Arising: MLB unanimously approves David Rubenstein’s purchase of the $1.725bn Baltimore Orioles, Details breakdown of terms of Agreement are…..

MLB unanimously approves David Rubenstein’s purchase of the $1.725bn Baltimore Orioles… as billionaire group takes charge of team just four days after the death of long-time owner Peter Angelos

The Baltimore Orioles are officially under new ownership after Major League Baseball unanimously approved private equity billionaire David Rubenstein’s takeover of the $1.725billion franchise.

The sale will eventually give Rubenstein and his ownership group 70% of the team, and he is now in control less than two months after initially agreeing to buy from the Angelos family.

The deal got over the line just four days on from the death of long-time owner Peter Angelos, who died on Saturday at the age of 94 after battling illness for ‘several years’.

The $1.725bn valuation of MLB’s Orioles is the third-highest for the sale of a baseball team, behind Steve Cohen’s $2.4bn New York Mets purchase, and the LA Dodgers‘ $2.15bn sale to Mark Walter in 2012.

The Angelos family had been in charge of the Orioles since 1993, when they originally purchased the team for $173m.

Taking to X after the deal was secured, Rubenstein joked: ‘I’m breathing again…MLB just unanimously approved the deal! @orioles, the Next Chapter has begun! Go O’s!’

ESPN report that, despite an already-talented young team, Rubenstein and his group plan to infuse the team with cash and set them up for a run at the World Series.

Currently, the Orioles have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball at $96.6m.

Among the other investors joining Rubenstein in the deal are Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr, baseball Hall of Famer Grant Hill, former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and CEO of the Ares Management investment firm Michael Arougheti.

Although Rubenstein does not now live in the city, he grew up in Baltimore and is a lifelong Orioles fan.

The purchase also comes on a very difficult week for Baltimore as a city, and will bring much-needed relief just one day after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Six are presumed dead after a large cargo ship struck the bridge in the early hours of Tuesday morning, sending the structure plummeting into the water in dramatic fashion.