Cooler temperatures are arriving and the end of baseball season approaches. For half of the Orioles affiliates, the end is already here, with Low-A Delmarva and High-A Aberdeen playing their final games of the 2025 season over this past weekend. In Aberdeen’s case, that was the last game for the IronBirds as an official affiliate, as the High-A franchise is transferring back to Frederick next year. Enjoy what baseball remains while you can, friends. Maybe the Orioles will even let us enjoy it.
This
weekly feature takes a look at the performance of the Orioles minor league teams over the previous week, with a particular focus on prospects who are of note either due to their position on rankings or just because they got here recently.
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Last week: 2-4 vs. Nashville (Brewers)
- Next week: at Durham (Rays)
- Second half record: 28-33, sixth place (14 games back) in International League East
Some grim numbers over these games for three players who have been added to the Tides late in the season. That continues to include Trey Gibson, a recently-minted top 100 prospect who’s taken a series of beatings at Triple-A. This week it was six runs allowed in four innings. He’s got a 9.64 ERA in five games with Norfolk. Tough going as well for Levi Wells, with seven runs allowed over nine innings across two starts.
Things weren’t great for Enrique Bradfield Jr. either, though at least he had enough good things going on to make it something of a mixed bag: The outfielder collected five hits, including two for extra bases, and stole three bags. One of the unfortunate things about this season for the Orioles farm was Bradfield spending so much time on the injured list, preventing him from getting to Triple-A sooner.
You may recall that two relievers from two different Mets trades are here with the Tides. Anthony Nunez allowed a pair of unearned runs over 2.2 innings, with six strikeouts. Cameron Foster gave up two runs, one earned, over three innings across two games.
Others of note
- RHP Cameron Weston – One run allowed over seven innings, though he did walk four guys. If either Dean Kremer or Tomoyuki Sugano end up missing the rest of the season, I’d give Weston a chance
- OF Jud Fabian – Limping towards the finish line of the season, 3-19 hitting this week while striking out 18 times
Double-A Chesapeake Baysox
- Last week: 5-1 vs. Harrisburg (Nationals)
- Next week: at New Hampshire (Blue Jays)
- Second half record: 28-35, sixth/last place (10 games back) in Eastern League Southwest
This coming week is the final week of the Double-A season.
My guy Aron Estrada got back into action this past week after missing a couple of series with a quad injury. Four games was still enough for him to get five hits and two walks; the 20-year-old has batted .309/.371/.543 over 22 games here.
Two players just joined Chesapeake for this week and will end up with a 10-ish game Double-A record to close out their season. Another 20-year-old, outfielder Thomas Sosa, had only four hits over six games, but two were doubles and one was a homer. And last year’s draft pick Griff O’Ferrall, quite disappointing for Aberdeen, arrived here and picked up six hits in his first five games. If he starts hitting better after getting away from Aberdeen, that will be interesting.
Plenty of zeroes in the ERA column for Baysox pitchers this week. My hyphenated cousin Juaron Watts-Brown posted a scoreless 6.2 innings, with eight strikeouts to only two walks and one hit allowed. Nestor German had a scoreless six innings, and over two relief outings, Tyson Neighbors kept his “no runs allowed since being traded here” streak alive with seven strikeouts over 3.2 scoreless innings.
Others of note
- LHP Luis De León – Not a scoreless outing but still pretty good: One run allowed in 5.1 innings, with eight strikeouts. 16 K in 11 IP since joining Chesapeake
- RHP Carter Baumler – One scoreless two-inning outing; no runs allowed in four Double-A games for this pitcher who is on the Rule 5 decision list this coming offseason
- OF Austin Overn – Another guy getting a bit of a “maybe it’s good to get out of Aberdeen” bump, Overn had six hits and stole four bases, giving him 61 SB across two levels this year
High-A Aberdeen IronBirds
- Last week: 4-1 at Wilmington (Nationals)
- Next week: That’s it. Season’s over!
- Season record (first half / second half): 24-41 / 33-31
With the season having come to an end, this is the final 2025 update for the question: How many times did Vance Honeycutt strike out this week? The answer this past week was ten times in 23 at-bats, giving him 178 strikeouts in 101 games in his first full pro season. That’s a lot of strikeouts. He did get five hits in this final week, with a double, triple, and homer mixed in. Not much to say except to hope it goes better next year.
2025 sensation Nate George finished the season strong, collecting nine hits, including a pair of doubles, over five games played. George wrapped a 21-game stint with Aberdeen with a .291/.380/.392 batting line. I assume he’ll start next season with Frederick, at which he will be a player worth keeping an eye on.
It was the IronBirds pitching staff that was most interesting by the time the season wrapped up, and that was on display over the final week as well. July arrivals Wellington Aracena and Boston Bateman are guys whose progress is worth following. Aracena had a fine season-ending start, allowing just one run in six innings. Bateman, the Sasquatch, kept the opposition off the board over 4.2 innings, though that came along with four walks.
Others of note
- RHP Chase Allsup – Second start at the level, allowed one run in five innings
- RHP Tanner Smith – Two scoreless innings of relief, overall 4 ER in 11.1 IP since joining Orioles organization
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Last week: 2-3 vs. Lynchburg (Guardians)
- Next week: That’s it. Season’s over!
- Season record (first half / second half): 27-39 / 24-40
Wehiwa! Mike Elias’s choice to draft Wehiwa Aloy was the first time since 2019 that he actually drafted a player who I liked from the scouting reports and Aloy’s early pro games have done nothing to diminish the excitement that goes along with this. Aloy had six hits – four for extra bases – across the final five games of his first pro season, giving him a .288/.356/.500 in 20 games with the Shorebirds after getting into real action. Top draft pick Ike Irish did not close so strong, batting just 3-19 with no walks over this last week of games.
Younger players got in on the party as well, particularly Cuban outfielder Jordan Sanchez, who was bumped up to this level just in time for a little taste of the final few games. Sanchez played in four games and hit two homers. That’ll work! Another guy in this group is Cobb Hightower, one of the players from the Padres deal, who played in three of these games and had four hits, including two doubles and a homer.
2023 draft pick Kiefer Lord, who needed Tommy John surgery before ever throwing a pro pitch, continued in his return to the mound with a short but solid start, striking out six with no walks allowed in a 3.1 inning outing that saw him give up one run.
Also of interest
- RHP Twine Palmer – The recent arrival from the Astros organization has had a bad time since joining the Shorebirds and that continued in his last start too, with eight runs (seven earned) in just four innings; he had a 9.15 ERA in five games with Delmarva
**
In a two-way poll last week, an overwhelming majority above 96% chose outfielder Reed Trimble as the Orioles minor league player of the week. He slips in with his first win, joining the following single-week winners: Enrique Bradfield Jr., Brandon Young, Vance Honeycutt, Alex Pham, Adam Retzbach, and Yasmil Bucce. Braxton Bragg, Nate George, and Trey Gibson have won twice, while now-Orioles Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers are three-time winners.
This week’s edition of the poll is the penultimate weekly poll of the season. There’ll be one more to cover anyone who’s excelled in Double-A’s final week or Triple-A’s next-to-last week. Will we get one more repeat winner before the season ends? The choice is yours.
