It’s Tuesday morning on Camden Chat, which means it’s time for our usual recap of the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Orioles’ minor league system during the past week.
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Last week: 2-4 vs. Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals)
- Coming week: at Nashville Sounds (Brewers)
- Season record: 10-17, ninth place (8.0 GB) in International League East
Welcome to the organization, Christian Encarnacion-Strand. The 26-year-old, a former top Reds prospect, has done nothing but rake since the O’s acquired him two weeks ago. He led the Tides with nine hits and seven RBIs this week, and he’s slashing .351/.409/.622 in nine games with Norfolk. Is he a future starter for the Orioles?
Probably not. Could he be more a useful bench player than, say, Johnathan Rodríguez or Weston Wilson? Probably. Plus I’d be fascinated to see how the Orioles fit his 17-letter last name onto a jersey.
For Orioles fans waiting for Enrique Bradfield Jr. (Camden Chat’s #7 prospect) to play his way into a big-league promotion, there’s bad news: he’s not playing at all. Bradfield has been sidelined for the past week with left hand discomfort. He suffered the injury colliding into the wall in the series opener. Rehabbing Oriole Jackson Holliday similarly had his week cut short, getting only one at-bat Tuesday before leaving the game in obvious pain. An MRI on his surgically repaired right hand came up negative, and Holliday will restart his rehab after the inflammation subsides.
It’s been a while since Jud Fabian was considered any kind of prospect, but he’s still plugging away at Triple-A. This was a good series for him, with two homers and five walks. Fabian has an .848 OPS in 26 games this year, which is nice, but his career .184 average and .660 OPS at Triple-A means he’s going to have to put up this kind of performance for a while to prove it’s not a fluke.
The Orioles’ top pitching prospect, Trey Gibson (#5), made two starts this week and gave up six runs, though only two were earned. The Tides’ defense is not much better than the Orioles’, apparently. Gibson had to leave Sunday’s outing in the third inning after taking a comebacker off his left leg, hopefully not an injury that will cost him any time. Another right-handed prospect, Nestor German (#11), had a rough go of it. He gave up five runs and seven hits and couldn’t get out of the fourth inning.
Double-A Chesapeake Baysox
- Last week: 3-3 vs. Akron RubberDucks (Guardians)
- Coming week: at Erie SeaWolves (Tigers)
- Season record: 10-10, fourth place (7.0 GB) in Eastern League Southwest
The offense in Chesapeake is nothing to write home about, lacking in high-level prospects. But catcher/first baseman Ethan Anderson, a second-round pick in 2024, is at least making things interesting. After an underwhelming 2025 season at then-High-A Aberdeen, he moved up a level anyway and is doing better things at Double-A. A 7-for-20 performance this week bumped his batting average over .300 for the season, and he’s OPS’ing .827. Shortstop Anderson De Los Santos is off to a torrid start in 2026, collecting seven hits this week and hitting his third homer. The 2021 signee from the Dominican is slashing .340/.500/.623 in 18 games.
It’s a good thing that Mark Brown isn’t writing the minors recap this week, because his favorite prospect, Aron Estrada (#13), just had a nightmarish series. It falls on me to report that Estrada went 1-for-21 and struck out nine times. The 21-year-old infielder, who has stung the ball at every minor league level — including in 27 games in Double-A last year — has stalled out this season. He’s hitting .176/.240/.250 in 18 games.
The highest ranked prospect on the Baysox, lefty Luis De León (#9), twirled three scoreless innings this week, striking out four. It should be noted that he threw 67 pitches in those three frames, and the Orioles, being careful with his arm, didn’t push him further than that. Right-hander Trace Bright had some elements of a dominant week — one hit, one run, and 15 strikeouts in eight innings — but also walked six. Bright, a 2022 fifth-round pick, has become a mainstay at Double-A. He first arrived at the level in 2023, then spent the entire 2024 and 2025 seasons with the Baysox and remains there still. I hope he likes the area.
High-A Frederick Keys
- Last week: 4-2 vs. Wilmington Blue Rocks (Nationals)
- Coming week: at Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets)
- Season record: 10-10, tied for third place (2.0 GB) in South Atlantic League North
This was a roller-coaster week for the Keys offense, which put up double-digit runs in each of the first three games — including an 18-run explosion on Wednesday — and then was held to four or fewer runs in the final three games. All of the club’s top hitting prospects were prominently involved in the high-scoring effort. Nate George (#3), who’d been off to a somewhat slow start, erupted for a 9-for-19 week, reaching base 15 times, stealing six bases without being caught, and scoring 10 runs. There’s the spark plug we know and love.
Top 2025 draft picks Ike Irish (#4) and Wehiwa Aloy (#6) each had seven hits and seven RBIs. Aloy powered two homers and Irish hit one (as did George). The Keys hit 11 home runs in the series, with Aloy, outfielder RJ Austin, and first baseman Victor Figueroa all having multi-homer weeks. Austin, the Orioles’ third-round pick last year, went 7-for-13 in his three games, while Figueroa was 8-for-20. Meanwhile, 2024 first-rounder Vance Honeycutt homered but went 3-for-20 with 11 strikeouts and exited Sunday’s game with left thumb discomfort.
Frederick’s pitching was mostly decent this week, as only three pitchers allowed more than two runs. Unfortunately, two of them were prospects Boston Bateman (#10) and JT Quinn (#19). Quinn’s outing was garden-variety bad — six runs and eight hits in 4.1 innings — while Bateman’s was a disaster. In just 2.1 innings, the 6-foot-8 lefty surrendered nine hits, seven runs (five earned), a hit batsman, and two walks. Bateman, the prize of the Ryan O’Hearn/Ramón Laureano trade with the Padres last July, has a 9.82 ERA in 11 innings spanning four games.
At least you can always count on Joseph Dzierwa (#14) to deliver the goods. The southpaw’s five-inning, nine-strikeout, one-earned-run performance this week gives him a tidy 2.35 ERA in four starts. Batters are hitting .160 against him. Juaron Watts-Brown (#15), rehabbing from Double-A, dominated with five scoreless, hitless innings this week, retiring 15 of the 16 batters he faced and fanning eight. No wonder he’s already graduated from this level. And Twine Rollin Palmer — his real name — pitched five innings with only an unearned run of damage. The O’s acquired the righty from Houston in the Ramón Urías trade.
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Last week: 4-2 vs. Wilson Warbirds (Brewers)
- Coming week: vs. Hill City Howlers (Guardians)
- Season record: 8-13, tied for last place (6.0 GB) in Carolina League North
If you’re like me, your first question is: who the heck are the Wilson Warbirds? Turns out they’ve only existed for like a month. They’re the former Carolina Mudcats, having relocated about a half hour east from Zebulon, N.C., to Wilson this season. The Shorebirds’ next opponent is also a rebranded team, the former Lynchburg Hillcats, who still play in Lynchburg, Va., but are now the Hill City Howlers. And there’s your minor league geography lesson for the day.
Anyway, this was a surprisingly good pitching series for the Shorebirds, who have the worst team ERA (6.03) in the Carolina League this season but had the second-best (2.83) this week. They were led by Delmarva’s top prospect, Esteban Mejia (#8), who pitched four scoreless innings and struck out eight. It was a much-needed bounceback performance from the right-hander, who gave up eight walks in his previous outing. This time he had just two free passes.
On offense, the Shorebird who has stood out the most is infielder DJ Layton, the Orioles’ sixth-round pick in 2024. Last year in the Florida Complex League, Layton was just 19-for-104 (.183), but he’s already matched that hit total for Delmarva in 2026, going 19-for-61 (.311) while posting a .960 OPS in 20 games. I’m intrigued. Layton posted a .423 OBP this week thanks to seven walks, and was a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts.
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Who is your Orioles minor league player of the week, Camden Chatters? Is it Nate George for his inspired performance for Frederick? Christian Encarnacion-Strand for making a strong first impression in the Orioles’ system? Is it Joseph Dzierwa just because he’s Joseph Dzierwa? Or do you have a different candidate? Let us know in the comments.
