Keeler Morfe is the only ranked O’s prospect on the Low-A Shorebirds roster, but a few others will look to open some eyes.
Let’s get this out of the way first: the Delmarva Shorebirds are not a team designed to win.
Granted, team wins aren’t exactly the primary goal of any minor league team. Helping young players learn and develop is always the number one priority. But that’s especially true of the Low-A affiliate, which for most Orioles prospects is their first taste of full-season professional baseball. Some players report here immediately after being drafted, others after stints in the short-season Florida Complex League or Dominican Summer League. All are as green as green can be.
So, yes, there are growing pains, as reflected in Delmarva’s combined 158-233 record the last three years. But it’s here that the fledgling pro career of the next great O’s prospect could begin to take shape — even if we’re not yet sure whom that may be.
The group that’s beginning the season with the Shorebirds isn’t the one we’ll be seeing all year; the roster will get a talent upgrade after the July draft, when some of the Orioles’ higher picks will likely make their way to Delmarva. For now, the team consists mainly of international signings from the past 2-3 years as well as late-round draft picks and undrafted free agents from 2024.
CATCHERS: Yasmil Bucce, Andrés Nolaya, Miguel Rodriguez
Fun fact: Yasmil Bucce was born on the same day as fellow O’s 2021 amateur signee Samuel Basallo (Aug. 13, 2004). Bucce and Andrés Nolaya, both from Venezuela, are making their full-season affiliate debuts. The one catcher here with previous Delmarva experience is Rodriguez, who spent 19 games with the club last year.
INFIELDERS: Edwin Amparo, Edrei Campos, Maikol Hérnandez, Steven Ondina, Fernando Peguero, Alfredo Velásquez
Maikol Hérnandez — now there’s a blast from the past. In 2021, he and Samuel Basallo made history by becoming the first seven-figure Orioles amateur signings, but their paths have diverged dramatically since then. While Basallo is now the Orioles’ top prospect and one rung away from the majors, Hérnandez has stalled out. Such is the inherent risk that comes with signing teenage amateurs. The five-tool potential that the O’s saw in Hérnandez hasn’t materialized; he has a career .180/.295/.249 with four home runs in 199 games.
The rest of the infield group includes a 2024 undrafted free agent (Ondina) and four 2022 international signings, most notably Amparo. The 20-year-old Dominican has shown good on-base ability (.379 OBP) but little power (.360 SLG) in his career thus far. Amparo hit well in a 27-game trial with Delmarva last year, batting .284 with a .793 OPS.
OUTFIELDERS: Kevin Guerrero, Raylin Ramos, Braylin Tavera
Speaking of top international signings who haven’t panned out, here’s Braylin Tavera. In 2022 the Orioles gave the largest signing bonus in franchise history — $1.7 million — to the then-16-year-old Dominican outfielder who was considered a top-20 international prospect. Unfortunately his career has gone much more the way of Hérnandez’s than Basallo’s. Tavera spent most of 2024 with Delmarva and batted just .173/.296/.213, homering just once in 355 PAs. He showed some speed with 27 steals, but also got caught 13 times. Tavera’s name has fallen off the Orioles’ prospect lists.
Also among the outfielders is Guerrero, the only current member of the Shorebirds who was acquired in a trade. The 20-year-old was part of the return package from the Marlins in the Tanner Scott trade just before Opening Day in 2022.
PITCHERS: RHP Cohen Achen, RHP Chase Allsup, RHP Bryan Bautista, RHP Yeiber Cartaya, RHP Eccel Correa, RHP Jacob Cravey, RHP Joe Glassey, LHP Sebastian Gongora, RHP Christian Herberholz, RHP Alberto Leandro, RHP Kenny Leiner, RHP Keeler Morfe (Camden Chat’s #15 prospect), RHP Carter Rustad, RHP Trent Turzenski, RHP Ben Vespi, RHP Evan Yates
It’s a very right-handed pitching staff for the Shorebirds, who carry only one southpaw, Gongora, among their group of 16 hurlers. There’s one intriguing prospect here in the 18-year-old Morfe (MOR-fay), signed in 2023 from Venezuela, who dominated the Dominican Summer League last year and earned a promotion straight to full-season ball. Morfe started the Orioles’ prospect-showcase breakout game at spring training last month. His 2025 season, though, got off to a brutal start on Sunday when he walked five of the eight batters he faced and couldn’t get out of the first inning.
No other Shorebirds pitcher is ranked among the top 20 prospects on Camden Chat’s composite list, though Allsup was an honorable mention, with Baseball Prospectus noting that the right-hander “has touched triple-digits” but lacks command. Allsup was the first pitcher the Orioles selected in last year’s draft, a fourth-rounder out of Auburn.
You might also recognize Ben Vespi’s name. His brother, Nick, pitched for the O’s for parts of the last three seasons. The Orioles signed the younger Vespi as an undrafted free agent from the University of Central Florida last year. He’s one of five undrafted FAs on the Shorebirds pitching staff. Like most players on this Delmarva team, they’re a bunch of unheralded players hoping to open some eyes with a breakout performance this year.