The catching prospect hit three home runs this week. Also, Braxton Bragg keeps impressing.
This wasn’t supposed to be a season where the most interesting thing for Orioles fans is what is happening down on the farm. It’s turned out that way anyway with the big league club floundering, firing people, and already releasing one of Mike Elias’s offseason mistakes. Guys on the big league club are going to have to do better next year. Getting some help from the high minors would be nice.
Each Tuesday on Camden Chat, we look back on the last week of action from the Orioles minor league affiliates, with a particular focus on the performance of players from Camden Chat’s composite top Orioles prospect list.
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Last week: 2-4 vs. Jacksonville (Marlins)
- Next opponent: at St. Paul (Twins)
- Season record: 16-28, ninth place (14.5 GB) in International League East
With good Orioles news in short supply, let’s turn to some exciting words about Samuel Basallo that are fresh from Baseball America:
For a player to succeed in the majors, he needs to be able hit four-seam fastballs and not have an exploitable zone. Basallo shows the incredibly rare ability to make hard contact in the air on both pitches at the bottom of the zone and the very top of the zone. … Sometimes, I’ll dig deeper on a player and find some flaws. With Basallo, I’m blown away by how freakishly talented the kid is. However good you think Basallo is, he’s probably better.
The above is part of an extended analysis on Basallo’s contact quality that all points to positive things in the near future in MLB for the prospect. He lived up to the praise this week, blasting three homers across the six games he played. He’s finally gotten back behind the plate – for two games – after time missed with a hamstring injury plus DH/1B-only time due to elbow inflammation. He only struck out three times this week and also drew five walks. That’s a 1.268 OPS in six games. Good stuff.
There are also good things to say about Dylan Beavers, who stuffed eight hits into only four games. No homers, but three doubles, which is good enough for the power numbers. Getting caught stealing twice isn’t ideal. Nobody’s perfect, right? On the other end of the spectrum, Coby Mayo struck out 11 times and only had three hits in these six games. His remarks about getting sent to Norfolk in spring training take on a self-fulfilling prophecy feeling.
It was a two-start week for the lone ranked pitching prospect active with the Tides this week: Cameron Weston allowed just three earned runs over 10.2 innings while striking out 14 guys and walking only two. Those are ratios that will play. Weston has a 4.70 ERA and 1.33 WHIP for the season.
Erstwhile major leaguers
- RHP Chayce McDermott seems to have remained around with the Orioles since the May 14 doubleheader and is a likely candidate to start tonight’s game.
- RHP Andrew Kittredge continues a rehab assignment. He pitched three scoreless and hitless innings.
- LHP Trevor Rogers keeps on having nothing good to say about him, getting bombed for five runs (four earned) in 4.1 innings.
Double-A Chesapeake Baysox
- Last week: 2-4 vs. Akron (Guardians)
- Next opponent: at Harrisburg (Nationals)
- Season record: 18-20, fifth place (6.5 GB) in Eastern League Southwest
Bad Baysox injury news from this past week, as Patrick Reilly’s forearm strain from earlier in the season turned out to be the big UCL tear. The team announced several days ago that Reilly has undergone Tommy John surgery. He was our preseason #10 prospect and likely will not still be that highly-ranked when we next have reason to think about him in 2027.
Chesapeake’s Braxton Bragg continues his longshot journey to become the top search engine result for his own name with excellent results this season. This past week, Bragg tossed off five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and four walks with five strikeouts. At a 0.70 ERA between Aberdeen and Chesapeake, Bragg is the minor league leader in ERA. The sub-1 WHIP isn’t too shabby either.
Until Enrique Bradfield Jr. is back at this level – he’s now rehabbing with Aberdeen, where he had two hits in 15 at-bats – the one hitter worth mentioning is Creed Willems. He’s still hitting dingers, adding two more this week, although he only had three hits in five games, so it’s not a great batting average.
Also of note
- RHP Nestor German freshly arrived at the level this week after a midseason promotion. He debuted with 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out six.
Chesapeake season-to-date stats.
High-A Aberdeen IronBirds
- Last week: 3-3 at Hudson Valley (Yankees)
- Next opponent: vs. Wilmington (Nationals)
- Season record: 16-23, fourth place (11 GB) in South Atlantic League North
Let’s talk Vance Honeycutt. This was what passes for a good week for last year’s first round pick, with a .222/.333/.444 batting line across the week that included a home run, three walks, seven strikeouts, and two stolen bases. The difference between whether Honeycutt can be a prospect who makes it or not is probably if he can add like, one hit instead of a strikeout every week. And then keep doing that up to MLB.
Honeycutt aside, it was a sea of not particularly good stuff from the hitting prospects here, with one other exception: My favorite prospect who almost nobody else cares about or has even heard of, infielder Aron Estrada, had six hits in 20 AB, including two triples. Estrada is up to a .770 OPS for the season, the best of any of Aberdeen’s batters by far. For a 20-year-old at this level, that’s interesting.
When this minor league season began, the interesting trio of pitchers at Aberdeen seemed to be German, Michael Forret (still on Chesapeake’s injured list), and Trey Gibson. The 23-year-old righty Gibson struck out ten dudes in a 5.1 inning start this week where the only damage he allowed was a solo home run. Gibson’s got a 5.46 ERA even after that, so he probably needs a few more of these to join the other guys at Chesapeake.
Also of note
- RHP Blake Money with another nice start, eight strikeouts and only one earned run (three unearned) over six innings. I am obligated any time I mention Blake Money to inform you that he has a brother named Cash. That’s not a joke even though it sounds like it must be.
Aberdeen season-to-date stats.
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Last week: 4-2 vs. Fredericksburg Nationals
- Next opponent: at Salem (Red Sox)
- Season record: 14-25, sixth/last place (12.5 GB) in Carolina League North
The emerging dudes at this level have been outfielder Braylin Tavera and catcher Yasmil Bucce, each of whom is in his age 20 season. Bucce batted 3-14 this week, though he drew five walks, which will sure help the OBP. It’s a .890 OPS for him for the year to date, incredible hitting in a league where the overall OPS is .672. Tavera went just 2-17 with no walks and five strikeouts.
One rehabbing pitching prospect is down here: Luis De Leon. He had reached Aberdeen last season and is starting back out with the Shorebirds. In a start this week, De Leon went 3.1 innings with one run allowed, striking out three batters to three hits and one walk surrendered.
Delmarva season-to-date stats.
Bonus Florida Coast League
The Orioles defeated the Red Sox yesterday to improve to a 6-5 record on the season. Some early standouts across this team’s first couple of handfuls of games:
- IF Nate George – 16th round pick a year ago, three hits yesterday and now batting .433/.528/.767 in nine games
- IF Joshua Liranzo – Three hits and three runs batted in yesterday, .900 OPS through 10 games
- OF Stiven Martinez – Just 17 years old, OPSing .895 over 10 games played
FCL Orioles season-to-date stats.
**
Last week, Chesapeake infielder Adam Retzbach took 53% of the vote in a three-way poll for minor league player of the week. He becomes just the second poll winner to be a position player, with Vance Honeycutt being the other. Pitcher Braxton Bragg has won twice, along with currently-injured Alex Pham and Brandon Young. Retzbach won’t be repeating because he had one hit in 12 at-bats.