Orioles minor league week in review: Holliday stays hot, Norby gets the call to the bigs (2024)

Triple-A Norfolk Tides

• Past week: 2-4 vs. Gwinnett Stripers (Braves)
• Coming week: at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (34-23, Yankees)
• Season record: 30-27, tied for third place (10 GB) in International League East

First off, congratulations to Connor Norby (Camden Chat’s #7 prospect), who finally received his long-awaited call to the majors yesterday. He certainly had nothing left to prove at Triple-A, where he arrived late in 2022 and had stayed ever since, playing nearly 200 games for Norfolk with a .293/.365/.501 slash line and 34 home runs. His final week with the Tides was actually one of his worst, as he went just 3-for-17 in this series, bringing his OPS down to a still very impressive .884. Here’s hoping Norby takes his opportunity in the majors and runs with it, making it impossible for the O’s to send him back down.

There is, of course, an even more prominent second base prospect currently toiling at Norfolk, and Jackson Holliday (#1) is once again starting to look like a force to be reckoned with. Buoyed by a slight adjustment to his batting stance, Holliday has a 1.035 OPS in his last 12 games and has reached base in his last 17. This week he had seven hits — more than twice as many as any other Tides batter — and drew five walks. The Athletic’s Keith Law still ranks Holliday as the best prospect in baseball, so the bloom is very much still on the rose despite his 10-game debacle in the bigs in April. By contrast, this week was a tough one for Heston Kjerstad (#15), who struck out in 12 of his 18 at-bats.

Right-hander Chayce McDermott (#10) bookended the series by starting both the opener and the finale, and while he continued racking up the strikeouts — 15 in all, extending his team-leading total to 82 Ks in 52 innings — he also continued to struggle with command. He coughed up 11 hits in nine innings and walked seven. His 5.88 BB/9 rate is going to need major work before he’s a consideration for an MLB promotion.

A more big-league ready candidate is lefty Cade Povich (#9), who figures to be the next man up if one more spot opens up in the Orioles’ rotation. He’s got a 3.18 ERA, 11.9 K/9, and a .203 opponents’ batting average. This week, though, was not one of his better showings, as Gwinnett tagged him for six runs in three innings. The Tides’ bullpen was on point this week, with six relievers working multiple innings without being scored upon, including lefty Nick Vespi, who struck out four in two innings and was summoned back to the Orioles yesterday.

Norfolk season stats

Double-A Bowie Baysox

• Past week: 3-3 at Somerset Patriots (Yankees)
• Coming week: vs. Binghamton Rumble Ponies (26-23, Mets)
• Season record: 25-25, fourth place (4.5 GB) in Eastern League Southwest

Norby might have been the most high-profile player promotion this week, but the Baysox sent someone up the ladder, too. Right-hander Carlos Tavera, the Orioles’ fifth-round pick (and highest drafted pitcher) in 2021, is moving up to Triple-A after posting a 3.30 ERA and striking out more than a batter per inning in his second year at Bowie. In his final appearance for the Baysox, he fired four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit.

The Orioles’ highest ranked pitching prospect at this level, righty Seth Johnson (#11), had his third straight appearance of four or more innings and only one run allowed, lowering his ERA to 3.41. But Bowie’s pitching standout of the series was righty Kyle Brnovich, the former Dylan Bundy trade piece who’s returned this year from Tommy John surgery. In two starts this week, Brnovich threw 14 innings, allowed only one run, and struck out nine. That included a sensational outing in Sunday’s finale, when he fired six scoreless, no-hit innings with a walk his only blemish. Brnovich may soon be in line for a return to Norfolk, where he pitched two games in 2022 before going under the knife.

Only two Baysox hitters played all six games of this series, with wildly different results. On the positive side was Samuel Basallo (#2), who reached base 12 times, including a homer, and even stole a couple of bases. Basallo has sneaky speed, you guys. He’s continued to play catcher fairly regularly, showing no ill effects from the stress fracture that delayed his season debut behind the dish.

The news was less encouraging for Jud Fabian (#14), who went just 4-for-23 (.174) with eight strikeouts. Fellow outfield prospect Dylan Beavers (#8) similarly struggled with a 3-for-19 week. First baseman TT Bowens hit two of Bowie’s three home runs in this series, while infield prospect Frederick Bencosme (#25, tied) reached base nine times and was 5-for-6 in steal attempts.

Bowie season stats

High-A Aberdeen IronBirds

• Past week: 3-3 at Hudson Valley Renegades (Yankees)
• Coming week: at Brooklyn Cyclones (27-24, Mets)
• Season record: 26-25, fourth place (3.5 GB) in South Atlantic League North

Matthew Etzel, a 10th-round pick a year ago, continues to open eyes in his first season at High-A, collecting seven hits this week, including a 3-for-5, two-double performance on Memorial Day to move his season line to .303/.382/.467. He’s also racked up 27 stolen bases while playing first base and every outfield position at least nine times each. He’s one to watch. First rounder Enrique Bradfield Jr. (#6), after reaching base eight times this week, has a .347 OBP for the year but hasn’t tapped into much power, slugging .375.

Righty prospect Jackson Baumeister (#15, tied) made two starts this week and threw 8.1 innings without allowing an earned run, though he was a bit wild, walking four batters and plunking another. It was emblematic of his season so far, in which he’s posted a fantastic 1.89 ERA in 10 starts but is walking more than six batters per nine innings.

Elsewhere on the Aberdeen pitching staff, former MLB first baseman Ronald Guzmán’s conversion to pitching is not going well. In four appearances for the IronBirds, the 29-year-old has been tattooed for 11 runs in three innings, walking nine. I suppose there’s nothing to lose with this experiment, but I don’t think we’ve got the next Shohei Ohtani here. It was a rough week, too, for 20-year-old lefty Deivy Cruz, who carried a 1.47 ERA into Friday’s outing and saw it balloon by nearly three full runs after a horrific six-run, 0.2-inning performance.

Aberdeen season stats

Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds

• Past week: 0-6 at Carolina Mudcats (Brewers)
• Coming week: vs. Lynchburg Hillcats (29-22, Guardians)
• Season record: 15-35, last place (17.5 GB) in six-team Carolina League North

The struggling Shorebirds, after showing a bit of life in early May, are back to their losing ways, getting swept in Carolina to extend their eight-game skid. They are, unfortunately, finding every possible way to lose. On Saturday, their pitching staff allowed just three runs...but their offense scored only two. The very next day, their hitters erupted for 12 runs...but their pitchers gave up 13. These guys really need to get on the same page.

Infielder Aron Estrada led the Shorebirds with eight hits and two dingers this week, while shortstop Anderson De Los Santos reached base 13 times in six games, including eight walks. That’s a step in the right direction for De Los Santos, who’s still trying to get his OBP up to .300. The Orioles’ 2023 fifth-round pick, outfielder Jake Cunningham, had just one hit this week but drew seven walks in his 19 PAs. And the team’s home run leader, catcher Aneudis Mordán, made his one dinger of the week a big one.

On the mound, right-hander Blake Money lived up to his last name with a dazzling start, working 5.1 innings without allowing an earned run or a walk, giving up just one hit and striking out six. Also solid was righty Michael Forret, last year’s 14th-round pick, who held Carolina to one run in 5.2 innings. That performance lowered Forret’s season ERA to 3.18 in 10 games (eight starts) and earned the 20-year-old a promotion to High-A Aberdeen.

Delmarva season stats

**

Last week brought the first repeat winner in our minor league player of the week poll, as Kjerstad earned a resounding 82% of the vote for his second victory. Other past winners include Etzel, Povich, McDermott, Fabian, and Beavers. We’re going to make this week’s poll a head-to-head battle between two guys who haven’t yet won. Who ya got?