Beavers was one of several repeat standouts this season to do well over the last stretch of games.
In a better Orioles season, right now would be a time where fans of prospects have to nervously assess who of their favorites might be getting traded, who they could live with seeing in another organization, and so on. This is not that season. Instead, the nervous anticipation and excitement is more about who will be added into the system to help in the future.
Each Tuesday on Camden Chat, we look back over the performance across the minors from the past week. This edition will include the first weekend of games after the All-Star break as well; minor league teams were off along with MLB even though there aren’t minor league All-Star Games for the US-based leagues now.
Here’s how things went for the affiliates since last time:
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Since last time: 1-2 vs. Syracuse (Mets), 1-5 vs. Lehigh Valley (Phillies)
- Next week: vs. Memphis (Cardinals)
- Second half record: 9-16, last place (11.5 games back) in International League East
Four different major league players were doing rehab with the Tides over the past week. Adley Rutschman played in four games for Norfolk, and it doesn’t matter that he only went 2-15, or at least that’s what I have to tell myself. Ryan Mountcastle is probably in for a more lengthy rehab. He batted 6-12 with three doubles across his first three games.
Also with the Tides were a pair of pitchers. Cade Povich, who is now on his second attempt at a rehab for a hip injury. Povich threw 8.1 innings across two games, topping out at 70 pitches, with 12 strikeouts and only two earned runs allowed. Keegan Akin was part of this rehab party as well, allowing an earned run in two innings over two different appearances.
On the subject of injured players and prospects, some good news with Samuel Basallo getting into games after a relatively short absence for oblique soreness. That was still enough time for him to rack up eight hits, including one 5-for-5 game, with five of his hits going for extra bases. The Orioles say they have a plan and they’re not going to tell us what it is. I hope Basallo keeps embarrassing them by playing so well that they have to move up the plan.
Dylan Beavers is also on quite a run lately. His last 15 days split featured seven hits, including three homers, plus a whopping 13 walks. That’s a 1.110 OPS since we last spoke, and a .909 OPS for the season over 79 games. Trade an outfielder by the deadline and get this guy on the Orioles by Friday already.
Others worth mentioning for bad reasons
- OF Heston Kjerstad – 3-28 hitting across seven games. It ain’t happening for him lately. I feel bad about it.
- RHP Chayce McDermott – He’s stunk as a starter, so they tried him out in relief. That stunk too: Five runs allowed in a 1.1 inning outing.
- RHP Cameron Weston – Six runs allowed, including three homers, over a 4.1 inning start.
Double-A Chesapeake Baysox
- Since last time: 2-1 at Erie (Tigers), 3-3 at Altoona (Pirates)
- Next week: vs. New Hampshire (Blue Jays)
- Second half record: 11-16, last place (5 games back) in Eastern League Southwest
I winced when I looked at the batters for this team, because with Enrique Bradfield Jr. back on the injured list due to a hamstring injury that he aggravated while playing in the All-Star Futures Game – I mean, geez – the only position player who’s worth mentioning at this moment is Creed Willems. The dude just keeps plugging along, hitting well enough to be interesting but not so well to kick the door down to the next level. Willems batted 7-24 across this stretch of games, hitting a homer to get himself into the double digits for the full season.
Chesapeake’s pitching is where the fun has been this season, and that remains true even with Patrick Reilly needing Tommy John surgery earlier in the season and Braxton Bragg possibly on the road to TJ.
Among those still active, Nestor German deserves some attention for his most recent start, in which he struck out ten Altoona batters over six innings while only two runs. German was the losing pitcher in this game because his offense and bullpen were bad. Trey Gibson, who arrived at this level at the start of June, continues to do good things for Chesapeake. He didn’t get into the double digits for strikeouts in a single game like German did, but 17 strikeouts over 11.1 innings with just one run allowed is pretty good. One of these guys may actually show that Mike Elias can develop a homegrown pitcher.
Chesapeake season-to-date stats.
High-A Aberdeen IronBirds
- Since last time: 2-1 at Wilmington (Nationals), 2-3 vs. Winston-Salem (White Sox)
- Next week: at Bowling Green (Rays)
- Second half record: 13-16, fourth place (8.5 games back) in South Atlantic League North
There’s an exciting promotion for me to start with here, reported by MLB.com’s Jake Rill, with infielder Aron Estrada – my favorite prospect hardly anybody else cares about – moving up to Chesapeake. Still 20 for the rest of this season, Estrada added nine hits, including two triples, over this week-plus, with eight walks and three stolen bases. He’s batted .284/.369/.429 in 81 games with the IronBirds, which, for a league that has a .671 OPS overall, is mighty impressive.
Now back to the regularly-scheduled: How many times did Vance Honeycutt strike out? The answer is six times in three games. He’s on the injured list now.
Estrada wasn’t the only solid performer for Aberdeen across this stretch of games. 2024 draft pick Ethan Anderson recorded seven hits over only five games played, and drew six walks as well, for an OPS of 1.071. He needs some more weeks like this, as he’s only at a .618 OPS for the season.
The big league rehab party hit this level as well, with Kyle Bradish making his first appearance on a mound in a real game since his Tommy John surgery. He allowed a run across two innings, striking out four batters.
Others of note
- OF Thomas Sosa – Another 20-year-old with the IronBirds went 7-30 across eight games, including two doubles and a homer. .752 OPS (and 24.4% strikeout rate) across 22 games.
- OF Austin Overn – This 2024 pick struggler helped the OBP with ten walks, and he stole six bases too. .227/.360/.333 batting for the season.
- RHP Michael Forret – One start cut short due to rain; he pitched three shutout innings. 0.848 WHIP and 11.5 K/9 across 13 games this season.
Aberdeen season-to-date stats.
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Since last time: 0-3 vs. Carolina (Brewers), 2-3 vs. Lynchburg (Guardians)
- Next week: at Kannapolis (White Sox)
- Second half record: 9-20, last place (10.5 games back) in Carolina League North
Friends, I have to tell you that it doesn’t feel good that on top of the major league Orioles being in last place, every full-season minor league affiliate is in either last place or next-to-last place in their division in their league. Minor league team records aren’t the best way to judge the health of a farm system, but if every team sucks, it’s hard to think that there’s a lot of good going on.
Two players are on the way up from this level: Yasmil Bucce and Elis Cuevas. Based on performance this year, Bucce is the more interesting of the two, posting an .814 OPS across 81 games in a league where all batters are OPSing .662. He’s in his age 20 season, so reaching Aberdeen is a nice achievement. As for the last week-plus, one hit in seven games, not so good.
Delmarva is the Nate George show until such time as he, too, is promoted to Aberdeen. The 16th round pick from a year ago added ten hits and four stolen bases over his past eight games, leaving him with an .876 OPS after 33 games at this level. The Athletic’s Keith Law took some video of George in action on the bases, adding in a subsequent post, “He always runs like this”:
enjoy this clip of Orioles CF prospect Nate George running all out on a play where he scored easily
— Keith Law (@keithlaw.bsky.social) 2025-07-27T01:25:48.663Z
Delmarva season-to-date stats.
Florida Complex League
This affiliate’s season wrapped up over the past week. The FCL Orioles came up one game short of a wild card spot for the league, finishing with a more-than-respectable 35-24 record over their schedule.
The standout hitter across the FCL Orioles season was Jordan Sanchez, a 19-year-old outfielder who batted .293/.421/.529 in 54 games. Pretty good! With the short season over, I’m not sure why he’s not on the promotion list. Rill’s report has two others going from FCL to Delmarva: outfielder Stiven Martinez (just 17, .217/.368/.362 in 49 games) and catcher Andrew Tess, another high school overslot signing from last year’s draft. Tess OPSed .826 in 54 games.
You’ve probably already gotten wind of the excitement building around FCL pitcher Esteban Mejia, whose hard throwing allowed him to do very well, with 53 strikeouts in 40.1 innings for the 18-year-old righty. I don’t know why he’s not getting the Delmarva bump with this season having ended either.
**
In the last poll before the All-Star break, Samuel Basallo handily won with 86% of the vote to join this list of two-time winners this season: Braxton Bragg, Nate George, and Dylan Beavers. We’ve had these players win a single week: Brandon Young, Vance Honeycutt, Alex Pham, Adam Retzbach, Yasmil Bucce, and Trey Gibson.
The odds are tilted strongly towards crowning a repeat winner this week, possibly even our first three-time winner of the season. Who will take it down this week? The choice is yours.