As the minor league seasons start to wind down — with one week left for Low- and High-A, two weeks remaining for Double-A, and three for Triple-A — the Orioles’ four affiliates can clearly be delineated into the haves and the have-nots. The Frederick Keys and Chesapeake Baysox are surging, with the former headed to the league playoffs and the latter featuring a drool-worthy, prospect-laden rotation. The Norfolk Tides and Delmarva Shorebirds, meanwhile, are limping to the end of miserable seasons.
Here’s our weekly update of the latest goings-on in the Orioles’ minor league system.
Triple-A Norfolk Tides
- Last week’s results: 4-2 at Durham Bulls (Rays)
- Next week’s opponent: vs. Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins)
- Second-half record: 21-33, last place (12.5 GB) in International League East
- Overall season record: 49-80
The Tides’ offense hit home runs this week — eight in all — but otherwise struggled, scoring just 22 runs and posting a .649 OPS. It was enough to win the series anyway. Ryan Noda and José Barrero socked two homers apiece, but each had only one other hit. Brandon Butterworth launched his first Triple-A dinger. The most realistic candidates for a September call-up, Heston Kjerstad and Enrique Bradfield Jr., were just OK. Kjerstad had six hits but no RBIs. Bradfield had more strikeouts (seven) than times reaching base (six). Will either make an appearance for the Orioles before the year is out? One guy who probably won’t is Creed Willems, who went 4-for-19 to drop his season OPS to .752.
The standout pitching performance of the week belonged to Cade Povich, who worked a 5.2 scoreless inning gem with 11 strikeouts. That’ll play. His reward was getting called up to the majors to pitch at Coors Field last night. No other Tides starting pitcher particularly stood out. Michael Forret, pitching against his former team, held the Bulls to two hits and two earned runs in five innings, but walked four. Juaron Watts-Brown continues to have a tough time at the Triple-A level, with a four-inning, four-run performance this week that inflated his Norfolk ERA to 7.84.
In the bullpen, lefty Andrew Magno added another two scoreless outings to his ledger, lowering his season ERA to 1.36. His 4.9 BB/9 rate is his biggest concern but he’s been otherwise effective, so it’s a little surprising he hasn’t gotten even a cup of coffee in the majors. Southpaw prospect Luis De León, who’s just been converted to relief, had one great outing (a perfect inning, 2 Ks) and one dud (two HRs, three runs in 0.2 IP).
On the other side of the field, former Orioles first-rounder Caden Bodine, part of the Shane Baz trade, made his Triple-A debut for Durham this week and was 8-for-15 with two homers. Bodine has exploded as a prospect in the Rays’ system, rocketing up four levels in one season with a combined .350/.415/.529 slash line. Baz has been solid enough for the Orioles, but Bodine is threatening to make the O’s regret that trade.
Norfolk season stats
Double-A Chesapeake Baysox
- Last week’s results: 4-2 at Harrisburg Senators (Nationals)
- Next week’s opponent: vs. Portland Sea Dogs (Red Sox)
- Second-half record: 31-25, second place (6.5 GB) in Eastern League Southwest
- Overall season record: 60-64
If you’re hoping to attend a Baysox game this year, this upcoming week is your last opportunity. It’s their final home series before they finish this season in Richmond. The Baysox are ending strong, currently in second place in their division, but with little hope of catching first-place Erie at 6.5 games behind and just 12 to play.
Aron Estrada just continues to get on base, with six hits and five walks this week. After a slow start this year with a .624 OPS in April, the 21-year-old infielder has an OPS of .850 or better every month since. I’d like to see him spend a week or two at Triple-A after Chesapeake’s season ends. First baseman Victor Figueroa had his best week yet at Double-A with eight hits, including three doubles and a homer, pushing his Chesapeake OPS over .800.
Ethan Anderson rejoined the Baysox for the first time since suffering an ankle injury in early July and was one of nine different hitters to homer this week. Wehiwa Aloy was another one, but was just 4-for-21 this week. Vance Honeycutt had one huge game, collecting 11 total bases in a four-hit effort on Friday, but was 1-for-15 in the rest of the series.
Let’s talk about this incredibly stacked Baysox rotation that features the Orioles’ #2, #3, and #4 prospects on MLB Pipeline — Anthony Eyanson, Joseph Dzierwa, and Caden Hunter, respectively — along with #14 prospect JT Quinn and former top-15 prospect Patrick Reilly, back from Tommy John surgery. Yet it was the one starter not among that group, lefty Sebastian Gongora, who had Chesapeake’s lone quality start this week. He held Harrisburg to two runs in six innings, including a homer by rehabbing MLB slugger James Wood.
The other five starters were solid, too, combining for a 3.32 ERA, though none worked more than five innings. Eyanson and Hunter each had eight strikeouts; Quinn and Reilly seven. Surprisingly it was Dzierwa who fared the worst, giving up four earned runs for the first time all season. His ERA rocketed all the way up…to 2.21.
Chesapeake season stats
High-A Frederick Keys
- Last week’s results: 5-1 vs. Asheville Tourists (Astros)
- Next week’s opponent: at Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets)
- Second-half record: 36-22, first place (1.0 game ahead) in South Atlantic League North
- Overall season record: 77-45
The Keys already clinched a spot in the Division Series by winning their division in the first half, and now they’re on the verge of winning the second half, too. If they do, I feel like they should be allowed to skip the Division Series and go straight to the next round of playoffs, but it doesn’t work that way. They’ll play against the second half runner-up.
Frederick is continuing to roll even after many of their first-half contributors like Dzierwa, Hunter, Figueroa, and Aloy got promoted to Double-A and Ike Irish suffered a season-ending injury. The addition of Enddy Azocar in the Adley Rutschman trade has helped a lot; he added another five hits this week and has a .986 OPS in 21 games since joining the organization. Jaiden Lo Re is fresh up from Low-A — he should be required to change his name to Jaiden Hi Re now — and went 3-for-17 with a homer in his first week with Frederick.
Boston Bateman was the Keys pitching prospect to watch this week. The 20-year-old lefty has battled some nagging injuries of late, but he looked no worse for the wear in a dominant performance: four scoreless innings, one hit, seven strikeouts. Frederick’s other top mound prospect, Kyson Witherspoon, did not appear this week.
Frederick season stats
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds
- Last week’s results: 2-4 vs. Fredericksburg Nationals
- Next week’s opponent: at Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (White Sox)
- Second-half record: 21-39, last place (18.5 GB) in Carolina League North
- Overall season record: 44-82
The Shorebirds’ miserable season is almost over, as just one series remains on their schedule. But there’s not much reason to think that things will improve next year, because they rarely do for the Delmarva club. This marks their fifth consecutive season finishing in last place in their division, and their combined record in that span is 253-394, a winning percentage of .391. Ouch.
The Orioles’ first two 2026 draft picks, outfielders Eric Booth Jr. and Ty Head, are getting their feet wet at this level. Head, with five hits this week, is hitting .321 with an .891 OPS in 15 games. Booth is off to a slower start (.190 AVG, .535 OPS), which is not unexpected for an 18-year-0ld straight out of high school. Two other 2026 draftees, fifth-round shortstop Jimmy Anderson and 10th-round infielder Carlos Sanchez, have also debuted here. They combined to reached base 16 times this week. Overall, though, the Delmarva offense is in a sorry state. They scored a league-worst 15 runs this week and were shut out three times.
A few pitchers from this year’s draft class are with the Shorebirds as well: ninth rounder Collin McKinney, 15th rounder Braden Smith, and 17th rounder Diego Gutierrez, all right-handers. Gutierrez made his pro debut by striking out the side in a scoreless frame. Pretty good start!
Unfortunately, the Esteban Mejia experiment took a turn for the worse. The 19-year-old, who has a 9.06 ERA and 12.08 BB/9, had been seeing success with abbreviated outings of late, tossing three scoreless starts in a row. But this week he faced only three batters, walked all three, and left the game with a cracked fingernail.
Delmarva season stats
**
It was an all Rutschman-trade-prospects poll last week, and Enddy Azocar pulled in 58% of the vote to beat out Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon. Azocar has been in the organization for less than a month and he’s already won two of these polls, joining fellow two-time winners Caden Hunter, Ike Irish, and Aron Estrada. One-time winners include Victor Figueroa, Payton Eeles, Braylin Tavera, Wehiwa Aloy, Jaiden Lo Re, Joseph Dzierwa, Luis De León, and Heston Kjerstad.
There weren’t a lot of showstopping performances this week, so it’s only a two-man ballot. Who’s your pick?
