David Rubenstein talks Orioles trades, payroll and World Series hopes

With under an hour to go before Monday’s Major League Baseball trade deadline passed, Orioles principal owner David Rubenstein joined an American University event to discuss his new book, “Inside the Owner’s Box: Power and Leadership in Sports.”

The event, hosted by American University’s Kogod School of Business, brought Rubenstein in to discuss sports ownership with Yankees legend Alex Rodriguez and Bloomberg’s Jason Kelly. Rodriguez and Kelly interviewed Rubenstein about his book, his experience owning the Orioles since 2024, and how he has been impressed with the fervor of Baltimore’s fans.

Near the end of the interview, Rubenstein said he wants to bring a winning team to Baltimore.

“Right now, I just want to do one good thing for Baltimore, which is to help the team do better,” Rubenstein said. “At my age, I probably am not going to buy a whole bunch of other teams.”

Rubenstein explained his reasoning for writing a book about sports team ownership as a way to explain his reasons for purchasing the Orioles while also interviewing other owners on their experiences and motivations. As is Rubenstein’s way, he said he leans into his humor and “self-deprecating remarks about myself.”

From the interviews he conducted for his book, he said he learned that “owning a sports team is not the single best way one can spend their time to make money.” Instead, he said, owners are generally driven by winning championships and “doing something for your hometown or your team you represent gives them a greater thrill.”

Rubenstein, who cofounded private equity firm the Carlyle Group, said the companies that he and others buy that generate much more revenue.

“The amazing thing about it is that in Carlyle’s case, or KKR’s case, or Blackstone’s case, the companies that many of us buy, are much, much bigger in terms of revenue than these sports teams,” Rubenstein said. “But the sports teams get an enormous amount of attention. So, Carlyle can buy a company that has $1 billion or $2 billion in revenue and nobody even pays attention to it.

“Now, we have a baseball team that might have $100 million in revenue, and all of a sudden everybody’s talking about it,” Rubenstein continued. “Today was the trade deadline for Major League Baseball. It ends in about 50 minutes. I’m getting emails from people all over the country talking about trades we made, as if you think they have nothing else to think about, but people are obsessed with the trades we’ve made and trades other teams have made.”

Ahead of the deadline, the Orioles traded away three contributors on Monday: Catcher Adley Rutschman, outfielder Taylor Ward and right-hander Tyler Wells. Rutschman, the first overall pick in 2019 who represented the aspirations of the Orioles’ rebuild, was traded to the Boston Red Sox, an American League East rival.

After the deadline, president of baseball operations Mike Elias said: “I talked to David and our ownership group consistently throughout this trade deadline process.”

Elias continued: “They’ve been very available. I really want to stress and thank how much they allow my team to do its job, be nimble in a really competitive, fast-moving marketplace. Our ownership group is tremendously supportive. They understand how difficult it is, what we do, and they give us the latitude and the resources to do it.”

At the book event, Rodriguez joked that the attention may be the worst part of owning a team, and Rubenstein added that “if you pay attention to the tweeting online and so forth, you can drive yourself crazy because, you know, the fans are generally going to say more negative than positive things, as a general rule of thumb.”

At one point, Rodriguez asked Rubenstein what separates great owners from the others, based on the conversations that Rubenstein had for his book.

“The truly great owners, in my view, don’t pay as much attention to the bottom line financially,” Rubenstein said. “They’re not worried about a million dollars here or there. They want to win, they want to do it as a matter of civic pride, and they want to feel that they’ve delivered something to the town they’re representing.”

Since purchasing the Orioles, Rubenstein has raised payroll each year. The Orioles secured several long-term contracts in the last year, including the signing of free agent Pete Alonso. The wins, however, haven’t followed. The Orioles enter Thursday two games below .500.

Rodriguez, who is now a co-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx, commended Rubenstein and his partner Michael Arougheti for getting involved with the Orioles.

“I think baseball is better because of these two partners coming into baseball,” Rodriguez said.

Rubenstein turned the compliment around, telling Rodriguez that he “did a better sports deal than virtually anybody I’ve seen because you bought a team that was worth a lot more than you paid for it, and that was a great deal.”

Rubenstein noted that his own firm could not join Rodriguez’s group to purchase the Timberwolves “because of a conflict of interest that the NBA somehow found.”

He later said his group was also involved in attempting to buy the Seattle Seahawks. He said the group teamed up with a large foreign investor who was willing to put $3 billion into the deal. They didn’t win.

Rubenstein said he was offered a chance to buy the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals “many, many years ago,” before Ted Leonsis purchased the organizations. The reason Rubenstein didn’t at the time, he said, was because “If I do this, my investors are going to say, ‘What the hell are you doing? You’re supposed to be managing my money and you’re now worrying about a sports team.’ So, I didn’t. I backed away from it.”

Despite those attempts, Rubenstein landed the Orioles with an investment group that includes Arougheti.

The inclusion of Arougheti was a matter of chance — almost. Arougheti called Rubenstein about a year before the purchase of the Orioles to see if he could get involved. Rubenstein told Arougheti that a deal to buy the Orioles wasn’t likely.

About nine months later, when a deal appeared possible, Rubenstein called Arougheti back to gauge his interest. They met in New York City, in person for the first time, to discuss what a partnership would look like.

“It was perfect for me because he knows a lot more about baseball than I do,” Rubenstein said. “He really knows baseball.”

Arougheti, Rubenstein explained, also stood out as a businessman. He led Ares Management, which operates in credit and private equity, to a valuation north of $40 billion.

“Everybody said the same thing: ‘He’s a really smart guy, he knows a lot more about baseball than you do, and you’re lucky to get him,’” Rubenstein said with his classic dry sense of humor.

Rubenstein was a more frequent figure at Camden Yards in 2024, when he threw hats to fans and sat behind home plate alongside minority owner and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. Since owning the team, Rubenstein said, his understanding of the game has naturally increased.

“Look, I didn’t go to that many baseball games until I did this,” Rubenstein said. “Now, I’m going to baseball games. I’m paying attention to statistics. And if people are walking up to the streets of Baltimore and saying, ‘Hey, some player is not doing well, why don’t we get this pitcher? Why don’t you trade this one?’ Literally, I am surprised by it.

“But you get to relive your youth a little bit,” Rubenstein joked. “Maybe it’s making me a little younger. I don’t know. But I enjoyed it. I don’t have any regrets in doing it. I just wish ... Look, to be honest, here’s what happened: I bought a team that was heavily criticized by some for not putting money in. So, the team was in first place in the American League East when I bought it, the year before I bought it.”

After a hot start, the 2024 Orioles fell off in the second half and were swept out of the playoffs for the second straight year. The 2025 team stumbled out of the gate and never recovered, leading to the firing of manager Brandon Hyde. And this season, the Orioles have remained within reach of a playoff spot in the mediocre American League, but they’ve been plagued by inconsistent hitting and poor fundamentals.

“Mike Arougheti and I have tripled the salaries, yet we went from first place to last place,” Rubenstein joked. “It’s a little frustrating and embarrassing. I’m really embarrassed about it, but I’m trying to do what I can to fix it and turn it around. And, you know, we’ll see. I hope when my obituary is written, they will say ‘World Series Champion’ rather than ‘Carlyle cofounder’ as the headline. But at this point, I’m not sure it’ll get that way.”