When Anthony Santander became an Oriole, most of the ballclub’s current young core were in high school.

Brandon Hyde was with the Chicago Cubs. Mike Elias was in the Houston Astros’ front office. And the Orioles were fresh off a playoff loss to the Toronto Blue Jays — the American League East team Santander is now a member of.

Santander spent eight years as an Oriole, ascending from a Rule 5 draft pick to one of baseball’s best home run hitters. Replacing his production — 44 homers in 2024 — is a challenge. Replacing his presence in the clubhouse might be just as difficult.

Santander left the Orioles in free agency to join Toronto on a $92.5 million contract that included a large sum of deferred money. His departure wasn’t a surprise given the money he was expected to receive entering the offseason. It was expected even more after the Orioles signed outfielder Tyler O’Neill for $16.5 million per season over three years.

But for Baltimore’s young stars, they’ve never experienced a big league clubhouse without Santander in it.

“I spent a lot of time around him. I hate to see him go,” shortstop Gunnar Henderson said Friday during an event on the Orioles’ Birdland Caravan tour. “I’m happy for him, though, but yeah, hate to see him leave our team.”

Santander’s easygoing personality is one that players have said is valuable throughout the grind that is a 162-game season. Outfielder Colton Cowser, who is entering his second full big league season, believes the Orioles will still have a healthy mix of “personalities” in the clubhouse this season.

“I think everyone has different personalities in the clubhouse. That’s what makes clubhouse chemistry great. Everyone brings someone different,” said Cowser a few hours before serving beers to fans and signing karaoke alongside his teammates at PBR Baltimore. “You mention Tony going to the Blue Jays. We’re going to certainly miss him in the clubhouse, but it’s a situation where I’m getting to know some of the newer guys and I think they’re going to present some of their own personalities and I think we’re all going to bond really well together.”

Santander, though, wasn’t the only leader to depart over the past year.

At last season’s trade deadline, the Orioles traded Austin Hays, who survived the rebuild alongside Santander, to the Philadelphia Phillies. Then, this offseason, the Orioles signed catcher Gary Sánchez rather than bring back veteran James McCann.

Manager Brandon Hyde said he believes his young stars — naming Henderson, Jordan Westburg and Adley Rutschman — are ready to fill in as leaders.

“There’s guys that have done some really good things for the past couple years, I think they’re ready to take that next step,” Hyde said. “Those guys now are getting into their third year, they definitely have the makeup for it. I think they’re all ready to start being leaders, not only on the field but off the field, which they’ve been doing as young guys and that’s what makes it so impressive about them. That’s a really, really cool core group of guys.”

While most members of the Orioles’ core are still young, they’re not the fresh-faced prospects they were a few years ago. Rutschman turns 27 next week. Westburg will be 26 when the season gets underway.

During his minor league career, Westburg was sometimes called “The Captain” by his teammates in High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie. Hyde speaks as highly of Westburg’s approach to the game as any player on the club. And Westburg emerged last season as one of the team’s best players.

“I definitely want to step into that role,” Westburg said. “I know I’m still a young guy in the service time aspect, but I do think I can play a little bit bigger of a role in the clubhouse if I need to. We have some veteran guys, though, so if they come in and set the standard early, that would be great. But if they don’t and it falls on us young guys, I feel more than confident I can be in that role.”

Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said he was “very active” in bringing back Santander and Burnes.

“Ultimately, they ended up elsewhere and we made other moves,” Elias said. “But I think just in general we were and are very aggressive this offseason.”

Hyde is hoping other players “step up and hit for some more power” to replace Santander’s 44 homers. O’Neill is expected to make up for a large chunk of that after he blasted 31 long balls 113 games last season for the Boston Red Sox. But Heston Kjerstad is one player Hyde mentioned who he hopes will realize his potential in 2025.

One of the club’s leaders who is returning is first baseman Ryan O’Hearn. Despite the departures of Santander and Burnes, O’Hearn is confident the Orioles can be even better this year than in 2024.

“You can’t replace Santander and Corbin. It’s not like a one-for-one replace type of thing,” he said. “But if you look at the pieces that we added and some of these guys have a chance to have breakout years — Jackson comes to mind. Cowser, I think, is going to take another step, other guys who have already done some things like Gunnar and Adley.

“You look at the group as a whole, it’s a really good group of players. It’s deep. There’s not really a weak link.”

Around the horn

Hyde said “nothing is solidified” when asked about who his No. 1 starting pitcher will be to begin the season. With Corbin Burnes now an Arizona Diamondback, the two candidates in the race to start opening day are presumably Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez.

Closer Félix Bautista is in Sarasota, Florida, early before spring training gets underway in about two weeks. “He looks great right now,” Hyde said.

While Jackson Holliday ended the 2024 campaign in the major leagues, he’s still going to enter spring training with the mindset that he needs to make the team. “I’m still trying to make the team and earn a starting spot,” said Holliday, who turned 21 in December and served beers to fans next to Cowser during Friday’s event. “We have a really competitive team. That’s my mindset going in, it’s still competing for a job and trying to get better every day and learn how to play second base at a high level.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Matt Weyrich contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.