3 Orioles who drastically outperformed expectations in 2024

The Orioles had a disappointing playoff run, capping off an up-and-down campaign by getting swept out of the postseason. However, the O's did get some great, and somewhat unexpected, individual performances throughout the season. Here are three Orioles who drastically outperformed expectations in 2024.

Lefty Keegan Akin became one of the Orioles' most reliable bullpen options

Akin came into the season as a fringe roster candidate who made the team thanks to a stellar spring training. The lefty built off of this success by having the best season of his career, and arguably the best of any Orioles reliever.

Akin was a workhorse for manager Brandon Hyde, pitching the second most games out of the bullpen while racking up the most innings of any Orioles reliever. In those 78.2 innings, Akin had a 31% strikeout rate, putting him in the 92nd percentile among all relievers. He finished the season with 1.4 fWAR, doubling any other Orioles reliever.

Akin has had success in the past, but I doubt anyone was expecting him to take this big of a step. His ERA in 2023 was more than double that of 2024, lowering it from 6.85 to 3.32. It was a breakout campaign for Akin, who looks like a fixture in this bullpen going forward.

Anthony Santander earned every penny he'll get in free agency

Santander will be hitting free agency this winter, so he picked the right time to have the best season of his career. He's been one of the best Orioles hitters over the past three seasons, but he skyrocketed to a new level in 2024.

After tying Gunnar Henderson for the team lead in home runs in 2023, Santander was expected to hover around the 30-home run mark. However, hitting the third-most home runs in the majors behind only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani certainly wasn't the expectation.

Santander clubbed 44 homers in 2024, the fifth most by a switch-hitter in a single season. It was a historic season for Santander, who also had the most RBI's, highest OPS, and highest fWAR of his career. Hopefully the new ownership of the Orioles will open up their checkbooks to bring back the fan favorite.

Albert Suarez made a name for himself in his return to MLB

If you watched the Orioles consistently this season, you'd know that no one overperformed expectations more than Albert Suarez. Suarez hadn't thrown a pitch in an MLB game since 2017, yet he became one of the most important players on the Orioles' 2024 roster.

The O's got hit hard by the injury-bug this season, and their pitching staff took the worst blow. Kyle Bradish, John Means, and Tyler Wells underwent Tommy-John surgery (or at least a variation of it), Dean Kremer missed time, Grayson Rodriguez made multiple IL stints, Trevor Rogers didn't pan out after the trade deadline. The list goes on and on, but Suarez kept rising to the occasion.

He wasn't perfect, but he gave the Orioles valuable innings throughout the entire season. Suarez made the second most starts on the team, while pitching to a 3.76 ERA in 122 innings. After seemingly coming out of nowhere, Suarez was one of the most consistent starting pitcher for the O's in 2024.