Orioles are one last step away from officially being under new ownership

The Orioles are set to undergo a sea of change starting as soon as this week.

Eric Cole

Baltimore Orioles' owner Peter Angelos (2nd L) tal / STAN HONDA/GettyImages

With the news from the weekend that former Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos passed away, it was a reminder that big changes are coming to the franchise. Many Orioles fans are wondering what will be different under new owner David Rubenstein, but the first order of business is making the change in ownership final.

There are a lot of hoops that need to be jumped through for the sale to go through. There has to be regulatory approval from the relevant state agencies as well as getting all of the financial terms set in stone and, most importantly, demonstrating to MLB and the rest of the owners that Rubenstein has the means to run a MLB team effectively.

That last step is all that is left now with the latest news that Rubenstein received the needed approval from the Maryland Stadium Authority to buy the Orioles.

Orioles' new ownership could be finalized very, very soon now

Earlier this year, the ownership group led by Rubenstein agreed to purchase the Orioles for $1.725 billion from the Angelos family after a rocky end to their ownership tenure. There was speculation over patriarch Peter Angelos' health and well-being, as well as family drama that led to accusations of some family members wanting to move the team out of Baltimore.

All of that appears to be in the past now, and the final approval of the sale is widely expected to be a formality that could come as soon as this week. The MLB Ownership Committee already approved the sale earlier in March, and with Rubenstein possessing no known red flags and navigating the rest of the process quickly, it is extremely likely that he will get the required 75% of MLB owners to approve him as the team's new owner. That final vote is set for Wednesday.

What happens after that will be very interesting. There is widespread speculation that Rubenstein will be more likely to spend on payroll than the Angelos family was, and with so much young talent on the Orioles' roster at the moment, there is now hope that the Orioles could actually hand out extensions to at least some of the young players that make up Baltimore's core. We'll know soon enough if Baltimore will become big financial players once again, or if it will just me more of the same penny-pinching fans have become accustomed to.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.