The Orioles’ High-A and Low-A affiliates wrapped up the 2024 campaign, while Double-A will soon follow.
With September upon us, the minor league seasons are reaching their end. Both High-A and Low-A concluded their 2024 campaigns last week, while Double-A has one more week and Triple-A has two. Let’s take a look at the final week of full, four-team action in the Orioles’ minors. Most of the focus will be on players from Camden Chat’s composite top O’s prospects list from the preseason, with mentions of some standout efforts from players who have started to appear on lists that updated in the middle of this season.
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Past week: 2-4 vs. Charlotte Knights (White Sox)
- Coming week: at Durham Bulls (32-31, Rays)
- Second half record: 26-37, last place (10.5 GB) in International League East
The highlight of the week was the second Triple-A home run for #2 prospect Samuel Basallo, who got all of this one against former Oriole Travis Lakins Sr. on Saturday.
Samuel Basallo isn’t normal.
109.7 mph exit velo, 455 feet on this home run in Triple-A. At 20 years old. pic.twitter.com/DSPBIItpm2
— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) September 8, 2024
Other than that, though, it was a tough week for the 3-for-21 Basallo as well as the only other real prospect on Norfolk’s roster, outfielder Jud Fabian (#14), who went 4-for-25 with 12 strikeouts.
The Tides’ biggest offensive contributions came from veteran major leaguer Niko Goodrum and organizational player TT Bowens. Goodrum was scalding hot, collecting 10 hits and five walks for a .556 OBP for the week, and crushed three home runs with 14 RBIs for an .864 SLG. The 32-year-old may be too good(rum) for minor league competition but has never been able to stick in the bigs. Meanwhile, Bowens, 26, slugged his first two home runs at the Triple-A level after going dingerless in his first four weeks for Norfolk.
Tough series for the Tides’ rotation. Of this week’s six starters, only Trevor Rogers threw a quality start, and even then it was nothing special (6.2 IP, 3 ER, 2 HR). And no, now is not the time to tell me how Connor Norby is doing for the Marlins. I don’t want to hear it. Justin Armbruester made a pair of five-inning starts with mediocre results, while Brandon Young, who otherwise has been impressive this season, was tagged for four runs and 10 hits in five innings.
Double-A Bowie Baysox
- Past week: 2-4 vs. Harrisburg Senators (Nationals)
- Coming week: at Erie SeaWolves (36-26, Tigers)
- Second half record: 27-36, tied for last place (13.0 GB) in Eastern League Southwest
The Baysox, like the Tides, are mired in last place in their division. Minor league teams’ win-loss records don’t necessarily mean the organization is bereft of prospects or anything, but it’s still not very fun.
One guy who was having fun this week was Dylan Beavers (#8 prospect), who crushed three of Bowie’s four home runs in the series. He also tripled. Beavers, the Orioles’ #33 overall pick in 2022, tends to have these three- or four-game bursts where it looks like he’s starting to click, only to go quiet again. With one week remaining in the Baysox campaign, hopefully he can carry some momentum into the offseason.
Catcher Creed Willems hit Bowie’s other dinger this week but was 3-for-21. Enrique Bradfield Jr. had two extra-base hits, both doubles, and added three stolen bases to his Double-A total of 11 and his full-season total of 70. Seventy steals! Quite the feat. (Or should I say “quite the feet”?)
Righty Trace Bright (#21) made two starts this week and allowed just two earned runs in 10.1 innings, striking out nine. Had he not also walked seven batters, he’d be a candidate for player of the week. Cameron Weston and Patrick Reilly were impressive, each working a scoreless, two-hit outing. Weston went six innings and struck out nine; Reilly went five and fanned eight.
Orioles reliever Jacob Webb, working his way back from elbow inflammation, was torched for four runs, two hits, and a walk while retiring just one batter on Wednesday, prompting the O’s to keep him on rehab a bit longer. He’ll pitch for Norfolk tonight.
High-A Aberdeen IronBirds
- Past week: 2-4 vs. Jersey Shore BlueClaws (Phillies)
- Final second half record: 33-33, fourth place (7.0 GB) in South Atlantic League North
- Final full-season record: 67-65
That’s a wrap on the season for the IronBirds, the only O’s full-season affiliate to have a winning record overall. They also made some history, setting an all-time minor league record with an incredible 363 stolen bases this season. That’s an average of 2.75 steals per game! It was a full 101 more steals than the next closest South Atlantic team this season. They also led in caught stealings (83), but had a successful steal rate of 81 percent.
For the final week, the IronBirds added five 2024 draftees, led by first-round outfielder Vance Honeycutt, who was the least successful of the quintet (2-for-20, 11 strikeouts). Fifth-round catcher Ryan Stafford also struggled, going 2-for-17. Austin Overn, the Orioles’ third-round pick out of USC, had the most impressive week of the bunch, roping three extra-base hits — including two triples — and stealing four bases. PPI pick Griff O’Ferrall and second-rounder Ethan Anderson collected six hits apiece.
And boy, is it nice to see Heston Kjerstad back in action. The lefty slugger finally began a rehab assignment after battling concussion symptoms since the Yankees beaned him July 12. Kjerstad had two hits and a walk in Sunday’s finale.
Due to trades and prospect promotions, not many pitchers logged a ton of innings for Aberdeen this year. Righty Zach Fruit was the only one to work more than 100 frames, posting a 3.03 ERA in 107 innings, though at 24 years of age, he was a bit old for the level. One of the more intriguing hurlers was 21-year-old righty Yaqui Rivera, whom the O’s acquired in the Tanner Scott trade in 2022. Rivera posted a 1.99 ERA and held batters to a .161 average in 54.1 innings. As with many O’s minor league pitchers, his walk rate was high (4.47), but there’s some potential there.
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Past week: 3-3 at Carolina Mudcats (Brewers)
- Final second half record: 30-36, last place (9.5 GB) in Carolina League North
- Final full-season record: 53-78
After their last-place finish this season, the Shorebirds are 158-233 over the past three seasons, a winning percentage of .404. Again, win-loss records aren’t a big deal in the minors, but great baseball is not being played in Delmarva.
Shortstop Fernando Peguero led the Shorebirds with eight hits, three for extra bases, this week. And outfielder Braylin Tavera, who began the season tied as the Orioles’ #15 prospect, reached base 10 times. It didn’t come close to salvaging a lost 2024 season, in which he batted .173/.296/.213 in 84 games at Low-A. It’s probably not what the Orioles envisioned when they made Tavera the highest-paid international signee in O’s history ($1.7 million) in 2022.
The two pitching standouts for the Shorebirds this year were the delightfully named right-handers Blake Money and Braxton Bragg. Money, a 22-year old 12th-round pick in 2023, threw a team-high 103 innings and compiled a 3.15 ERA and 1.06 WHIP. Bragg, 23, was selected in the eighth round last year, and posted a 3.36 ERA in 96.1 innings. In a refreshing change of pace for this organization’s young pitchers, walks were not a problem for either of these guys; Money and Bragg each averaged just over two walks per nine innings.
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We’re getting down to the wire in our minor league player of the week polls. Norfolk’s Brandon Young earned his first win last week, joining Chayce McDermott, Jud Fabian, Kyle Brnovich, Aron Estrada, Coby Mayo, Connor Norby, and Matthew Etzel among the single-week winners. Two-time winners include Heston Kjerstad, Cade Povich, Dylan Beavers, and Billy Cook, and Samuel Basallo has our most wins with three.
This week we have a bit of a ringer on the ballot, as a guy with 415 major league games to his name is a candidate. But hey, a good performance is a good performance. Can Niko Goodrum pull in the majority of the vote, or will Dylan Beavers join Basallo among the three-time winners?