second-half swoon that characterized his 2023 season, tempering his overall performance. But we’ll get to that in a bit.
O’Hearn has already turned out to be so much more valuable than anyone could have anticipated when the O’s acquired him from the Royals for cash considerations in January 2023.