Angelos family reportedly agree to sell Baltimore Orioles for $1.725 billion

The Angelos family, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, has agreed to sell the team to David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group and Mike Arougheti of Ares Management Corporation for $1.725 billion, according to multiple media outlets, including Puck News and The Athletic.

The Major League Baseball (MLB) and the other 29 teams will discuss the deal at the owners meetings in Orlando, Florida, next week. If it's approved, Rubenstein will reportedly become the top decision-maker of the Orioles. It takes at least 75 percent of approval votes from the 30 teams for the deal to happen. The process usually takes months.

The first part of the sale will be for Rubenstein and Arougheti to acquire 40 percent of the team’s shares. They will purchase the rest after 94-year-old Peter Angelo dies. The deal is designed like this for the Angelos family to save millions in capital gains taxes.

Peter Angelo bought the Orioles in 1993 for $173 million. The team has made six postseason conferences since then. They finished the 2023 campaign with 101 wins, the most since 1979, and advanced to the American League Divisional Series, but lost to the Texas Rangers 3-0.

The Orioles had the second-smallest payroll of $71 million of all 30 teams in the 2023 season, bigger than only $62.2 million of the Oakland Athletics. By contrast, the top-10 teams all surpassed $200 million on this front. The No.1 team, the New York Mets, paid as much as $343.6 million in players' salaries.

The Orioles recently reached an agreement with the Maryland Stadium Authority to continue to play another 15 seasons at Camden Yards. The deal also includes an option to expand the commitment to 30 years.

According to Forbes' assessments for 2023, the most valuable MLB team is the New York Yankees of $7.1 billion, much higher than the No.2 side, the Los Angeles Dodgers of $4.8 billion.