When Aron Estrada’s 2024 season in review was posted here on Camden Chat, Mark Brown called him the best Orioles prospect you don’t know yet. One year later, Estrada has followed his good 2024 season with
an even better 2025. I think it’s fair to say that, if you follow Orioles prospects at all, you are now very aware of Aron Estrada.
Estrada began the 2025 season where he finished 2024, with the High-A Aberdeen IronBirds. He had struggled there to end 2024, if you want to call a 19-year-old player with a .678 OPS struggling. It was a drop off from his numbers in Low-A Delmarva, especially power-wise. Overall, he finished 2024 with a hitting line of .286/.356/.416 and a wRC+ of 129 in 117 games.
Despite his 2024 success, Estrada didn’t get much recognition on prospect lists. He moved to #29 on MLB Pipeline’s list of Top 30 Orioles prospects, but didn’t get love from FanGraphs or Baseball America. This is irrelevant to how Estrada performed in 2025, when he took his game up another notch.
Though he stumbled in his first go-round with High-A, he had no such troubles this season. Now a seasoned 20-year-old, Estrada began hitting immediately. In his first month with Aberdeen, he batted .301. Things only got better after that, when the extra-base hits started coming. Estrada is not a home run hitter, but he’s fast and makes a lot of contact, meaning doubles and triples. He was red hot in May, with an .886 OPS and 10 stolen bases and continued to play well at the level throughout the summer.
At 20 years old, Estrada was two years younger than the average South Atlantic League player. He was also the best player on the IronBirds.
On July 26th, Estrada played in his 81st game of the year. In that stretch, he batted .284/.369/.429. He had 5 home runs, 7 triples, and 13 doubles. He had racked up 30 steals (6 CS). His 35 walks meant a walk rate of just over 10%, and he maintained a reasonable strikeout rate of 17.4%. His wRC+ was an impressive 135, meaning he was 35% better than the average player in the league.
The Orioles had seen enough. They promoted Estrada to Double-A Chesapeake for the remainder of the season.
In 2024, when Estrada was promoted from Low-A to High-A, his numbers dropped. It’s not unexpected. The competition is tougher and older. But this year, that did not happen. Estrada joined the Chesapeake Baysox, where he was a whopping 3.5 years younger than the average player. It did not show.
Estrada homered in each of his first two games with the Baysox and never looked back. Over the final month of the season, he hit .300/.355/.500 in 110 plate appearances. He hit five home runs to double his season total and added four more stolen bases without getting caught. It was a heck of a way to end his season and set him up nicely to start 2026 at Double-A with an eye towards getting promoted up to Triple-A Norfolk.
Estrada is a switch-hitter who hits a lot better as a lefty (.839 OPS vs. .716). The power he does have comes from the left side, where he hit eight of his 10 home runs. He had just five extra-base hits as a righty last year. He mainly played second base last year, but also saw time at third base, shortstop, left field, and right field. If he can continue hitting the way he has now shown over the past two seasons while maintaining that positional flexibility, he could prove to be a useful part of a major-league team.
On the latest MLB Pipeline ranking, Aron Estrada comes in at #25. From their writeup:
Though he’s undersized and lacks any big tools, there’s a lot to like about what Estrada brings to the table. He’s a switch-hitting infielder who makes a lot of contact and manages the zone well from both sides of the plate. He isn’t a slugger, but there is probably enough raw pop in there — more from the left side — for him to get to double-digit homers per year. He’s a strong, aggressive runner, which enhances what is a high-floor hit-over-power profile.
Estrada is listed at just 5’8”, 142 pounds. So, yes, he is undersized. It wouldn’t surprise me if he has bulked up significantly since that weight was listed. But regardless, 5’8” is smaller than the typical ballplayer, which does count against him. But if he just keeps playing the way he has, those concerns will disappear.
Over this past season, Estrada was one of the players I looked forward to reading about in Camden Chat’s daily minor league recaps. It’s always fun when one of the less heralded players does well. If Estrada has a 2026 like his 2025, he won’t be unheralded much longer.
