A number of familiar Orioles minor leaguers, and some new ones, stood out over the past week.
The major league Orioles have not given much to be excited about in 2025, so it once again falls to the prospects to bring hope for the future. There are a whole lot of new names in the system since the July trades. A number of this year’s draft picks will be getting into the mix starting this week. There are also some promotions to be excited about, even if we haven’t yet got the big ones, Samuel Basallo or Dylan Beavers.
Each week on Camden Chat, we take a look at how the minor league teams have fared, particularly trying to pay attention to prospects of note. Some weeks have been better than others.
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Last week: 5-1 vs. Rochester (Nationals)
- Coming week: at Jacksonville (Marlins)
- Second half record: 16-21, eighth place (12 games back) in International League East
Hang on, the Tides just had a good week? Is that allowed to happen? Apparently so. They’re now 7-3 over their last ten games, about as good of a stretch as they’ve played all season. Even better is that the two guys who I want to be seeing do well were fueling a lot of that.
Samuel Basallo is one of them. He drove in twelve runs just by himself over the past week. That came with seven hits, of which three were doubles and two were homers. And he only played in four games! That’s a 1.310 OPS for the week and a .997 for the season, with 23 home runs in 73 games. The question of how much work his defense as a catcher needs is not so easily answered by fans, but I hope we see him soon.
Dylan Beavers continues to the dang thing as well, and as we know, in his position the Orioles are running out a collection of scrubs right now in whom the team doesn’t even have any time invested. Beavers had five hits in five games, including two homers, and he also drew six walks. Get him to Baltimore, seriously. However, when it comes to the apparent rationale of hoping for the bank shot “Beavers makes top 100 lists and then contends for ROY,” worth noting: Beavers just cracked the top 100 at Baseball America. He’s not the only fresh Orioles addition; we’ll get to the next one later.
Two major league rehabbers of interest in the pitching staff. Kyle Bradish had one rehab outing for the Tides, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks over 3.2 innings. Results don’t matter in rehabs, but it would be nice to see good results. We got those from Tyler Wells, who struck out nine batters over 6.1 scoreless innings across two outings. Probably going to see both of them back with the Orioles by month’s end.
Others of interest
- RHP Chayce McDermott – It sure seems like the Orioles have finally made the call to drop him into the bullpen. Three outings, three scoreless innings over the past week.
- RHP Cameron Foster – Rebounded from a tough outing early after getting traded here with two innings where he allowed just an unearned run
- RHP Anthony Nunez – Another recent arrival from the Mets system, totaled one inning across two games, no runs allowed, and he got a save.
Double-A Chesapeake Baysox
- Last week: 1-5 at Akron (Guardians)
- Coming week: vs. Erie (Tigers)
- Second half record: 13-26, last place (9 GB) in Eastern League Southwest
Chesapeake scored 11 runs across the first five games of this week’s series combined and lost all five. Their lone win snapped a ten-game losing streak. Things haven’t been going well for this affiliate’s winning percentage.
This is also a team that’s had some new arrivals by trade and by internal promotion. Things are going better for some than others. One early standout with his new organization is Brandon Butterworth, a shortstop acquired from the Padres, who already has two homers in eight games. Not a very good batting average over the last week (3-17 in five games) but he also drew four walks and stole four bases.
Infielder Aron Estrada, an internal promotion who’s only 20, also had just three hits in five games, with fewer walks and stolen bases to go with it. One more fresh arrival at Double-A was outfielder Austin Overn, one of the only guys to escape from this year’s Aberdeen mess. He had five hits in five games, all singles, and stole six bases. Between Aberdeen and now Chesapeake, he’s stolen 49 bases in 56 attempts. That’ll play.
Some guys in this team’s starting rotation might play too. For another week, Trey Gibson was the life of the party, as he struck out nine batters in a six-inning scoreless start for the week. Gibson has been here for ten starts and is sporting a 1.55 ERA, 0.898 WHIP, and 11.7 K/9. Seems like it may be time to test this 23-year-old righty against Triple-A competition for the rest of the season.
Others of interest
- RHP Juaron Watts-Brown – The good: Seven strikeouts, only one walk and one hit. The bad: The one hit was a homer, and he only pitched 4.2 innings overall.
- RHP Tyson Neighbors – One more reliever from the July trades, Neighbors pitched 2.1 scoreless innings in his first outings for his new organization.
- C/1B Creed Willems – Like the guys mentioned above, only three hits, but none of his went for extra bases and he didn’t steal any bases either.
High-A Aberdeen IronBirds
- Last week: 4-2 vs. Wilmington (Nationals)
- Coming week: at Hudson Valley (Yankees)
- Second half record: 20-21, fourth place (10.5 games back) in South Atlantic League North
The question must be asked before we consider anything else with Aberdeen: How many times did Vance Honeycutt strike out this week? The answer is seven, not too bad for him, especially since he had nine hits – four for extra bases – and stole four bases over the week.
A couple of Honeycutt’s fellow 2024 draftees, who’ve also stumbled at this level this season, are heating up headed towards the end of the season. Shortstop Griff O’Ferrall racked up eight hits, including three doubles, over five games, and also stole three bases. First baseman/catcher Ethan Anderson drove in ten runs with an 8-19 week. It’ll be nice if these guys can finish strong.
The Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka reported on Sunday on a couple of promotions that will impact the IronBirds roster for the remainder of the season. Pitching prospect Michael Forret is on the way up to Double-A; he struck out six batters in five scoreless innings in his final Aberdeen outing. Forret’s stats at High-A this year: 1,51 ERA, 0.804 WHIP, 11.5 K/9. He’s 21 and headed for Double-A. That’s good. The other promotion, who will be headed up to Aberdeen, is my man Nate George. More on him in a moment.
One pitching prospect did even better than Forret this week: 22-year-old lefty Luis de León struck out 12 batters over six scoreless innings where he allowed just three hits. It’s been a mixed bag of a season for de Leon, but that’s two straight scoreless outings in a row.
Others of interest
- RHP Wellington Aracena – Promoted to High-A after just one Low-A game following his acquisition; didn’t allow any hits in four innings, but walked three and allowed a run while striking out six.
- OF Enrique Bradfield – On a rehab assignment a level below where he had been at Double-A. 3-15 hitting over four games, with a pair of stolen bases.
Aberdeen season-to-date stats.
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Last week: 2-4 vs. Fayetteville (Astros)
- Coming week: at Lynchburg (Guardians)
- Second half record: 13-28, last place (11.5 games back) in Carolina League North
Been brutal for most of the season with Delmarva, but that roster is getting more interesting with the number of recent arrivals from outside and from below. Though, it’s not going to be the George show any more thanks to his promotion to Aberdeen. The 16th round pick bashed to a 1.005 OPS over five games, giving him a .901 OPS in 43 games at Low-A. Interesting to see the Orioles aggressively move the 19-year-old up, but he certainly looks better than this level of competition. George is the other new arrival on that BA top 100: He’s #81.
Also on the BA list at #95 is Esteban Mejia, the hard-throwing righty who’s made some waves this season. Just 18 years old, Mejia struck out seven guys in a 4.1 inning outing, allowing just one run on one hit, one walk, and one hit batter. Alas, he still took the loss, but pitcher win-loss records really don’t matter in the minors.
Fellow flame-thrower Keeler Morfe, who is being eased back into workloads after missing about 2.5 months of the season, tossed 3.1 innings scoreless, with just one hit and no walks issued. No walks is a big one for Morfe, who has massive command challenges at this point in his young career.
Not to be forgotten is the recent arrival, Boston Bateman a.k.a. Sasquatch. The big righty who came over as the headliner of the O’Hearn/Laureano trade with the Padres pitched three innings with one run allowed, mostly scattering five hits.
Others of interest
- RHP Twine Palmer – It’s really the guy’s name! A rough week for Twine, four runs (three earned) allowed in 2.2 innings.
- SS Cobb Hightower – Another name that’s too good to be true. 5-19 hitting with no extra-base hits. Folks on social media seem to be impressed with his defense, but the hitting isn’t there yet for this 20-year-old.
Delmarva season-to-date stats.
**
A week ago, Austin Overn took down our player of the week honors with 49% of the vote across a three-way poll. This was his first win of the season. Dylan Beavers has taken down three weekly polls, with Samuel Basallo, Braxton Bragg, and Nate George winning two each. The following others have won a single week: Brandon Young, Vance Honeycutt, Alex Pham, Adam Retzbach, Yasmil Bucce, and Trey Gibson.
Strong chances of a repeat winner this week just based on how many previous winners are in the poll, but the choice is ultimately yours to make.
Category: General Sports
