Baltimore Orioles: Top Ten Lowest Team-Leading WAR Totals

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2 Mar 1998: Bench coach Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles looks on during a spring training game against the Montreal Expos at the Ft. Lauderdale Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The Orioles defeated the Expos 11-9. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Squire /

Taking a look back at the top ten lowest season-ending WAR totals in Baltimore Orioles history.

Heading into the final series of the 2019 season, the Baltimore Orioles are 52-107 and find themselves 50.0 games back of the division-leading New York Yankees. Brandon Hyde and his staff have used 58 different position players and 38 different pitchers, both of which are team records for the number of players used in a single season as the organization filters through players to try and find some talent who can stick.

As of September 25th, starting pitcher John Means finds himself on top of the Orioles WAR leaderboard at 4.5, according to Baseball Reference. For comparison, Cody Bellinger currently has the highest WAR for a position player at 8.5 and Justin Verlander at 7.8 for pitchers.

This left me wondering, where does Means and his 4.4 bWAR rank among other team-leading marks in Baltimore Orioles franchise history? It has to be among one of the lowest totals, right? Despite being on a team which is on pace to post their second-lowest win total, Means doesn’t find his name on this particular top ten list, which is a bit surprising.

WAR, or Wins Above Replacement, isn’t a perfect statistic, but it is effective at helping us compare player performance across teams, leagues, and different seasons. One of the reasons why WAR isn’t the end-all-be-all stat to use is because depending on the website you reference, you will likely get a different number. However, it’s still reliable. But just for fun, let’s take a look at the ten lowest team-leading WAR totals in Baltimore Orioles franchise history (since 1954)

10) Bob Nieman– 4.0 bWAR in 1956

Playing for 12 seasons with six different teams, outfielder Bob Nieman accumulated a career WAR of 17.6, 4.0 of that coming in 1956 with the Baltimore Orioles. He didn’t spend the entire season with the Orioles, coming over in a trade from the Chicago White Sox in late-May.

He would go on to play in 114 games for the O’s, hitting .322 with a .442 on-base percentage, aided by his 86 walks to just 59 strikeouts. Nieman finished seventh in MVP voting, which went to New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle and his 52 home runs in 1956. Over his six seasons with the Orioles/St. Louis Browns, Nieman hit .301 with 82 home runs in 609 games.

9) Cal Abrams– 4.0 bWAR in 1954

The inaugural season for the Baltimore Orioles ended with 54 wins and 100 losses, but it wouldn’t take long before fans in Baltimore would get the opportunity to watch a winning team (.500 record by 1957, winning record by 1960). Third baseman Vern Stephens led the way with a whopping eight home runs and a 23-year-old Bob Turley led the pitching staff with a 14-15 record and 3.46 ERA in 247 innings. Unfortunately, he walked 181 hitters.

Outfielder Cal Abrams led the entire team in WAR after racking up 35 extra-base hits, more walks (72) than strikeouts (67), and leading the team in batting average (.293), on-base percentage (.400), and slugging percentage (.421). His 4.0 Wins Above Replacement accounted for nearly half of his 8.5 career-WAR across eight professional seasons. Abrams played for one more season with the Orioles (.243 AVG, 6 HR, .413 OBP) before being traded to the Chicago White Sox and playing in just four more games in the big leagues.

8) Eddie Murray- 3.9 bWAR in 1987

After bringing home the 1983 World Series trophy and winning 98 regular-season games, the Orioles saw their win total dip year after year over the next five years before completing a 33-game turnaround and winning 87 games in 1989. During that stretch,1987 was a tough season in Birdland with Cal Ripken Sr. at the helm, but that didn’t stop Eddie Murray from putting up big numbers in his age-31 season.

Leading the way with a 3.9 bWAR, Murray hit 31 home runs, hit a combined 31 doubles and triples, drove in 91 runs, and slashed .277/.352/.477 in his penultimate season with the Baltimore Orioles. His 1987 season ended a streak of six-straight years with an All-Star appearance, returning to mid-summer classic in 1991 with the Los Angles Dodgers.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – SEPTEMBER 22: The Orioles sign is shown at the home plate entrance at Oriole Park at Camden Yards during the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners game on September 22, 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

Going way back in Baltimore Orioles history for the heart of this list.

7) Steve Barber– 3.8 bWAR in 1963

The 1963 season was a big year for starting pitcher Steve Barber as he won 20 games for an 86-win Baltimore Orioles team. The 25-year-old allowed just 12 home runs in 258.2 innings and recorded a 2.75 ERA. A two-time All-Star in his eight years with Baltimore, Barber went on to post a WAR above 1.0 in only three of his 11 seasons after his 1963 campaign.

6) Eddie Murray- 3.7 bWAR in 1981*

Murray finds his name back on this list for his 1981 performance, a season in which he played in 99 games. It was the only year from his rookie season in 1977 until his final season in the bigs in 1997 that he played in less than 100 games. It wasn’t his fault though, as the 1981 season was interrupted by a strike, leading to the cancellation of regular-season games.

Murray led the ’81 Orioles with a 3.7 bWAR, was voted an All-Star, and finished fifth in MVP voting after hitting a team-high 22 home runs and posting a .294 average. We placed in asterisk mark on this one due to the strike.

5) Billy Gardner– 3.7 bWAR in 1957

Infielder Billy Gardner played 10 years in the major leagues with five different teams, four of those seasons with the Orioles. His 1957 season was a bit of an outlier after hitting .262 with 45 extra-base hits, 55 RBI, and 10 stolen bases. He stole just 19 bags during his tenure as a big leaguer and hit .237 for his career. Gardner led the Orioles with 154 games played, 169 total hits, and 229 total bases. Gardner ended his career with a bWAR of 3.0 and reached above replacement level just five times, including his breakout ’57 season.

4) Jim Wilson– 3.5 bWAR in 1955

A three-time All-Star, starting pitcher Jim Wilson led the ’55 Orioles with a 12-18 record and 3.44 ERA, winning just as many games as the rest of the starting rotation combined. He owns one of the lowest team-leading WAR totals with his 3.5 mark, a number that would end up reaching 11.2 by the end of his 12-year career. Despite a strikeout rate of 3.7 K/9 IP and leading the league with his 18 losses, Wilson posted career-bests in ERA (3.44), IP (235.1), and WHIP (1.22) in 1955.

Mark Teahen of the Royals gets Jeff Conine during a run down in action between the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on July 26, 2006. Baltimore won 4-3. (Photo by G. N. Lowrance/Getty Images) /

And the top three Baltimore Orioles on the list are…

3) Brad Bergesen– 3.1 bWAR in 2009

When Brad Bergesen is the team leader in WAR, it doesn’t take many more details to figure out what the 2009 season was like in Baltimore. Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, and Matt Wieters were very early in their careers, while the likes of Luke Scott, Brian Roberts, and Jeremy Guthrie provided the veteran leadership on a 64-win team.

It was a 23-year-old starting pitcher named Bergesen who ended the year on top with a 3.3 bWAR, just beating out Brian Roberts by a slim margin. Making 19 starts, Bergesen went 7-5 with a 3.43 ERA, striking out a team-low 4.7 K/9 IP, and finishing with a 1.28 WHIP. Bergesen appeared in 64 more games with the Orioles across the 2010 and 2011 seasons before being designated for assignment and playing one final season in the big leagues with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

His career WAR dropped from 3.1 to 2.8 over the course of the remainder of his career, in case you were curious as to whatever happened to Brad Bergesen.

2) Manny Machado– 2.9 bWAR in 2018

We aren’t far enough removed from the worst season in Orioles history, so we don’t need any refreshers on what led to just 47 wins in 2018. The 25-year-old Machado led the way last season, despite playing in just 96 games before being traded at the trade deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers. While in Baltimore, Machado compiled 46 extra-base hits and finished as the team leader in home runs (24, tied with Trey Mancini), batting average (.315), and on-base percentage (.387).

1) Jeff Conine- 2.9 bWAR in 2001

Under the leadership of Mike Hargrove, the 2001 Orioles finished at 63-98 as they witnessed the careers of prominent figures like Cal Ripken Jr.(40), Brady Anderson (37), and Mike Bordick (35) come to a close. Jason Johnson led the pitching staff with 10 wins and only one regular in the lineup ended the year with a batting average above .300, Jeff Conine

The first baseman played in 139 games, slashing .311/.386/.483 with 14 home runs and 97 RBI. All but his 14 home runs were team-highs (Chris Richard and Jay Gibbons both hit 15). It was his best season in seven years with the Orioles and the second-highest single-season WAR total in his 17-year career which saw him rack up two All-Star appearances and two World Series titles. He was worth 3.5 WAR with the Florida Marlins in 1996.

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