The Orioles have played a half-season since Adley Rutschman's debut. He's more than delivered so far.

Adley Rutschman was promised to have not only the talent but the mentality to transform the Orioles. A half-season into his big league career, he's been all the Orioles could ask for.

I was driving somewhere to a coffee shop in Fort Worth, Texas three summers ago and conducting what’s always the best interview for a story: the last one. I had already been told Adley Rutschman was a great baseball player and a great person as many ways as possible. One person even told me he would solve homelessness in Baltimore just by being here.

But then I heard about mudita – a joy in others’ successes that Rutschman personified to those that new him – and how that quality could be transformative to an Orioles team that’s badly needed it.

It was a great way to open the story I wrote then, and I think about it periodically now that Rutschman is settled in the big leagues. It was true, and the baseball part of that was expected. But it’s no coincidence that the Orioles are 47-34 in the half-season’s worth of games since Rutschman’s debut on May 21. His impact has been even greater than advertised.